What Does It Take to Knock a Scope Off Zero?

Jordan Sillars Jul 31, 2025

Here’s a scenario no hunter wants to experience. You’re six days into a seven-day, once-in-a-lifetime hunt. As you’re picking your way up a ridge to a glassing spot, you slip and drop your rifle. It lands on a rock, and the scope takes a direct hit to the top turret.

The scope isn’t loose and doesn’t appear to be damaged beyond a deep gash in the turret cap. The glass is clear, but you know that a bump can sometimes move the reticle inside the tube.

Now, you have a decision to make. Do you move off the mountain and find a spot where you can reconfirm your zero? That will take up valuable time, and you don’t have much left. But if you keep hunting, your busted scope might make you miss a shot on your target animal–and then you’ll never have another chance.

Hunt long enough, and you’re bound to find yourself in that scenario (or one like it). Dropped guns are just a part of the job, and it’s impossible to know whether this or that concussion was strong enough to knock your scope off zero.

But you can still make an informed guess–at least, you can if you watch MeatEater Experiments.

In a recent episode, Janis Putelis and Brent Reeves set out to answer this question: What does it take to knock a scope off zero?

They put a Sig Sauer scope and rings through various levels of punishment and checked to see if the rifle was still zeroed. In most situations, it was.

Situation	Shift
In case, off workbench (~3-foot drop)	No change
In case, thrown down hill	No change
Leaning on table, tipped over onto rock and dirt	No change
Holding, dropped onto gravel (~2-foot drop)	No change
Holding, dropped onto rock and dirt (~5-foot drop)	No change
Strapped to backpack, Jani falls on ground	One-inch shift right, no vertical change
In case, towed behind truck	Nine-inch shift left, no vertical change

Not every scope you own needs to cost as much as your rifle. You probably won’t tow your gun behind your truck (unless things are going very, very poorly), but you might drop it in the dirt, and the case will definitely get thrown at some point at the airport. For a once-in-a-lifetime hunt, a durable scope is worth the investment.