How long do wild birds live anyway?!

Proper deer season is almost upon us here in AR. I am not a gunsmith (I have been a licensed so-called GS before) but folks always ask me lots of questions and seek my help on occasion. A nice young man had a late model Savage or Mossberg bolt gun in .350 Legend. I think he bought it at a large chain store on sale. It had no sights but was drilled and tapped for scope mounting. They had the bases and rings available; he also purchased a reasonably good Vortex scope for it. It was the first time he personally mounted a scope on a rifle himself. He has quite a bit of experience sighting in rifles and making scope adjustments etc. He told me he figured the scope was “bad”. He has expended quite a bit of ammo and while it grouped pretty well, it was all over the place adjusting for zero. The more he tried the worse it got. So, we just began a discussion. I asked about the tightness of the bases and rings, barrel crown and the muzzle, bedding and tightening of the action screws, ammo too. Everything I could quickly consider. Then almost in parting I relayed a story that happened to me about 30 years ago. A left-handed fellow had a very similar story. He had gone through two scopes at Wal-mart and about 4 boxes of .243 Win. Ammo. This last box in his rifle case had to sight the gun and make it all hunting season. As soon as he unzipped the case I SAW the problem, but said nothing. I returned the gun to him with 18 cartridges and perfectly sighted. Almost apologetically I had to explain to him; he had the turrets turned 90 degrees out. When he moved the scope adjustments up and down it was actually moving POI right and left, the up and down was wrong in a like manner! He just didn’t know, a lot of folks never consider it. My young friend that I had spun the yarn to had a pale countenance. My story resonated directly with him. He shyly offered, “Yep that is exactly what I did too”. “The up/down turret has to be on top?” Yes, pass the word. It has been done many times before.

50 years ago, almost exactly, I bought my first Tasco 4x15 scope ($2.69 at Otasco) and mounted it on my Remington 552. The scope had an eye relief of about 1.5” and terrible parallax. No indices or “clicks”, just an arrow with U and the other had the same with L. I sighted it in at 50 yds. noting where the dirt flew up, and the proportional degrees of turn with how much closer impact was getting. The target was a Dr. Pepper can hung upside down on a small bush! When I was satisfied and confirmed by pegging small stones happenstance a small bird lit in a tree top some 75 yds. away. Pow! My first scope nailed quarry. Regretfully a Robin, but that sacrifice began my optics shooting. I’ll never forget him.