A New Sort Of Scope Failure

Broken scopes don't always tell you when they quit.  This malfunction was more obvious...

The other afternoon I was at the range refining the 200 yard zero of Erik's Kimber and my Remington. That mission accomplished, I wandered over to the range officer's bench to wait for a cease fire. He was spotting for his sons who were attempting to zero their Savage 110 30'06 rifles at the 100 yard line. Since being put away last season the elder son's rifle developed a need for a foot of left windage correction. When he tried to removed the turret cover to get at the adjustment knob the entire turret came off in his hand, leaving a sad little hole in the side of his scope. The scope was a $60.00 Tasco 3-9x, aged about ten years. As I left he said he'd be visiting the local Gander Mountain that evening to buy a Redfield (the one with the Leupold lifetime warranty).  When a Redfield 2-7x costs but $130 there is no reason to put up with a cheaper or less reliable scope.  Remember, buying a good scope once is better than buying cheap scopes a couple times.