Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics BDC, mildots or Turrets.....?

Bullet drop compensating reticles (ie. LRD, Ballistic Plex, Ziess Rapid-Z, etc.), dialing using turrets, or less frequently using a mil based (or MOA based) reticle to compensate on long range shots.

This comes up in the majority of threads anytime there is a discussion beyond MPBR, with many people stating their preference, though usually with no reason or background as to why... They'll state that one is more accurate, one is "faster", etc, yet when queried as to define "accurate" or "fast" they generally have no answer, or state something that borders on the ridiculous. Now this isn't to say that people's experiences are not valid, but to point out that when discussing the merits of anything one needs to have a depth of knowledge and actual use putting it in to practice.


I've discussed this many times, stating my experience with all of them, using timers, hit rates, target size, etc. I get questioned often about it and thought I would take some pictures to give a visual....

Scopes used are a Burris FF II 3-9x40 with Ballistic Plex, and a SWFA SS 3-9x4mm with Mil-Quad reticle. The rifle "used" is a 308Win with a 168gr bullet at around 2,700fps. It doesn't really matter what reticle, or "rifle" is used as the principles are the same.


Up first is BDC with the Burris. Target is a 12in square plate at 470 yards. The center cross hair is "zeroed" for 200 yards, with the first hash mark being 300, the second 400, and so on. The hold is somewhere between the 400 and 500 yard hashes about 3/4ths the way down.

This isn't real hard as its a no wind, center hold situation. The only guessing is in the elevation correction.



Here is the same target but with a 10mph full value wind-


That's approximately 19-20 inches of drift shown, which is correct for the situation. That's a whole lot of guessing.....



Here is the same sequence but with the SWFA and dialing-


Zero wind and 3 mils elevation dialed.




10mph full value wind correction of 1.1 mils.




Same as the other two but using a mil based reticle for correction-

3 Mils held, center hold-





10mph full value, elevation and windage held 1.1 mil-







As targets get smaller and/or farther away, the harder it is to "guess" especially with BDC reticles and misses go WAY up.

The Burris again but this time on a 5in square turned as a diamond at 475 yards. Zero wind-

[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps5c672f83.jpg[/img]


10mph full value wind hold-

[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsf0f31976.jpg[/img]




Same as above but SWFA-

Zero wind, center hold-
[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps92051453.jpg[/img]


10mph full value with 1.1 mil correction-

[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsc19fac03.jpg[/img]