36 BRD question for Jackie

[SBH]

Jackie,
I bought a used BRD that looks to be in good shape about a year ago and when I put it on the gun the crosshairs are not level when the turrets are straight with the rifle about 30 degrees off. This scope has been Tuckerized and I am going to dill and tap a hole in the end of the coil spring housing and add a screw and lock nut so that after an adjustment is made I can run the put the pusher on hard contact with the tube to prevent shift. I have one that i did this way two years ago and all of the stray "unexplained" shots out of the group went away instantly. Question : What is likely to be wrong inside and is it something that I can make a tool to take it apart and fix myself and if not who should I send it to to be fixed?
I have a lathe and small surface grinder but no milling machine and have building my own guns for about 5 years. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen Hall

 

[jackie schmidt]

Cooked Crosshairs

Stephen,that is indeed a strange occurance in any 36x Leupold. The reason is,the reticle cage has a "key way" that aligns with a little key detent in the scope body. You cannot get the reticle in there but one way, the correct way.
That is, unless that little detent key is sheared. The only way that could happen is if someone had it apart, got the reticle cage in the wrong position, and forced it down in there. I can't amagine the cross hairs surviving that trip.
If you look at the thread outside on the eyepiece end, just about where the lock not usually goes, you will see that little detend,that forms the key inside that clocks the reticle cage.
The reticle cage its self also has machined slots that the actual cross hairs go in, so someone would have had to really mess up to end up with the situation you have.
Yes,it does take special spanner wrenchs to get the scope apart and the reticle out. The problem might be if that reticle cage is jammed in there where it is "key bound", I doubt there is any way to get it out without popping the crosshairs. Those darned things are hard to handle even under the best of circumstances. If you even look at a reticle "cross eyed" while it is out of that scope, it will break
I make my spanner wrenches out of sockets. The one that removes the eyepiece rataining nut, (that is what keeps you from screwing the eye piece all the way off), is a 22 mm Craftsman socket with .060 machined from the OD, and then two small .060 wide spanner keys milled into the face, dead 180 degrees apart. The one that removes the reticle is a 17mm craftsman.,it fits the scope ID perfect, so you make a spanner in the same method.
Of course, you have to remove the ocular lens assy from the eye piece bell to access these. That will require a "grip wrench" that looks like a huge bullet puller that Benchrest Shooter use.. The ID of the wrench is 1 9/16.
You could send it back to Leupold,they will probably charge you to fix it.
Let meknow how it comes out. If you want to send it to me, I can get it apart, and if the reticle is trashed, you can have Wally Seibert install a new set of crosshairs. But be prepared for more worms to crall out of the can. If some onemanaged to get that reticle cage in there in the wrong place, there could be otherproblems, like stripped reticle nut threads, etc.........jackie