Cutting through all the BS
Years ago I worked as a best cop and everyday a crazy guy gave me a paper with all his crazy thoughts written in a spiral. Crazy as a man could be
Now these same guys write on net and are experts
Just because it’s posted on net does not make it fact
More shooter problems than scope zero shifts
That's a very succinct appeal to sanity.
The simple truth is that we all have different opinions on who bears the burden of proof and how much effort we are willing to make toward proving it. I am not particularly invested in putting any more time and effort into proving that drop tests the way they are done on Rokslide are silly, if the OP is interested in continuously pushing the issue, I am not going to get into a protracted argument. I've said everything I was going to say on the subject and I am not interested in doing any more with it.
If he were to just continue with: "drop tests are awesome, prove them wrong", he can. I have neither the time nor the OCD to dig into it further. More importantly, that is a deeply unscientific way of approaching it. The burden of proof is on whoever is asserting the validity of their tests, especially when it goes counter to rather vast amount of statistical data manufacturers have on riflescopes.
What the drop tests are is a very good marketing scheme because they are visual and seemingly simple. In the same way, Nightforce's trade show gimmick of banging a scope on a phone book (or whatever that was) and then putting the scope on a collimator to show that nothing shifted is an awesome marketing feat. It is simple, easily comprehensible and entirely risk free once you weed out the infant mortality cases. Unless there is a manufacturing defect that might cause a catastrophic failure, it does not stress anything important in the scope, but it is great theater. Same with that famous scope Nightforce carries around with a bullet hole in it. With any scope, if the bullet goes through the scope in a spot where it does not hit any lenses, the scope is likely to continue working (maybe with an erector fixed at a single magnification).
Some people swear by these drop test and some people look at them with a great amount of skepticism. The line between them has been drawn for a little while and neither side is going to budget any time soon.
Disclaimer: if it looks like I am picking on Nightforce again, I am not. They make very nice scopes that are well made and well QC'ed. All companies say silly things in their marketing campaigns. It just so happens that Nightforce's marketing pushes the same silly nonsense as Rokslide's drop tests. Generally, the power of marketing is hard to overstate. Nightforce markets toughness and every is convinced their scopes can be used as barbells for world record dead lift. Vortex figured out early one that their VIP warranty is like octane fuel for sails, so when people talk about Vortex, the warranty immediately comes up. These two companies arguably have the best marketing campaigns in the riflescope world because the message is simple, comprehensible and memorable.
