Check your new rifles folks !

[jmoser]

Ran the range today and had 2 guys with new Ruger .450s, both had loose scope mount and ring screws.
Don't know where they were bought but both came with scopes mounted and one scope ring screw I could have spun by hand.

Double check all your gear before hunting !!!

[Ol` Joe]

Very good advice!
Be suspicious of any brand of scope/rifle package you buy. I've seen more then a few scopes come off new rifles not just in just 450 BM chambering either. A dime does not tighten a mount screw and, ring screws need to be more then just snug. AR's are especially bad about loosening scope mounting systems.

[Musta Demoni]

This happened to me some years ago. Bought a Remington 870 at Cabelas and had them mount the scope while I waited. Sighted it in, seemed fine, then hunted the first morning with it. Walking back to camp after the morning hunt, I heard something rattling. Pretty much every screw on the scope and mount were loose.

Nice.

[gjgalligan]

Purple Loctite is you friend.

[alcoholbanshee]

Purple Loctite is you friend.

Any time i buy a rifle that is already scoped i tear it apart and remount the bases and scope. I have found they are almost never tight and never have loctite installed. Not only a problem when you miss that big buck, but even just a waste of a trip to the range only to find out your scope is loose. Purple loctite is indeed your friend!

[dirtmcgirt76239]

I have known people who broke a ring since nothing is made well these days, and knocked out a fiber optic sight as well.

Have irons, a wrench to take off a fubared scope in the field so you can hunt with irons, and have a spare fiberoptiv replacement tube in you case back at camp.

Oil and wax the heck out of it before you get there, get under the barrel.

[Musta Demoni]

Ever since my experience, I now do all my own mounting. Beyond Loctite, also make sure that the threads, both male and female, on all screw mating surfaces are clean. I usually use brake clean. Loctite won't hold on dirty and oily threads. I went the extra mile and got a fat wrench torque wrench too.

I hunt in a few different locations, some of which are a few hours from my house. Usually if I'm hunting that far from home, I bring a 12 gauge buckshot gun with me as well. That way if anything happens to my rifle or its glass, I can still hunt confidently.

[SteveS]

Purple Loctite is you friend.

I had a bad experience on a paid hunt quite a distance from home and I’ll stick with the blue loctite.

[10x25mm]

One of the less reputable used rifle sales tactics is to strip off a quality scope for separate sale and replace it with a low rent scope. Beyond the problems you will have with the scope, guys who do this kind of substitution tend not to be very fussy about getting the screws tight. And you never know whether they messed with mount screws. Some also replace valuable mounts as well.

[jmoser]

I had a bad experience on a paid hunt quite a distance from home and I’ll stick with the blue loctite.

Truth be told on fine threads [6-48 etc] thread locker is not really needed. Oil threads and torque to spec. But I do like purple loctite myself, blue does not add much on smaller screw sizes. Fine threads have a low pitch angle and just do not work loose like coarser threads.

Locomotive engines we just used never seize lube and those vibrate like nothing you have ever seen.