break on me.
Regardless of the good reputation of the airgun, I would consider taking a look at the piston's seal. It might be worn down too much or perhaps damaged and not creating enough buffer at the end of the piston's stroke.Look closely at the breech seal too while you are at it.
Failure or damage in these 2 areas can give rise to excessive recoil and scope damage as described.
As for the scopes themselves, I have never had any Hawke scopes and I would think that it must be a high frequency vibration that would unscrew an internal locking ring loose.
As you say perhaps a dab of loctite would normally prevent this.
While the piston is out, look at the spring guide and see that it is nice and snug on the spring to prevent unwanted vibes.
HTH
D
my gun is pretty new. the seals are good. i replace the breach seal before every match as routine maintenance. the gun is shooting with good consistancy.
last chrony was ES of 9 and SD of 3. if seals were bad i would not get those numbers. there does not seem to be vibration. the spring is well tared as is the guide. my velocity with JSB Express pellets is up to average 931 (another story). thats a little on the hot side so i may go to exacts.
he indicated that there is thus far less than a 1% failure rate on that scope for rotated reticle. there service is so outstanding. he is mailing the new one taoday with a return label for the old one. i am going with the 32x for a few more dollars. no big deal. 32x will help with rangefinding but i will probably continue to shoot with 24.