Fixing a bent scope tube (damaged by the airline)

For a PG safari in the RSA, I flew over on British Airways with my Win 70 Classic .30-06, for its second hunt there.

A Black-backed Jackal nicely presented itself about 300yds down a trail. I settled into a sitting position, looped up, and held on him in the 300yd circle of my 3-10x Shepherd scope. A squeezed off a confident round, which flew waaay over his head, striking the dusty trail far behind him. Whaaat?? He fled from the bullet strike behind him, and ran toward me. I continued to send 180gr Swift Scirocco IIs over his head as he closed within 50yds of me. Whaaaaaat?? He finally saw me and darted right; no matter, my magazine was empty by then. I've never been so baffled in the field. It was just inexplicable.

I thought I'd confirmed zero of my rifle on paper at the camp range, but what I'd apparently done is assume another bullet hole to be from my rifle. Back at the range to diagnose this bizarre performance, I started with a bore sight confirmation. The reticle was severely lower than the target! By 2' or so! Examining my scope carefully I discovered that the objective lens tube was visibly bent after its scope ring. ????

What must have happened is that my rifle case in transit was dropped on that side. (I hadn't removed the scope from rifle, something I always do now.) I didn't notice the damage, and my zeroing assumption piled on. (I will no longer fly British Airways, for that and for other reasons. YMMV.)

My PH asked what I planned to do, and I recalled something that would work. I loosened the scope in its rings, rotated it 180° and retightened the rings. With a piece of cloth and a screwdriver I made a "Spanish windlass" to gradually bend the tube back. I took it slowly, checking my work along the way with boresighting. Once I figured that I'd be on paper, I returned the scope rightside-up and set back in the rings by 0.080" to protect the tube crease. Rezeroed (on a clean target this time!), and was back in business. The scope has never failed me since.



Dan Shepherd of Shepherd's Scopes was so impressed with the story that he offered to swap out optics for a new replacement so that he could have my specimen for his collection. It was tempting, but I preferred to keep my original optic, for the story.

MORAL: Remove your scope from the rifle in its case, and always use a clean target to confirm zero. I made two errors, and they compounded to hugely miss my prey. At least it wasn't on some 60" kudu . . . .

Or... Use a Tuffpak so that can't happen.

I’d like to know which case and see a picture of how it was packed in the case. I use a Boyt or a Pelican depending on the hunt. I can’t even remember needing to resight in a rifle. My scope will stay on the rifle.

I tip my hat to you!
Phenomenal Field Expedient Repairs

To those who doubt this could happen.

I had my Win M70 with a Leupold 1-6x24 on it in a Pelican case. Apparently the baggage handlers at O.R. Tambo couldn't find a conveyor for my plane... So they climbed into the baggage area with a ladder and tossed the luggage down to the ground (10-11 feet).

The Pelican case survived the fall with only one damaged hinge and scrapes. But the impact was enough to mess my scope up. Now in my case, the damage was minimul and the scope just needed to be re-zeroed in the field but it could easily be worse.

A very nice solution for a bad problem.

375Fox said:

I’d like to know which case and see a picture of how it was packed in the case. I use a Boyt or a Pelican depending on the hunt. I can’t even remember needing to resight in a rifle. My scope will stay on the rifle.

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Presumably there was little damage to the case and packing material, or it would have warranted a quick visual inspection revealing the bent scope ahead of taking a shot on a jackal.

Strange. Let's have a look at the case.

Assuming a previous bullseye was yours is hilarious to me.

Glad it worked out for you and you enjoyed your time. This is a good reminder that one is none and two is one. And to buy the best glass and rifle case that you can afford.

matt85 said:

To those who doubt this could happen.

I had my Win M70 with a Leupold 1-6x24 on it in a Pelican case. Apparently the baggage handlers at O.R. Tambo couldn't find a conveyor for my plane... So they climbed into the baggage area with a ladder and tossed the luggage down to the ground (10-11 feet).

The Pelican case survived the fall with only one damaged hinge and scrapes. But the impact was enough to mess my scope up. Now in my case, the damage was minimul and the scope just needed to be re-zeroed in the field but it could easily be worse.

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I don’t have any doubt some rough handling would make you rezero a scope after travel, but bending a scope tube raises some questions about which case was used and how it was packed in that case.

375Fox said:

I don’t have any doubt some rough handling would make you rezero a scope after travel, but bending a scope tube raises some questions about which case was used and how it was packed in that case.

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Yes how was there even room in a case to get leverage to bend something!

Wait, Im just now reading you introduction post as well.

So you wrote and published a book on sighting in your rifle ("B.T.P Gun Bible")

Yet to check a rile before a safari you took one shot at a dirty target and didn't catch being off by 2 feet! Cracks me up.

matt85 said:

To those who doubt this could happen.

I had my Win M70 with a Leupold 1-6x24 on it in a Pelican case. Apparently the baggage handlers at O.R. Tambo couldn't find a conveyor for my plane... So they climbed into the baggage area with a ladder and tossed the luggage down to the ground (10-11 feet).

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Yeah, that would do it. Since I also flew through Tambo for my regional flight to Pietersberg, such could have happened to my rifle, also. (I chalked it up to British Airways/Heathrow at the time, but your experience makes more sense now.)

318AE said:

Presumably there was little damage to the case and packing material, or it would have warranted a quick visual inspection revealing the bent scope ahead of taking a shot on a jackal.

