Broken crosshair in Leupold scope

[pricedo]

Seems it's not my week with my Winchester 94TE/450 doing a good "impersonation" of a shotgun and now this :
I was checking over my Browning BLR/450 Marlin last night with view to shooting it this coming morning and discovered that the vertical cross-hair on the resident 2-7x33mm Leupold "Rifleman" scope was snapped just below the "0" intersection with a very discernible gap between the two cross-hair segments. I replaced the scope with an identical spare I keep around in case of failures or breakage.
I'll send the scope in to Leupold for a free replacement........did it a few years ago after I dropped the host rifle off a rock cut I was climbing and Leupold still honored the lifetime warranty.
I have never had this happen before.
Has anyone else had a snapped scope cross-hair?

[Steelbanger]

Good morning Pricedo,

Long ago I had a reticle come loose in a Leupold 2X LER scope mounted on a Contender 44 Mag. Sent it back and it was repaired with the great Leupold guarantee. Although it didn't come apart it sure moved around vibrating as I recall.

And that's the only time it happened to me.

[ironhead7544]

A scope can fail at any time. I know the new ones are not prone to failure but I like to have a set of properly zeroed irons on any rifle.

I have had cross-hairs come loose. This was on cheap scopes.

Also had a top of the line Redfield go bad on me. Had it for a number of years. Was shooting at 200 yards and had some good 2 inch groups. This from a Remington 700 heavy barrel 308 with handloads. Had fired a number of groups when one five shot only had 3 hits. Tried a few more shots with no hits. Moved to the 100 yard line, no hits. Moved to the 50 yard line, no hits. Cross-hairs looked good. I lined up the scope and tried a shot while looking for the hit with my head off the stock. At 50 yards the bullet hit six feet high and six feet left. Sent the scope to Redfield and they sent me a new one, with apologies.
So for a serious purpose rifle all mine have an auxiliary set of irons.

[pricedo]

This scope was a Leupold and they aren't a cheap brand of scope.
They were neck in neck competition with the first generation Redfields for years and have since bought the Redfield company.
Sitting on a hard kicking BLR in 450 Marlin might be part of the answer but I have Leupolds sitting on other hard kicking rifles including a 375 Ruger that would in respect to recoil make the BLR look like a potato gun and no problems.
Some of my Leupolds are decades old and have sat on a succession of heavy kickers and are still in service with not so much as a scratch on the glass or tube.
One dud in 4 decades isn't too bad a record.

*I set up all my guns in survival mode...........scopes mounted with Leupold or Warne QD rings that can be removed in a few seconds to enable the sighted-in iron sights which I never remove on any gun. I actually go to places in the wilderness where I can't see the roof of my pick-up truck and the wifey isn't 10 minutes away with a hot meal and a foot rub. If the scope fails or is damaged I want (need) an alternative sighting system on the gun so I can use it for wilderness animal defense and food acquisition.

[pricedo]

Replaced defective scope on Browning BLR/450 Marlin and fired 2 x @20 round boxes of factory Hornady 450 Marlin 325 grain FTX ammo at the range this morning.
The 5-shot group @ 100 yards shown in the above photo is typical of the groups fired from the bench with the replacement 2-7x33mm Leupold "Rifleman" scope.
The groups woulda been tighter with a good shooter instead of a long-in-the-tooth diehard behind the gun.

[Maximumbob54]

Always good to hear Leupold stories of them standing behind their product.