Another firearms scam they've pulled on several separate occasions is to open my gun safe, which is a real cracker box, anyway, and change the zero on my hunting rifles by changing the scope settings.

Some of you may not know what that is and a very brief explanation is in order for the neophytes.

The zero is set through a trial and error process by shooting at a target at a known distance from a solid shooter's rest to eliminate extraneous weapon movement up to and during the moment of firing the weapon and then marking the strike of the bullet. All things being equal, and there are many potential variables involved, if the bullet's point of impact is different from the aiming point seen through the sights, the sights must be adjusted correspondingly to change the POI until the aiming point and the POI coincide. When a rifleman attains zero, which basically consists of hitting the desired point at a hundred yards with several shots, the rifle is said to be in zero.  Changing this without the shooter's foreknowledge results quite often in a miss.  In a critical situation where a life or lives are at stake, or a truly desired trophy animal is the target, a missed shot can have tragic results.

Accuracy is the Golden Fleece of experienced shooters.  The late highly respected firearms expert, Col. Jeff Cooper, said, "Only accurate rifles are interesting."  Shooting is as much an art as it is a science.  If you are lucky enough to possess a very accurate rifle and are an expert in its use, it can be a very frustrating experience to have some mercenary thug surreptitiously change your zero. Make no mistake about it.  We are speaking here of thugs. You know who you are.