338 Lapua Nuked my Burris XTRII. 300 Norma Nuked my Steiner

[Bubba Boomstick]

I mounted a Burris XTRII onto my 338 Lapua. Had to send it back because the zoom knob completely broke under recoil. I sent this Burris scope in for warranty twice. I have received it back again after second repair, and haven't had any issues... yet.

Then I mount a Steiner T6Xi from Eurooptic onto my 300 Norma and after 75 shots it also bites the dust. Under recoil, the parallax knob got dislodged and no longer works and the parallax is fixed. I cannot focus on targets at 100 yards no matter what knobs I twist. I thought the turrets felt like mushy junk when I took it out of the box. Didn't think much of it. Now it will also be sent back.

These two scope manufacturers are clowns. Even my two Vortex Diamondbacks that I have had for 10 years haven't been broken under recoil of these magnum cartridges. I have tested them time and time again and they hold zero. Yet these $1200/$2000 dollar optics can't survive being shot under normal circumstances. Mind you, I am shooting prone with a suppressor. I even dropped the butt of my rifle on the ground and the Steiner became even further unusable. It didn't survive a 4 inch drop test.

These two companies need to get their quality control together. I don't care if their warranties are good, I don't want my optics to break in the first place. I hope future readers gather that these scopes are not mission critical. If you are shooting big boomers like me, buy something else!

 

[coldboreshot]

Interestingly, my Steiner has been on my Sako TRG 338 since day-one, approx. 467 rounds ago and is still running strong.

 

[DocBII]

Bubba,

Neither company is a clown and will usually display more respect to solving your problem than you exhibit. Same with the vendor, if the same for both scopes.

Good luck with what you exhibit to all,
DocBII

 

[coldboreshot]

And if I may...your boomers are in no comparison to an aquaintance of mine who has an extremely impressive collection of 50cal bolt guns, from Dessert Tech, ArmaLite, AI, Barrett all the way to a Hicate II, and then some. Granted, most are glassed with Schmidt/B's and Hensolts, but quite a few Steiners. All the Steiners hammer away with zero issue. I would say these are boomers. "Clowns" is a rather unfair assessment.

 

[TGP]

All my Burris XTR111 's and a Pro have been rock solid as a couple of XTR11's, these have been mounted on some heavy kicking rifles and even worse XP-100's in big calibers and no problems. Burris and Steiner are any thing but clowns

 

[Bubba Boomstick]

I had to send in my Burris XTRII twice. First time, I told them image in the scope is shifting under recoil. I sent it to them, and it passed their "quality standards" claiming it was "heat mirage" I was seeing, and shipped it back to me. I leave the scope alone. This year I mount it, and the erector assembly goes bye-bye. So, I had to ship it back... again.

I haven't even owned this Steiner for 1 month. It has not been deployed to a third world country and dropped from a helicopter! I didn't drive over it with my truck. It was taken out of a box, mounted onto Nightforce Rings, and shot 75 rounds. I don't know how this "Made In USA" scope that costs $2000 left the factory floor.

If my guns are not considered "boomers" that actually makes these scopes even sadder.

 

[nakneker]

I’ve had several Stieners, M5s and M7s, never had one issue with them. I consider them some of the best. Cartridges they sat on were 338 Lapua, 300 NMI and smaller. Both the 338 and 300 NMI had over 350 shots with zero issues, always held zero and tracking stayed the same. Very dependable scopes and a pleasure to use.

Sorry your experiences aren’t positive but in fairness to Steiner I wanted to share my own.

 

[coldboreshot]

I had to send in my Burris XTRII twice. First time, I told them image in the scope is shifting under recoil. I sent it to them, and it passed their "quality standards" claiming it was "heat mirage" I was seeing, and shipped it back to me. I leave the scope alone. This year I mount it, and the erector assembly goes bye-bye. So, I had to ship it back... again.

I haven't even owned this Steiner for 1 month. It has not been deployed to a third world country and dropped from a helicopter! I didn't drive over it with my truck. It was taken out of a box, mounted onto Nightforce Rings, and shot 75 rounds. I don't know how this "Made In USA" scope that costs $2000 left the factory floor.

If my guns are not considered "boomers" that actually makes these scopes even sadder.

My apologies that you misunderstood the message I attrmpted to convey. I was suggesting that my friends collection of Steiners on his 50bmg's have sustained multiple recoils with no issues. Let's face it, 50 bmg recoil is a bit more substantial than 338L or 300 NM. I myself have had other higher end scopes (and some moderate end) go back to the mfg for issues. Does that make them clowns? Not in my book.

 

[Bubba Boomstick]

Steiner took 2 weeks after I sent the scope in to tell me that the scope is not repairable. They did not inform me what exactly went wrong.

Plus side to Burris: They repaired my optic and shipped it back to me within a few days. Down side: I don't my defective scope back.

Because let's think of it this way: I am the consumer. I purchased a high end optic that failed me. Not because of any fault of my own, but because of quality control. Does Burris think that I want the same defective scope shipped back to me? Why would I? It failed once, and when the time matters it will fail again. Therefore, this scope is NOT mission critical, and is demoted to be mounted on guns that will never see adverse conditions.

