While organizing my safe recently, I placed a Leupold VX-3i LRP rifle scope mounted in a ZRODelta DLOC mount on top of an upright rifle box. While leaning down and diving back into the safe, I hip-checked the box with my thicc curves and sent the scope flying.
It fell like a box of rocks from my full shoulder height of about five feet onto the hard floor below.
The scope landed squarely, precisely on the objective lens with a heart-skip-inducing CRACK. In fact, it landed so squarely that it hit and stuck there, dead, staying right freakin’ there. No bounce, no tipping over.
I picked the scope up and the lens cap was destroyed. The objective bell had smashed right through it. This was a hard, solid impact.
But everything seemed fine at first glance. There were no visible marks on the objective lens.
When I took it with me on my next trip to the range, the VX-3i went back onto the Strasser RS14 Evolution rifle that I had been testing and the scope’s zero was still dead-on. It wasn’t blurry or foggy. Moving it to other rifles since and sending hundreds more rounds downrange, it’s still performs 100% as good as new.
That is truly excellent. I’ve broken other scopes with far less abuse than that.
The moral of this story: a good riflescope — thanks Leupold! — can shrug off some very bad mistakes and mishaps. Spend your money on glass wisely.
