Is there a way to permanently "lock" a scope adjustment?

As ColtPythonElite said, cheap scopes are OK until they're not. When I was young and poor, I bought what I could afford...Simmons, Tasco and the like. Eventually they all quit working and went into the trash heap. I eventually earned a better income and now have great scopes on all my numerous rifles, mostly Leupolds, Bushnell Elites, and one Burris. The thing is you don't have to stop shopping for the best deals. I recently bought a Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10X for $270. MSRP is $540. Got the Burris Fullfield II for $235. MSRP is around $450. I buy Bushnell at the outlet store in KC with a discount of 40% off MSRP using my Kansas State Rifle Assn membership. Don't know where you live, but look around for options. I NEVER stop looking. Gun shows can produce some bargains, but usually not, which is odd to me. You have to know your prices.
Here's the second issue and at the heart of your original post. I put a Leupold VX-III 2.5-8Xv on my Remington 541-S, my favorite squirrel rifle. At the beginning of every squirrel season I go to the range to zero it in preparation for the season or if I change ammo. Usually it is still zeroed exactly as I left it last season. I recently changed ammo and it shot a half inch different. Two adjustments and 5-6 shots later, it was zeroed. I've had that scope on that rifle for about 30 years and have hunted 100s of times, dragged it in and out of vehicles, leaned it on trees, dropped it. and carried it around for many many miles. It still works like new. Can you buy that for cheap? My hat's off to you if you can.

"...dismantled a scope that was giving them trouble in attempt to fix it..." Has destroyed said scope. Even the junkers like Simmons are assembled in 'clean' rooms and are air tight when new. Disassemble one and it's toast. And it's not the glass that's inferior. It's the quality of the materials they're made out of. The assorted seals and threaded parts.

243winxb said:

Easy fix as the cross hairs were in the eye piece.

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How's that possible? The reticle would twist with the eyepiece as it was focused on the reticle for your eye.

Knowing what i know about focal plane and reticle design, I'm not buying it. Nothing to do with price, just a matter of optical physics.

Regarding the various qualities of a rifle scope:

Varminterror said:

Glass quality should always be first and foremost.

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I'll take adjustment repeatability over optical quality.

It's easy to judge optical quality. It's hard to judge adjustment repeatability. Especially when elevation and windage ones are less than the smallest groups we can shoot our stuff into.

Bart B. said:

Regarding the various qualities of a rifle scope:
I'll take adjustment repeatability over optical quality.

It's easy to judge optical quality. It's hard to judge adjustment repeatability. Especially when elevation and windage ones are less than the smallest groups we can shoot our stuff into.

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I'll take optical quality first like Varminterror. If I twisted turrets it would be different probably. But if you set it and forget it then I imagine glass quality is most important.

cdb1 said:

If I twisted turrets it would be different probably. But if you set it and forget it then I imagine glass quality is most important.

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What if the inner tube or a lens cell comes to rest at different places after bouncing around from recoil?

I've tested some scopes that had 1/2 to 3/4 MOA slop after each jolt from recoil. Some were fixed power ones. Other were zooms that were good when taped tight at power limit stops, but had 1/2 MOA slop between them.

As an example Leupold VX scopes have a reputation for not being very repeatable. I own a bunch of Leupold and tend to agree from shooting the square with some of them. The turrets are accurate enough to get them sighted in though which is all I need. And once sighted in they stay that way. You have your preferences, I have mine Bart. Doesn't mean we can't both be right.

Boxing scopes or shooting squares is the least precise way to evaluate scope angular adjustments.

Except when the shooter and his stuff shoots groups no bigger than half the angular change per click.

It's impossible to measure human hair thickness precisely with a ruler graduated in sixteenth inch increments.

You just don't quit do you?

I'm not sure I agree with the rationale of this thread but Loc-Tite 290 "wicking grade" will flow into all manner of crevices and lock-up things you may not want it to. So if you really want to freeze the adjustments, a drop of this on each of the adustment dial would be the first thing I'd try. But its not easy to reverse its effects!

12Pump said:

since their warranty states I'd have to pay $10 for shipping each way. That comes out to half of what I paid for it. It was normally $50, but I got it on sale for $40.

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Just part of the learning curve we go through when we try and cut corners to "save" money.

Just wait until you get it back and it does the same thing, now that you have $60 in it.

If you are going to cheap out go to a walk in store. I used to have pretty good luck with Tasco for cheap optics. I test them out on a 45-70 lever gun I have that kicks like a mule. Last time I messed with one, I went through 3 just box testing them, 2 more before the 6th was a winner. At least it was just a trip to Walmart and not the post office. I did get smart though and bought all they had of what I wanted and returned the ones I didn't need.