Zeroing your scope... with a hammer?

[pineoak]

I wish I had the video. A guy in a YouTube video showed that he zeros his rifle and then hits it maybe twice pretty hard with a metal hammer. He then adjusts zero and calls it zeroed. I believe it was an ATACR 7-35 & some kind of NF mount/rings based on the silver dots in my memory.

Upon initial presentation, I just ignored it and figured it was a quirky thing. But I remembered yesterday that a few years back I was with a friend and his quality rail/scope/rings combo shifted zero when he moved his Harris right leg and it fell over and hit the bench (he wasn't behind the gun). His zero shifted up and to the left which I confirmed myself shooting it after he noticed the shift. He is fastidious about using a torque wrench and I don't believe his screws were loose.

Anyone else do the hammer thing? Is there anything to this method?

The idea of taking a metal hammer to a good set of rings with a $2k scope mounted in it (vibration alone) made me cringe. But then, how different is that from a round firing and the forces involved?

Thoughts?

 

[danatkins]

I haven't done that but I know the leupold that I took off my dad's old varmint rifle you had to thump it to get it to move

 

[rlsmith1]

I haven’t hammered mine but I usually (especially with cheap optics and red dots) give my scope a few good thumps with my thumb.

Could be fudd lore when I heard it growing up but I figure my stuff isn’t babied so a few extra bumps to remind it who’s boss won’t hurt

 

[JakeM]

It's for fudd scopes that don't move when you turn the turrets, so they hit it to make the erector move.

 

[speedfreak440]

I usually give mine a couple of good licks only on the rings and only with a rubber mallet, some shift & some don't, if you actually use the rifle in the field it will take some licks here and there anyway so I like to just get that out of the way so I know what I'm dealing with.... my 2 cents

 

[HKslave]

I hit my elcan with another elcan.

 

[Mike Casselton]

It's called the Tasco tap.

And yeah, it's a real thing with old, cheap optics that don't move the erector assembly when you spin the adjustments.
They weren't turrets, just shitty dials under the caps.

It's stupid as fuck to do it to a good modern scope