I don't know how many times I've slipped, tripped, fallen, scrapped and hammered my rifle scope. There's a number of things that you never want to do with your rifle scope. And I can attest to these things having experienced a few of them myself since I began big game hunting when I was 15. The first time that I can remember slipping and having my feet fly out from underneath me I was probably around 16 years old. It was opening morning of the annual deer hunt. The morning started out great with nice weather and clear skies. However by mid-morning those nasty black clouds made their way in. And by no time at all the sleet/snow started falling and turning all the grass to that slippery, wet nasty stuff. The type of wet grass that can be just as slippery as ice. Well as I hiking up a very steep hill, I stepped on a patch of grass and fell straight on my back. As luck would have it my fairly new Remington .270 that was mounted with a 3X9 Leupold scope was strapped to my back and took the brunt of the hit. My rifle took some good gouges as well. So I immediately tested my rifle and scope to see if they were still shooting straight. And wouldn't you know it, they shot true and straight and I ended up taking a decent two-point meat buck two hours.
Rule-1: Be careful of your footing when the ground is wet and icy and especially when you're walking on grass up a steep hill.
My father and uncle used to love to hunt on horseback when I was kid so naturally I would join them. Even though my thoughts about horses weren't very good when I was young. I can distinctively remember one time when we were elk hunting during the general season of the elk hunt in Utah. We were headed back to the horse trailer after an unsuccessful day of hunting the elusive wapiti. My father had his Remington 30.06 that had a 3X9 Leupold scope mounted to it diagonally slung over his back. And the horses started to run up the trail. It wasn't 10 minutes into the run and my father's rifle went flying off of his back and hitting the dirt. The screw that was holding the sling to the rifle had come out. My hear sunk down about as low as his rifle as I watched it hit a patch of loose dirt. After we stopped the horses and he picked his rifle and decided to see if it still shot straight. Wouldn't you know it. It shot as straight as an arrow. I can attest to that as well. I've bee n using that rifle for the last 10 years and it's never had to be adjusted since the first time my father first sighted it in back in 1967. And it still shoots as straight as ever and has taken down many deer and elk.
Rule-2: When riding a horse make sure you put your rifle into a scabbard and not slung over your back.
Keep these two things in mind when you're out hunting. Having your scope and rifle stop working during the middle of your hunt will definitely ruin your day and your hunt. There's a few more rules we'll discuss in a later article.
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