Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics BDC reticles???

Who makes the best BDC scope for the money ???

Leupold B&C.

Alan

Nikon Monarch

The ZR-800 on my Zeiss Conquest has been spot on out to 600 yards.

Zeiss and Nightforce

I also like Zeiss and NF reticles. If i had to pick one overall though it'd be Leupold's Varmint Hunter's reticle due to the fact that it's a tree reticle system, effective to intermediate range and the 3-1.77 MOA windage units along the horizontal axis is great for applying windage for those that prefer to dial elevation and hold for windage (though i wish they'd have made them an even # like 2 MOA).

Truth is, i haven't found a multi-stadia reticle i haven't liked yet. Even the Nikon BDC isn't half bad, but it probably gets the least amount of love of all of them...besides maybe the crossbow reticle in some of the cheaper optics.

For rimfires the PFI Rapid Reticles can't be beat...IMO-- www.rapidreticle.com

Mail/SS, Have you checked out Nikon's Spot On Ballistic Program ? You can certainly use the BDC scope without this site but let me tell you, it makes a huge difference! I have shot 4 inch jars of Tannerite at 600 yards using Spot On and a Nikon BDC Scope. I even have about 50 witnesses who also made the same shot!
Go to Nikonhunting.com, click Spot On logo, Register, it's all free, then enter your scope, cal. and ammo to get exact distances for your BDC reticles. Trust me, it works!

Hard to beat Vortex IMHO. They are all pretty good tho I'm just a vortex fan.. Most important part is figuring out how to match the reticle to your rifle and load.

Everyone has made valid responses but its hard to throw down thousands of dollars if your life doesn't depend on it everyday. The Vortex Diamondback and Vipers are excellent choices in there price ranges.

Zeiss Z-series is the best for those who want to use the reticle only, but can still make simple small moa adj for atmospheric conditions.

Vortex is best if you, like me, love the idea of dialing, and using the awesome 2moa vertical stadia hash mark's for wind, but can also use the drop lines as a back up or for quick shots.

I use both. Last year on my buck hunt with my Vortex HS, I lost my drop chart during a 1.5 hour stalk. Ranged the buck and used my drop lines at 575. One shot. Buck scores 188.

All the other types including Leupold, Burris, and Nikon don't allow for wind adjustments. What's up with that? Plus the circles on Nikon? Don't they get you need to practice to make small groups befor you go into the field to hunt. And Bushnell, seriously who gives a crap about rack bracketing. Oh yeah, guys from S Carolina. In the Rocky Mountain West where shots start at 300 yards, where drop lines are valuable, you need wind adjustment and both the Vortex and Zeiss give you that.

Really like my Super Slam 2-10 Weaver.

Zeiss RAPID-Z works very well and has never bothered me hunting the brush.

I use the 600 and 800.

A Mil reticle. What is your cartridge, bullet and velocity?

Formidilosus, why do you consider a mil reticle better than a BDC reticle for downrange zeroing? I mean a BDC reticle is just multiple units of subtension same as any other. Just like to hear others takes on the subject is all really.

Ive been happy with the Nikon Monarch in BDC and Mildot. Between the scope and software its a great combo. It works on every cartridge and handloads. I have witnessed first round hits at 800yds with Nikons. Whats your budget?

Because it being a standard unit of measure means it is easier to use all around. I can play with a zero to make just about any cartridge/bullet combination into a "BDC" of sorts with a mil dot. Plus there are holds for wind. Tweaking a BDC reticle for more then just the way it was designed is.... annoying.


In case people are doubting that you can make a mil based reticle into a BDC here are a couple of examples at SAC-

5.56 duty gun. 77gr SMK at 2,800fps.

Yards - hold in mils

100 - 0
200 - .4 mil (use .5 mil as it's less then an inch of difference)
300 - 1.1 mil (use 1.0 mil)
400 - 2.0 mil
500 - 3.1 mil (use 3 mil as it's less then 2in difference)
550 - 3.7 mil (use 3.5 mil. 4in difference)
600 - 4.4 mil (use 4.5 mil)

As you can see it falls apart a bit after 500 for the 5.56, however, BDC's are really only 500 yard or so tools in my experience.




