Broke a Leupold M8 EER scope today with my .500...

[sirsloop]

 I broke another scope today with the .500 SW Magnum.  Its a beast man!  So far that thing has chalked up a Mueller Red dot, and now a Leupold M8 EER scope.  IDK what the heck will hold up?!?!
 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFBv0xhBUro&hd=1 

[Ladobe]

A Leupold 2.5-8 EER is the only scope I ever destroyed on a handcannon.
 
Tasco Pro Class, long discontinued but still come up for sale used or refurbed, still serviced by a compant in FL last I heard.   My first choice for stout handcannons, and I had a bunch of them.   Still have one 6X I think.   Nothing I ever owned could hurt them.  Top dog was only an Encore 10" 416 Rigby though.
 
 

[Graybeard]

Broken scopes especially a quality product like the Leupold scopes are usually the result of improper mounting. No it's not a matter of how many rings but of how well the scope is mounted in those rings.

Rings should be high quality to begin with. I use only horizontal split rings and then they should be lapped for at least 80% or better contact. You could use rosin as well but if the rings are lapped properly it shouldn't be needed.

Scopes move forward under recoil so the front of the turret should bump against a ring directly in front of it to prevent scope slide. Use good strong bases attached with quality screws and tighten it all down and scopes will do well.

[kynardsj]

This base, scope and three ring set up on my 45 LC barrel used to be on my 500 S&W mag barrel. That's a Bushnell Elite 3200 scope that the 500 never did hurt and is still going strong. I did at one time have a Bushnell Dawn to Dusk scope on the 500. Shook the crosshairs out of it.

[Bugflipper]

Never owned a 500. But the old tasco scopes held up fine to 45-70, .444 and 445 sm with big bullets. Those were my heavier recoiling pistols. I would look into GB's info. Hasn't changed from when I was fooling with contenders. He saved a lot of us from ruining scopes. BTW I never put more than 2 rings on any scope. I think lapping the ring and keeping the scope centered is the key to not breaking one. Just my opinion. No evidence to back that up. I always use at least fingernail polish on the base screws, but usually have loctite on hand.

[Ladobe]

Broken scopes especially a quality product like the Leupold scopes are usually the result of improper mounting....

You know I agree with that in general Bill, have related the same here for years.   But you probably also should suspect at least that I do know how to mount a scope correctly (I always mounted all my scopes right for close to 50 years).   
 
This Leupold was a brand new scope, one extra ring installed, all rings lapped, and all tight.   Might have been a flaw in that particular Leupold scope, but it was only mounted on a 375JDJ Contender, just a mid range handcannon.    My HC's didn't hurt any of the other older "quality" scopes or the Tasco Pro Class or Simmons Gold Medal's I used on all my JDJ's and Super Bowers.    I did use quite a few Leupold 4X EER's and a couple of 2X EER's on other Contenders/Encores and other handgun platforms without problem, but not those chambered for true handcannon cartridges.   And I liked and got good service from them, same as all my Leupold rifle scopes.   
 
IMO from long experience with them no other handgun scope can compare to the TPC's for durability, not fixed or variable.   Why I ended up owning so many of them for my handcannons.  Didn't hurt either that I also loved their converging dot reticles for either hunting or range work.   They are kind of bulky with their 30mm tubes, and won't win any beauty pageants, but I was always a hunter first, foremost and last, so scope failure on a hunt was just not acceptable.   The TPC's never failed no matter what I threw at them.   
 

[Graybeard]

That my post followed yours Larry didn't indicate I was addressing it to you. I was responding to the OP. Yes stuff happens that's why I said it is "usually" the result of improper mounting.

Just like bad things happen to good folks, bad things happen to good brands too. Just not as often and more often than not when it happens to good scopes it is related to improper mounting. But no not always.

