Bad day at the range today. Top that off with a big helping of dumb on my part.
I went to the range to do some chrony work on some loads I was working up. Decided to start with my Sig AR. It wears a Trijicon Accupoint 3-9X40. Nice scope. Was... We had about a 15 mph cross wind today with an occasional gust to 20 or so according to the weather guys here. Not conducive to shooting tiny groups, but fine for the chronograph work 10 feet from the muzzle. I shot a couple of groups of five and recorded the velocities. I decided to walk down range and check the target and let the barrel cool. Like an idiot, I left the rifle with the forearm supported by the Caldwell rest and the stock on my leather bag with "ears". The bench is concrete, 4 feet from a concrete floor. Carpet cut to conform to the shape of the top of the bench was in place on the top of the bench with the rifle rests, ammunition, chronograph display etc. lying on the carpet. The carpet is not secured to the table top, it just lies there. ( I'll fix that you can bet) While down range, I thought I heard the sound of limbs breaking in the wind behind me. Could have been, there is a pine ridge just to my right while I'm at the target stands and there was a strong wind gusting. When I got back to the bench, there was my AR on its side on the concrete floor. Not hard to figure out what happened. It wasn't limbs I heard breaking. The wind got under the carpet and it flipped the rifle off the bench. A corner of the carpet was still turned up. My own stupid fault for not lying the rifle on its side on the bench or putting it in the rack behind the bench. I was the only soul at he range so I didn't think it was a big deal. So much for that.
I checked everything over carefully and saw that the bell of the scope was flat in a spot right on the lip. Glass wasn't broken. Couldn't find any other marks on the rifle or scope. The scope was mounted in a Warne one piece mount. It was still tight and not moving. I shot a 3 shot group and discovered that I was 8 inches high and 5 inches to the right. I made the adjustment with the turret and shot some more. Got it re-zero'd with no problem. Should have stopped there, but no....not me! I got to looking at the scope and thought that the part that was bent was only the threaded ring to which the sunshade screws in to. It looked like it would just unscrew. It did. Easily. Trijicon accupoints DO NOT HAVE a removable part that a sunshade screws in to. Ask me how I know. I know because while I was turning the end of the scope and looking over the rest of the scope and rifle, THE WHOLE FRONT OF THE SCOPE CAME OFF, LENSE AND ALL. Wanna bet there isn't any Nitrogen in my scope any more? Guess I'll have to call Trijicon Monday AM to get an RA number.
Actually, even though I got it to re-zero, it wouldn't hold for more than 3 shots and I was going to have to send it in anyway. Probably gonna cost a pretty penny too. If so, I'm gonna go ahead and have them change the reticle from the post with the green triangle on it to the cross hairs with the green mil dot if they will. I learned an expensive lesson from this today. Think about what you are doing and take the time to do it right.
I went to the range to do some chrony work on some loads I was working up. Decided to start with my Sig AR. It wears a Trijicon Accupoint 3-9X40. Nice scope. Was... We had about a 15 mph cross wind today with an occasional gust to 20 or so according to the weather guys here. Not conducive to shooting tiny groups, but fine for the chronograph work 10 feet from the muzzle. I shot a couple of groups of five and recorded the velocities. I decided to walk down range and check the target and let the barrel cool. Like an idiot, I left the rifle with the forearm supported by the Caldwell rest and the stock on my leather bag with "ears". The bench is concrete, 4 feet from a concrete floor. Carpet cut to conform to the shape of the top of the bench was in place on the top of the bench with the rifle rests, ammunition, chronograph display etc. lying on the carpet. The carpet is not secured to the table top, it just lies there. ( I'll fix that you can bet) While down range, I thought I heard the sound of limbs breaking in the wind behind me. Could have been, there is a pine ridge just to my right while I'm at the target stands and there was a strong wind gusting. When I got back to the bench, there was my AR on its side on the concrete floor. Not hard to figure out what happened. It wasn't limbs I heard breaking. The wind got under the carpet and it flipped the rifle off the bench. A corner of the carpet was still turned up. My own stupid fault for not lying the rifle on its side on the bench or putting it in the rack behind the bench. I was the only soul at he range so I didn't think it was a big deal. So much for that.
I checked everything over carefully and saw that the bell of the scope was flat in a spot right on the lip. Glass wasn't broken. Couldn't find any other marks on the rifle or scope. The scope was mounted in a Warne one piece mount. It was still tight and not moving. I shot a 3 shot group and discovered that I was 8 inches high and 5 inches to the right. I made the adjustment with the turret and shot some more. Got it re-zero'd with no problem. Should have stopped there, but no....not me! I got to looking at the scope and thought that the part that was bent was only the threaded ring to which the sunshade screws in to. It looked like it would just unscrew. It did. Easily. Trijicon accupoints DO NOT HAVE a removable part that a sunshade screws in to. Ask me how I know. I know because while I was turning the end of the scope and looking over the rest of the scope and rifle, THE WHOLE FRONT OF THE SCOPE CAME OFF, LENSE AND ALL. Wanna bet there isn't any Nitrogen in my scope any more? Guess I'll have to call Trijicon Monday AM to get an RA number.
Actually, even though I got it to re-zero, it wouldn't hold for more than 3 shots and I was going to have to send it in anyway. Probably gonna cost a pretty penny too. If so, I'm gonna go ahead and have them change the reticle from the post with the green triangle on it to the cross hairs with the green mil dot if they will. I learned an expensive lesson from this today. Think about what you are doing and take the time to do it right.