Desert Dog

In the past several months I have purchased two Mueller illuminated riflescopes via mail order. Upon arrival, they looked like very nice scopes for the money and the optics were bright and clear. I was very pleased and mounted them (replacing older scopes) on two rifles. One is a .243 using Zeiss rings and the other is a .223 using a set of Leupold rings.

The following day, after I mounted the scope on the .243, I noticed that the rings had compressed the scope tube. I immediately checked the old Weaver scope that I had removed from that rifle and its tube was not compressed in the least. Then I checked the .223 with the Leupold rings. The tube was only slightly compressed on that Mueller scope. I then checked the old Simmons that I had replaced with the new Mueller and the old Simmons showed no signs of tube compression.

This perplexed me because in over thirty years of messing around with rifles, this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to a scope. I did what anybody would do and contacted Mueller. After a flurry of back-and-forth e-mails with the company President, I was told that this has never happened to any other customer. They offered to replace both of the scopes for $40 each plus $9.95 S/H.... (Total $89.95). I opted not to do that since I already have about $400.00 bucks into the deal.

If any of you out there have Mueller scopes, have you experienced the same “tube compression” that I have? Please take a close look at your mounting and I’d appreciate it if you would let me know what you found. I presently have rifles with scopes made by Burris, Leupold, Sightron, Tasco, Simmons and Mueller. All of the other scopes I own are fine and two of them came out of the same rings that compressed the Mueller.
In my humble opinion, customer service at Mueller could be more customer oriented. Speaking only for myself and the way my particular case was handled, I won’t be a repeat customer. If I were the President of that company, I’d want to examine the compressed tube(s) and see what the heck was going on. Instead, he opted to defend his product to the end, sight unseen.

Solitary Man

I've never had any desire to own a Muellerscope and I certainly don't now after reading that. Too bad they didn't handle this in a better manner. I have a Bushnell Elite 3200 that has light ring compression marks. It's the only scope I've ever owned that's exhibited this. It still functions fine, however, but it gives me reason to believe that the tube is either notthick enoughor not made out of the same quality metal thatothers are.

I've got a Zeiss Conquest on one of my Sakos that's mounted in Conetrol mounts. These babies were tight as heck even before I tightened the screws down and they hold like a vise, so I was afraid what the scope tube might look like if I ever dismounted it. Well, not too long ago I needed to take the scope off the rifle and to my amazement there was not a single hint of a ring mark on this scope. Just another reason I like these Conquests so much.