[Hopalong7]

      I was once long ago lucky enough to recieve a mini-seminar on handgun scopes from one J D Jones, whom I considered one of the best authorities around at the time and still do.  He expressed that he had disscussed scope failure with several well known scope companys.  First of all, he would agree with everything Bill and Larry have already posted.  He also said that one of the main causes of handgun scope failure was flexure of the scope tube during recoil.  This was his primary reasoning for "extra" rings, not to keep the scope from moving in the rings so much as to reducing the flexure of the tube.  He said this was especially important on longer tubes and vary powers.  He liked smaller, lighter scopes and used aluminum instead steel in his T'SOB base and rings in order to keep the mass as low as possible.  He also suggested using as low a ring as possible to keep the tube as close to the barrel as possible to help reduce the torque effect. His "go to" scope then(this was over 20 years ago) was the Simmons Gold Metal 2-7X or the very similiar, if not one and the same, TC Recoil Proof 2-7.  Like Larry, I've had good success with the old TPC, as well as both the Simmons and TC.  One of those old Tasco's has been riding on the back of my 45-70 for a lotta years, and still is.  Good Shootin' to all!!
Walt

[sirsloop]

You're right I didnt lap the scope rings when I installed the scope.  I'll be sending the scope in to be repaired, and i'll get a lapping kit and fix that problem before hitting the range again.  HAHAH... I'm still expecting to blow the thing up again tho

[Keith L]

If you want to give that scope the best chance put a set of TSOBs on that barrel, then lap them in well/

[Ladobe]

Walt,
 
JD and I talked scopes a couple of times long ago and found we were on the same page.   New to me though was why the T'SOB rings were aluminum.  Made sense, but i still used steel rings on most of my handcannons, didn't care for stainless barrels or matching rings for them on my chrome molly barrels.   He later was who turned me onto the Simmons Gold Metal 2-7, and I bought up a bunch of them soon after.   With the TPC's I bought all I could find for several years and had a bunch of them (1.5-4X, 1X, 3X, 4x & 6X), but as a long range hunter bought far more 6X than all the others combined (even a couple of icky silver ones). 
 
 
Last go around with JD about scopes was over his T'SOB rings and bases some years ago.  I had just bought 4 top drawer SSK JDJ stainless barrels with full length vent ribs from Ed as a set, and both vintage's of T'SOB rings I had were pretty much useless for them for my needs.  Those rings anyway didn't work on his full length ribbed barrels for any scope with much of an objective bell diameter.   That really limited what you could mount on his handcannons with them.   A Simmons GM 2-7 would mount, but none of my other handgun scopes, and I had a huge stash of extra ones.   Except for the 1.5-4 TPC, none of the TPC's could be mounted with those rings on full rib barrels.   No idea if he came out with higher T'SOB rings though.
 
Larry

[5kwkdw3]

"Scopes move forward under recoil so the front of the turret should bump against a ring directly in front of it to prevent scope slide. Use good strong bases attached with quality screws and tighten it all down and scopes will do well."


I've always gone with that approach as well over the years.  My last project, a Ruger SRH in 44 mag, I bought an offset rear ring and the necessary higher front ring to match.  This combo held my Leupold 2.5-8 X 32 handgun scope from bell to bell.  If you put the scope in and rings on but not fully tighten the rings you can see how the scope cannot move fore or aft at all because it butts into the objective or eyepiece bell and cannot go any further.  A little leveling and some Loctite and I was in business.  Smithy.

[twoshooter]

Are you hunting bear or dangerous game with this? If not, why is the massive recoil necessary ?

[rosewood]

Necessity isn't the issue.  It is because we can.....

[5kwkdw3]

It's funny, You're getting suggestions for what I consider last choice options in the scope department.  The one's that can be bought for 100 bucks or less new.  I would have never guessed that a Leupold would have given up the ghost.  Although my second choice in scopes, Burris does have models with the posi-lock feature.  Maybe that with a terrific mounting job (as suggested), would do the trick?  Smithy.

[twoshooter]

Are you trying to shoot something, or just break scopes? Hell, just pour it full of Bullseye, compress it, crimp it , and the barrel can go with it. You can have a real thrill looking for the scope, it could still be mounted to something somewhere.