Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Hash Marks in Your Scope...

Look at that sheath!! Got any better pics of that?Thanks

I have used CDS scopes, but have gotten rid of all those in favor of some sort of BDC reticle. I wasn't having very good turret tracking back to zero luck.

Am I the only one?

Todd

Nope, that's not uncommon. There are scopes out there that RTZ and track properly, and also have a "BDC reticle" (my preference is to have hash marks every 0.5 MRAD), giving the best of both worlds and opening up your options. Can't agree about the SFP "flexibility", though. Seen it bite people in the behind too many times. I'll take a bulletproof MRAD erector and FFP MRAD reticle every time, if given the choice.

You have your favorite?
I think scope manufacturing companies could do very well, by making the right scope for the hunting person.

Yep, the SWFA 3-9x and LRHS 3-12x are my favourites.

I have a Leupold VX-R 3-9x40 with the Ballistic Firedot reticle (Item #111236). It's one of the most practical pieces of glass I've ever used because the reticle is illuminated and it has a BDC.

Most experienced shooters would want something else for routine use in open country, especially where wind is an issue, but as a general-purpose hunting scope it’s hard to beat.

This is a hunting scope—not ideal for making tiny groups on paper—with good reticle dimensions for low-light use. The illuminated part is a short vertical line, not a circle or square. It appears to be 1 MOA at 9x and 2.5 MOA at 3x. It’s bright enough to see in daylight without going to the highest setting. My astigmatism makes the dot flare on the higher settings, but reducing the brightness fixes it. It’s hard to find truly dark situations around here since I’m near a major West Coast city, but the dimmest settings would probably be fine in very low light.

Leupold marketing materials imply that from a 200-yard zero, the bottom of the circle is your 300-yard POI, the middle hash mark is your 400-yard POI, and bottom hash mark is your 500-yard POI. They don’t tell you is that this is only true for muzzle velocities north (in some cases far north) of 2,900 fps with very high BC bullets. Fortunately, you can tweak your zero and shoot some tests to figure out which distances the aiming marks actually indicate.

These figures are for a .308” 180-grain Nosler Partition (BC = .474) at 2,750 fps.
50 yards: +0.6”
100 yards: +1.8”
200 yards: Zero
250 yards: -3.3”
285 yards: -6.8", or the bottom of the circle
320 yards: -11.0”
355 yards: -16.7”, or the middle hash mark
400 yards: -25.5”
450 yards: -38.0”, or bottom hash mark

This dope is only correct with the scope on 9x, but if you’re making long shots in low light then you have time to adjust the scope. Whether it’s wise to attempt long shots in low light is another issue, but it might be OK in some situations. Game animals don’t stand around in 50-yard increments so I don’t get too worked up that the POIs aren’t in neat 50-yard increments.

All in all, it’s a useful piece of gear. Once I figured out how to use the reticle, it was easy to ring 8" steel at 425 yards with it. In the last 20 years, my longest shot on game has been about 120 yards. My average is about 30, but it’s nice to know that I have a piece of gear that will take me out beyond 400 if I want. I also like the fact that the turrets are capped and that there are no other external adjustments.

I’d buy another one, but of course Leupold has quit making it.


Okie John

Which hash mark do you use for 476 yds?

You can also borrow a little trick from the crossbow boys and use the power selector to fine tune the extra aiming points to the range and your load. I futzed around last night with the Burris Reticle Analysis tool and got some useful looking results for my Grendel, which has an E1 4.5-14 mounted. Gonna take the PDFs I captured to the range and try it out when I get a cool, still day. This is for SFP scopes, of course.