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Yes, exactly. There was no apparent impact damage either to my case, or the scope itself. The Win 70 was packed in a Pelican 1750 with scope up (toward case handle), with ~3" of closed-cell foam between scope and interior wall.

For example, here is how I did not pack my rifle, upside down in the case, scope toward the bottom, and with <1" of foam between the eye bell and the case wall. One drop when carrying the case could be enough for optics damage. ⬇



I had traveled to Africa the year before with the same scoped rifle, case, and packing. Naturally, I didn't see this coming. To this day, I don't know how "they" did it. matt85's story at Tambo was a possibility.

I was in camp to work/help out. After the clients had zeroed and some of their guests had a turn on trigger, we'd run out of targets that afternoon. I was confident of this long-serving rifle, hence my lack of diligence. I could have at least confirmed a rough zero with bore-sighting, but I didn't. The eye sees what the mind expects. A poignant lesson, well learned.

The other reason why I was too relaxed about confirming zero is that if a Shepherd scope is damaged internally, its two reticles will separate in view—warning you instantly that something is broken. However, as I learned from talking to Dan Shepherd, the frontal tube bend wouldn't have evidenced itself with split reticles. We were both intrigued by the incident. I may take him up on the replacement offer, although I'll miss the extra "character" of this optic. In this photo, the scope's .080" set back in rings can be seen in the original black paint:

dchum said:

Assuming a previous bullseye was yours is hilarious to me.

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One could skim through your posts for similar "entertainment" but your posts are closed to the AH general public. Interesting.

dchum said:

Yet to check a rile before a safari you took one shot at a dirty target and didn't catch being off by 2 feet! Cracks me up.

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Sneering posts like yours tend to discourage the candid discussion of error which may benefit others.
Seems antithetical to the purpose of a public forum.

Most likely an anti hunter removed your rifle for “inspection” and curb stomped the scope. Shepard scopes are known to be robust. That didn’t happen inside of a case.

I certainly would never have suspected a bent scope while checking zero.

Take two scopes with QR mounts. Pack one in carry on.
Take scope and bolt off rifle when packing in a case. Pack in bubble wrap and foam.
Use a tuff pack.
Hire the folks that walk your guns thru customs.
If a scope is damaged and it costs less than $1000, forget a repair, buy a new one.
Optics make or break your shooting.
Better yet, use a camp gun or a PH provided gun.

BTP-KennethWRoyce said:

For example, here is how I did not pack my rifle, upside down in the case, scope toward the bottom, and with <1" of foam between the eye bell and the case wall. One drop when carrying the case could be enough for optics damage. ⬇

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Thanks for your review of my set up,

Never had an issue so far! Remember, you are the one who lost zero in transit by multiple feet and had a damaged scope. Not me!

My rifles have been good to go upon arrival

BTP-KennethWRoyce said:

One could skim through your posts for similar "entertainment" but your posts are closed to the AH general public. Interesting.

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Use the search feature and you will find all the entertainment you would like. You obviously had no issue in doing so because you posted my rifle case set up from a hunt report almost 4 years ago.

I thought you would understand since you wrote a book on “privacy” LOL

Your line up of books is plenty of entertainment for me.

And yes, missing a target by literal feet and then assuming an old bullseye was yours is funny to me since you wrote a book about rifle use and chapters on sighting in.

It’s funny! How could it not be, is that not why you shared this story?

dchum said:

Thanks for your review of my set up,

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Oh, it was yours? I did an AI search for "how not to pack a hunting rifle for airlines" and that photo showed up. In aviation we use the "Swiss cheese" metaphor for understanding how accidents happen, which is how I reflected upon my scope incident. Concealing nothing here, the purpose of my story was instructional, but some readers are not yet able to maturely (and gracefully) learn from the candid error of others. Your Dunning-Kruger reply illustrated this very point.

dogcat1 said:

Take two scopes with QR mounts. Pack one in carry on.

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This actually a good idea, especially if the rifle hasn't iron sights for back up, as my Win 70. I have zero-hold QD rings on all my rifles.

Altitude sickness said:

Most likely an anti hunter removed your rifle for “inspection” and curb stomped the scope. Shepard scopes are known to be robust. That didn’t happen inside of a case.

I certainly would never have suspected a bent scope while checking zero.

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I also wondered if the rifle had been removed in transit and damaged intentionally. The UK/Heathrow is very anti-gun and anti-hunting. They accepted my rifle case for check-in with noticeable disdain. One bag was 1 lb over, and they were fussy about it. Fees were high, too.

Lufthansa and SAS have been my favorite. Swiss Air is also great.

Speaking of rifle cases, one time I was waiting at Tambo with other hunters to clear their rifles and a guy had packed his in a $20 Walmart black plastic case. (The kind which easily breaks hinges.) He'd even wrapped clear packing tape around the case, which he then had to cut off. That case barely survived the trip. We were all pretty astonished. I suggested that he should consider buying a new and better case while in Africa since his Walmart case probably wouldn't make it home. He didn't seem very receptive to the idea, probably because of budget. Beware the false economies lurking out there!

Still waiting to hear what rifle case was used and how it was packed.

375Fox said:

Still waiting to hear what rifle case was used and how it was packed.

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He’s to busy telling other people they did it wrong when he’s the one with a busted scope