Plus side to Steiner: They replaced my scope instead of repairing it. Downside: They took 2 weeks to figure that out when I included a letter explaining I needed this scope for my elk hunt come October 1st. Oh well, they explained that it takes 2 to 4 weeks to process a warranty. I suppose they must be processing a lot of warranties .

Scope manufacturers are a dime a dozen. I will not purchase another Burris, and considering I have so many other options, this will likely be my last Steiner as well. I lost time and money on this ordeal, and have had better customer experience elsewhere. Buy a scope from clowns and expect a circus.

 

[davidjoe]

Side parallax fails more often than objective bell paralax did. As consumers, we tend to want the convenience of these big, exposed knobs, like were once reserved for extremely expensive, truly mission critical optics. Those scopes were thought to be overbuilt but were probably simply adequately built, for the type of design they were pulling off.

Back at that point in time, all target and hunting scopes had screw on caps and reasonably sized knobs. Whether from actual recoil, or from being otherwise banged on, possibly even while cased, these tactical-looking scopes have the potential to impart leverage on a delicate adjustment system.

US Optics’ high line did not make the knobs extremely tall, and Premier did not, either.

There’s a few things we don’t give military logic due credit for. They do not reuse brass, it’s inherently compromised. Primer pockets, which sure enough are exactly what do us in, - they don’t even trust on new brass, without a crimp. They don’t like short fat rifle cartridges, and never have.

They put a $5k scope, mount and rings on a heavy barreled Remington 700. It wasn’t so much about one particular brand, either, as they spread the business around, but the optics were high end, and not necessarily made here. We on the other hand are pretty snooty about 700’s; we’ll spend on custom rifle but hold back on a scope.

We should all watch the high speed ballistics guy’s YouTube videos. There are a few fellows that have sprung for $200k cameras and love shooting guns. Scopes bounce around during recoil, especially when we want that perfect eye relief that feels so right, but leaves 60% of the scope’s weight hung out in front of the ring, to allow a nice “wave” to start traversing back and forth through it.

Watching that is like watching the slo-mo replay of a knee hyper-extending on the football field, but it happens shot after shot. For me, almost invariably, 3 screw rings are the only way to go, spread wide. Guys like short actions, but did they seek out a short scope, doubtful so a very long base is needed that defeats the short action.

Does it seem like scope makers call their main tubes thick or rigid? Slide a finger between the bell and the barrel on most scopes and watch the crosshairs liberally move up. They are anything but stiff, and they almost all need help. Weight helps because it absorbs recoil. In that regard, Badger makes the heaviest, finest 3 screw rings out there, which brand, unlike a particular scope, is uniformly the military’s choice. If Badger wasn’t tooled up and making the three screw rings already, they would easily cost $400 or more.

As long as the weight of the rifle increases in proportion with the foot pounds of recoil energy, I don’t think scopes feel much of a difference between cartridges. But obviously light rifles with big cartridges are harder on them, and the shock of metal on metal impact like in a 10/22 or AR could likely wreck the best of them, faster than an AR-50, which actually recoils mildly, though it has a facial-flesh-displacing back blast.

 

[Just Say Moe]

Side parallax fails more often than objective bell paralax did. As consumers, we tend to want the convenience of these big, exposed knobs, like were once reserved for extremely expensive, truly mission critical optics. Those scopes were thought to be overbuilt but were probably simply adequately built, for the type of design they were pulling off.

Back at that point in time, all target and hunting scopes had screw on caps and reasonably sized knobs. Whether from actual recoil, or from being otherwise banged on, possibly even while cased, these tactical-looking scopes have the potential to impart leverage on a delicate adjustment system.

US Optics’ high line did not make the knobs extremely tall, and Premier did not, either.

Makes perfect sense. Plain and simple seems like a good idea. Since when do we need all those twisty knobs to shoot an elk or deer?

 

[ronemus]

As long as the weight of the rifle increases in proportion with the foot pounds of recoil energy, I don’t think scopes feel much of a difference between cartridges.

My spacegun in .223, my Anschutz .22 LR, and my RPR in .338 LM all weigh ~16 lbs - that seems to be a practical upper limit for a rifle fired from position rather than prone or from the bench. I guarantee that the recoil velocity of the .338 LM is higher than the others. Most of us are shooting at targets and use a rifle as heavy as is practical to tame motion. Folks shooting featherweight mountain rifles are an entirely different proposition, but they make a 20-round box of ammo last a decade or more so they don't take much abuse.

 

[Orr89rocz]

Do they not have muzzle brakes?

 

[CJ6]

Plus side to Burris: They repaired my optic and shipped it back to me within a few days. Down side: I don't my defective scope back.

So..You take your vehicle to the shop because it's "broken" and then you tell them you don't want it back ????

 

[Ggmac]

the op sure breaks alot of scopes !

 

[hicap40]

Bummer, my Xtr has been on my .338 for a while also, and while not my clearest scope I can hit golf balls at 550 yards consistantly. 250 bergers with rl 26 One of the most accurate guns I own

 

[4xforfun]

Sounds to me like the fix is spelled N I G H T F O R C E . Just my .02.


Tod