Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold tracking issues

You have a good point that it isn’t exactly apples to apples. More experienced (old) method hunting open country was a 200 yard zero with a 7mm or 300 to extend point blank range and make shots simpler for the hunter point & shoot for 300 + yards. I use 225 because that is as long as I have to place a target at my range at home & the math works fine for my calibers & reticles.

New method hunters (younger more technology) tend to zero their Creedmoor’s & 308’s at 100 yards & dial after checking with their Kestrels. Sorry if I’m relying on too many stereotypes.

Understand that you left the Great part of that state to go to another one? The point is, there is a reason other states are turning blue, all the while every fleeing rat claiming to be conservative. Lying pos.

You seem to have some personal issues you might want to deal with...

Disliking commies isn’t a personal issue. You are the one that came here hating, and when exposed, pulled the snowflake victim card.

I haven’t measured the times - might be interesting to do. But I think you could validate the assumption with PRS shooters who use the reticle whenever they can to save time on targets. Critical for them but less critical than elk steaks or tag soup.

I can assure you that when you practice like inevitably you should for competition, this is a non issue.

Coming up with just one pro for the CDS is difficult. All I can think of are cons. Unless you already have a scope, it would be hard to justify such a clusterfack.

It’s like trying to think of one good reason that dog [bleep] tastes better than steak. There isn’t one. Although someone here will probably try to argue otherwise.

An even more perplexing question is.......why are you even here? You offer nothing.

Dialing elevation and holding for wind is what PRS shooters do. Save for rare exceptions, the only time people that are winning are not dialing elevation is if a stage artificially limits them to using the reticle.

The below is not a guess. It’s from data gathered from tens of thousands of shots from 100-600 meters that start with unknown ranges, by more than a hundred shooters ranging from beginners with three days of training all the way to national level competitors. Dialing elevation and holding wind is almost always faster to hit on realistic 10”-12” targets. The less skilled, the greater the disparity between holding and dialing in timed evaluations. For individuals who are well trained (those who compete regularly and do well) out to around 300 meters holding elevation is generally a bit faster to hit as long as the the wind hold is inside the target. If wind is greater than target width (1’ish mil at 300) than it is faster to hit by dialing elevation and holding wind.
The farther the target is, the smaller it is, the more wind drift there is, the more stressed the shooter is, the more out of breath the shooter is, and the less stable the position is- all greatly increase the disparity between dialing elevation/holding wind, and holding both elevation and wind. For instance, for a single distance of 300m, standing to prone to hit a 12” plate with one round. Holding elevation averages nearly four seconds slower to hit than dialing for more than 90% of shooters. The very best shooters average around one second faster holding rather than dialing. Now this is prone on a known range with no wind. Change any on of those, and everyone is faster dialing elevation.

The above is stated with users that have been taught how to optimally use each technique, and who are equally skilled at both. If someone turns a turret like they’re looking at an abacus, well... they’re slow with every technique.

Killer post, Form. Funny how people think shooting three or four critters a year makes them know something about shooting.

I find using holdover - even with a good windshield like the SS takes longer for me. I'm looking AT the glass, counting mil marks and double checking etc instead of dialing, looking THRU the glass and simply slapping the big intersection in the middle of where I want to go and hitting the trigger.

Those were my thoughts too.

I guess with more practice my confidence concerning which mil mark is which would increase (without counting them each time), but I'd rather spend that time looking for critters instead of at a target. To add to the confusion, even when I count mil marks and find the one I need, when I try to concentrate getting that mil mark on the animal I often loose track of which mark it is/was, and have to count them again. By then the critter shifts position or mingles with others in the herd, and I am back to step 1. Simply dialing the turret and using the reticle like normal simply is faster for me, at my skill level.

Guess I am just more of a hunter than a shooter.

This.

I will add that IME shooting PRS-style comps there are two scenarios where I'll hold elevation instead of dialing. The first is when the stage specifically requires holds and no dialing. The second is if I have to engage multiple targets with one shot each, where each target is at a different distance and there is a large margin for elevation error (shooting IPSC targets, for example). In that case I'm slightly faster at completing the stage when holding compared to dialing elevation, and even then I'll often dial in some elevation just to get my holds near an even hash mark, if necessary. Other than these very specific cases, dial elevation and hold wind.

I don’t disagree that dialing is more precise in every case.

My application is hunting in fairly open territory. I know my rifle & scope, the Z800 matches my trajectory precisely all the way out to 800 yards - verified many times. The only disadvantage to the reticle in this 2nd focal plane scope is that it has to be set at maximum magnification of 15 power. For 400-600 yards the reticle is precise enough for over 90% confidence from a reasonable field rest & limited wind.

For everything under and up to 400 yards elk vitals are a point & shoot past 350 that hold is just under the spine, guaranteed nothing is faster.

Playing with targets and the Zeiss software & 6-24 V4 on a Bergara Creedmoor it is amazing How close you can dial hits even with different factory ammunition clear out to 1200 yards. But that is target shooting not hunting where anything in the vitals is plenty good.

Even funnier when the shooters think they know something about huntin.

Me too Ted

La Migra, [bleep]

Why does a guy have to be one or the other? Some of us are both.

Usually a guy starts out hunting, then some enabling bastard gets him reloading. Next thing you know he really looks forward to load development and the pre-season sight in etc.

Now he shoots year round to ensure success on the hunt - given the opportunity.

Sounds about right. Then all of a sudden he realizes that he lives to hunt and shoot; hunting season in a bit of the spring and the fall, and steel/comp season the rest of the year.