Run Over by a Land Cruiser. Still Dead Centre.

"So, I went hunting last week, from 23/07 to 26/07, with my new AKRA ORYX scope on my Howa 1500 .308.

Thursday morning, I arrived on the farm near Moloto and went to the shooting range on the farm (as we normally do before a hunt). Due to ammo issues the previous day, I had to re-zero my ORYX with 180gr rounds instead of the 168gr that I normally use.

This went quite well. As it was my first hunt with the scope, we spent a bit of time getting familiar with it, and I managed to hit the gong at 300m, about 1 MOA to the left of where I was aiming. Boy, I was happy about that.

Fast forward to a bit later in the day, and I downed my first blesbuck at around 130m. Good shot.

I had two blesbuck on my shopping list, so we continued to stalk the herd as they hadn't run very far. Luck was on my side, and I downed my second blesbuck.

At this point, I was beaming with pride. Day one, and I had successfully stalked and downed two bucks.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that the saxophone started playing softly in the background.

I made my rifle safe and leaned it gently against the Land Cruiser while we loaded the buck. I was as thirsty as a desert camel at that point, as I didn't expect us to be stalking the herd that far.

We loaded the buck onto the Cruiser, and I grabbed a bottle of water from the cool box. I started chatting to the other hunters and climbed onto the Cruiser, as I had an electrolyte mix in a bottle in the back of my bag.

The saxophone started playing louder and louder.

I was deep in conversation, explaining how we stalked the herd and how I got the shot. Everybody got onto the Cruiser, and our PH started moving the bakkie forward.

He turned right and then started reversing. After a few metres, I saw my rifle, my brand-new ORYX scope, and big-ass tyre marks going over the stock and onto my scope, lying on the ground.

We had driven over it.

Neither I nor anyone else had loaded my rifle onto the bakkie.

The saxophone was now at its loudest.

I experienced emotions that could be described as a mixture of fear, regret, shock, shitting myself, calculating costs, wondering why I started the hobby, doubting the legitimacy of the pie I had a week ago, not liking Cruisers anymore, and even being so disappointed in myself that I was considering selling everything, taking up knitting, and pursuing a quiet career as a full-time adult escort. (Not that I would be successful, but it seemed less stressful at the time.)

I hastily got off the Cruiser and went to pick up my rifle.

We had definitely driven over it. Those enormous tyres. The dirt on the elevation turret. The dirt on the gun. Those track marks!

Upon inspection, I immediately saw that the scope had been torqued sideways on the Picatinny rail. It looked skew. I was too afraid to look at the glass.

After offloading the buck, we went back to the shooting range. My heart was racing. I could taste the fear and regret.

We loosened the screws at the base of the rings and removed the scope from the Picatinny rail. We inspected it, and it looked OK. We decided to mount it again.

It was visibly skew. The rings also looked as though they had twisted between the front and rear rings, so we loosened them as well.

After finger-tightening the screws, we checked that the scope was level and then tightened everything properly.

Moment of truth.

I looked through the scope for the first time, and the first tingling of relief came over me. Nothing was cracked. Nothing looked broken.

We bore-sighted the scope and, after making sure the rifle's barrel and action were clean and still functioning correctly, I fired the first shot.

It was 1 MOA low and about 1 MOA to the left.

I adjusted the elevation and, when I tried adjusting the windage, I realised where we had missed the damage. The cover plate that screws onto the windage turret had been bent and wasn't allowing me to make adjustments.

I loosened the cover plate a bit and... success!

I could make adjustments.

I fired my second shot.

Dead centre.

At that point, I think everyone on the range was more relieved than impressed.

It's difficult to explain the feeling of relief, the pride, and the absolute awe of having a Land Cruiser bakkie with six people on it drive over your rifle and your brand-new AKRA ORYX scope, only to have it still operate as if it had just come out of the box (mostly).

WOW.

The ruggedness of your product is exceptional! The glass. The functionality.

To be perfectly honest, if a scope can survive being run over by a fully loaded Land Cruiser, it's earned a customer for life."

LEON MOORE
(AKRA Customer for Life)