308win with a 168gr AMAX at 2,720fps. This time to make it track we will zero at 175 yards. It looks like this-

100 - +0.4 mil
200 - .2mil (ignore and use crosshairs)
300 - .9mil (use 1.0 mil)
400 - 1.9mil (use 2.0 mil)
500 - 2.9mil (use 3.0 mil)
600 - 4.1mil (use 4.0 mil)

With this load the max we are off is 2 inches at 600 yards.




300WinMag 178gr AMAX at 3,100fps. There is actually a couple different ways to run this one but I'll use the one I use for hunting. So if we zero at 200 yards it looks like this-


100 - +0.4 mil (use .5 mil)
200 - 0.0 mil
300 - 0.6 mil (use 0.5 mil)
400 - 1.2 mil (use 1.0 mil)
500 - 2.0 mil
600 - 2.8 mil (use 3.0 mil)
700 - 3.8 mil (use 4.0 mil)
800 - 4.9 mil (use 5.0 mil)
900 - 6.1 mil (use 6.0 mil)

So the max it is off is less then 3 inches out to 900 yards.


Any of these you can hold at the whole number or .5 and consistently kill BG animals out to basically the limit of the cartridge/bullet combination.


Simplified my drop charts for the 5.56 load looks like this-

100 - 0.0
200 - 0.5 mil
300 - 1.0 mil
400 - 2.0 mil
500 - 3.0 mil
550 - 3.5 mil
600 - 4.5 mil



For the 308win-

100 - +0.5 mil
175 - 0.0
200 - 0.0
300 - 1.0 mil
400 - 2.0 mil
500 - 3.0 mil
600 - 4.0 mil

When hunting I aim dead on out to 250 or so then use my reticle from there.




300WinMag-

100 - +0.5 mil
200 - 0.0 mil
300 - 0.5 mil
400 - 1.0 mil
500 - 2.0 mil
600 - 3.0 mil
700 - 4.0 mil
800 - 5.0 mil
900 - 6.0 mil

When hunting I aim dead on out to 250 yards or so then use the reticle from there.



It's all just hash marks or dots in a scope, but being a set, standard measurement means that it's easier to map, has windage marks, and we can use it with just about any combination gun cartridge/bullet and not have to worry about it "matching". IOW, moving a scope from a 223 to a 7WSM= no problem.



(Note, I prefer to dial for any shot past 300+/- yards.)

I agree with Formidilosus. My above recommendations were for factory-produced BDC reticles, but a FFP mil or MOA-based reticle is way more universal in application.

Most BDC reticles look something like this:

zero - 200 yards
First dot - 1.5MOA below zero
Second dot - 4.5MOA
Third - 7.5MOA
Post - 11MOA

Instead of trying to force the drop subtensions into nice, even 100 yard intervals, you could also just figure out what range each dot corresponds to. Here is an example:

Instead of saying a hypothetical cartridge matches up as follows,

100 yards - 0
200 yards - 1.6mil
300 yards - 3.56mil
400 - 6.76mil
etc

and then try to hold on some intermediate point between 2 dots, a guy could just match up his reticle like this:

100 yard - zero
mid-way beween zero and first mil dot - 220 yards
First mil dot - 330 yards
Second - 470 yards
Third - 580 yards
Fourth - 689 yards

Or

100 yard - zero
2MOA line - 220 yards
4MOA line - 380 yards
6MOA line - 470 yards
etc

Then write down the yardages that each line/dot corresponds to, and tape it to your stock.

To me, like Formidilosus says, the dots/lines are good out to a maximum of 500-600 yards, and I like to dial beyond 350, so it's not the end of the world to hold half way between the 4MOA and 6MOA lines for a 425 yard shot, and such aiming gives enough precision for a relatively hasty shot where I might use the reticle for holdover, anyway.

Here is the system that i use for the Varmint Hunter's reticle in a 4.5-14x VX-III on a Savage Striker shooting a 115 DTAC at 2550 [i think it is].

range, elevation and windage [10mph]--



[notice that the windage values are 1/2 the design using a VLD bullet].

Truth is, interpolating [guessing] a hold between 2 lines can actually be quite accurate. If it weren't reticle rangefinding would have very little viability on tgts. of known dimension...which also ends for me at 500ish.

In fact here's a 100-yd. shot I made on the 2nd attempt using a 2x Barska with a plex reticle that subtended 15 MOA, X-plex post tip. Knowing the drop was 6 MOA that's 40% of 15 so i held .4 of the plex post tip subtension. So even subdividing 15 MOA can be quite accurate sometimes...as well as rewarding--