what do you choose FFP or SFP ?
Ok let’s try again. Since it’s posted in the hunting optics section lol.
What has the collective learned in the 21st century about hunting with firearms? Bottom line is a moderat amount of people will be consistent killers to 450, few to 600, from Forma own lips too btw. I’ve run polls on rokslide, which is full of prs hero’s, where guys tend to draw the limits while hunting vs their prs limits and its majority 5-600 for hunting. Nobody really asking why. But they feel it and that’s good enough, that came from experience in shooting.
So we objectify it further. What’s happening from mpbr to 450 and then again to 600? 1/2 to 3/4 second tof’s....hmmm, I wonder if this is similar to archery and now hunting and the natural limits for most in that 50-70 yard range...guess what, same tof’s. Then we factor in the average guys ability to read wind and you end up learning up to about 20”, after that no risky taggy lol. Then we layer in real world field accuracy in the 1.5-2 moa range and lastly that whole live animal thing. It all rolls up into natural limits where the 98% will play and be consistent and reliable.
So, figure out if you think you’re gonna be or wanna be in that 2% range where you have to do way more than past the point of diminishing returns in terms of prep and practice and hope you have some natural talent as well. Or focus where on boiling down the simplest easiest to drive most instinctual set up possible to maximize your odds of filling those tags?
If you decide to play where the 98% live and hunting is your primary focus then there really isn’t that much data required to handle the elevation to get to 5-600. Same with wind data.
When you learn how we are wired (spatially and visually) and what we’re institutionalized in for measures (inches). That helps narrow things down for those who boil things down the most. You can do the 98% very well with just a sfp duplex, a single rotation turret or basic sfp reticle, and hold your wind referencing against the animal. Hard to imagine for those shootin small white squares and needing to measure with reticles lol. Once the first flies on game though the measuring goes out the window and spatial visual mind takes over and all the extra reticle references beyond the center vertical are in the way. Your brain is going to see where the shot was and just move where it needs to go automatically. On target scene referencing.
You see that when you learn a wind hold type reticle on range then go hunting and see that after shot 1 those wind hold points are useless and you automatically reference the vertical main where it needs to go next. If you wanna be fast that is. So one learns may as well just learn to do that for shot 1 and not have a non-brain default method knowing you’re just going to switch over to brain default if it doesn’t go as planned.
Now, maybe you don’t know measures like that institutional in your brain? If you don’t work with tape measures regularly etc. Then maybe there is merit to some of these other systems you have to train yourself too? So keep that in mind. Figure out what you’re built around and focus that direction. But if you know these animals and the terrain around you your brain has all the measures it needs, you can take advantage of that.
Some of us have worked with measures since highschool so less is more. Elevation correction is the easy part. The wind can be simple like 400, 500, 600....10 mph or 10 kmh...inches. Very fast math from your wind call happens from those three points of data, move into the wind your call in inches referenced on the animal and that’s that. Holding 18” over on a little coyote sitting facing you is not that hard, your brain can see it out there. Again...unless you haven’t spent a lot of time measuring things. Stick to the reticle methods and learn that if not.
So the goal should be wherever possible to boil down a system as simple as possible to lesson the chances of blowing it out there on hard to get tag. Hunting is very Murphy friendly, it’s easy to meet him. Lots of us packing way too much gear up the mountain, that goes for the rifle and it’s entire set up also.
You can go to 600 in the 98% land with a 7 lb all up sporter and a fixed 6x36 or 3-9x40 with an lr duplex or cds-zl and 3 points of wind data to math from. Or...full blown ffp mil sky is the limit extra fat set up. Where do you think you want to land. Then you try things over a lifetime and find your groove. You spend time perfecting it and the one rifle guy carrying a seemingly primitive sporting rifle will out notch more tags then 10 guys rocking all the latest trends in target gear set ups with all that extra fat giving them false confidence that the gear can do it.
As you see some spend the time required to drive the high fat gear very well out there. Might need to spend more time in a year to stay on top of the high fat gear vs the basic bombproof extra KISS principle no fat gear. As you’re only working with the date required to go to the 98% natural laws. Nice to go fishing all year and know your set up is so dead simple you don’t have to think about anything except throwing the tags in the pack and grabbing the plain rangefinder to go next season and fill tags as good as any high fat gear guy. 😉
Sfp or ffp....low fat, high fat....I keep my fat around my middle now thanks. I know measures though so I can go to the lowest fat end of this spectrum. Hope that helps. One is not better than the other. He who drives his gear and knows it and himself most intimately and they matched well....will be deadly af regardless of method. Put your time in with it, become instinctual with it. I would put my money on the no fat well tuned guy vs the high fat well tuned guy on filling tags and dodging Murphy the most however. Less is more.
