Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Reticles, What Gives?

Hi Paul.
I also really like the accu range reticle.
The two rifles I use it on are my 30-06 and my 6.5x55 Swede.
Both rifles are zeroed at 200 yards, and then I find what-power-setting I need to set the scope to in order to use the 3, 4, and 500 yard settings in the reticle.
Example: on my 06, shooting a 200 grain partition spitzer, at 2,650/second, if I set the power ring to the front edge of the "7" power, I am within an inch, high or low, at 3, 4, and 500 yards... easy peasy.

By the way, a quick way to find that power setting is this:
- Run the ballistics that give you what the hold-overs would be in inches, at exactly 100 yards, if zeroing wherever you plan to, in order to be right-on at 3, 4, and 500.
- for my partition load, those points were approx: 300: 3"-high at 100: 400: 6"-high at 100: 500: 10"-high at 100.
- go to the range with some duct tape and a ruler... make your lengths of tape matching your holdovers at 100 yards... ( 3", 6", and 10").... put the tape vertically in 3 separate bars on a target.
- go right to the target at one hundred yards and adjust your scope to the 500 yard holdover (10" long) where the cross hair and the post exactly bracket the 10".. without changing the power setting check how close that power setting is for also bracketing the 300 and 400 yard lengths of duct tape are.... get ready to be surprised, because they will also be close to dead-on.... this is because the subtensions on the accu range reticle pretty well match the curve standard-type spitzers carve through the air.

Hope this makes sense and saves you some time on finding that magic power setting on the accu range... only takes me 15 minutes to do a new cartridge. The great thing about this is you do this without even being sighted in at your zero point, because your doing a simulation of "if I was sighted in, what power on the scope will bracket my hold-overs?"

Hope this makes some sense.

Have a super weekend coming up!

Cheers.

I wish Leupold would do a special Campfire presentation on reticles.

Gotta love those Leupold campfire specials..

Start with a good ballistic solver, and from there it's just practice, experience, and familiarity.

This is probably the case where holding wind and elevation is most useful; multiple engagements of 1-2 shots each at various distances.

I appreciate your time, I do feel like I have a little better grip of the way reticles might be used. For a southern woods hunter who never needs to do anything other than hold the plus sign on an animal, some of this is a mystery. When I was stationed in Kodiak, there were no range finders or fancy reticles. We guessed range, held correction and sometimes missed.

I have 4 of the Accurange scopes, but three are on rimfires and one is on a 44 magnum. I think I get what you are talking about. I'd have to try it to really understand it. I wish I could spend a day with a tutor.

One challenge I have is access to a place where I can shoot more than 100 yards!

First, I'll agree that I like symmetry for drawing my eye to center, especially in a hunting situation. Wrongside's description of his preferred hunting reticle sounds pretty good to me. I also rarely/never need to hold more than 5 MRAD of elevation (if more than a few MRAD is needed, then I want the precision of dialing), so a G2H or MQ with bottom post at 5 MRAD would be awesome. I use the windage hashmarks more than the elevation hashmarks, as I tend to dial elevation and hold wind for most LR shots. But that doesn't mean that the reticle markings don't get used. In addition to holding wind and lead, the reticle gets used for spotting shots and measuring corrections (in a hunting situation this is mostly done for hunting partners), measuring target sizes (on occasion), and holding elevation when stipulated in a match or when engaging targets at different distances with a shot or two each (this applies to coyotes/hogs, or in some matches there are stages set up this way).

Near, far, moving, not moving, and time pressure, all dictates when you should dial or use a reticle hold.

With most decent ranging reticles (MIL, MOA or BDC) anything under 300 yards ( assuming something better trajectory wise than say a 30-30) is usually taken with the reticle. Over about 300 yds and not moving or under a time constraint it's usually better to dial. Moving targets require speed, and if your pressed for time, reticle holds are always faster, if not more precise than dialing. You have to give up something to get something.

There is no "one size" fits all situations. You must be adept at both dialing and holding if your attempting to shoot anything moving, or beyond reasonable bullet drop range (about 300 yds, give or take 50 yds) by holding on fur .

Faster rounds with high BC bullets can extend your reach further, before resorting to a reticle hold or a dial. Slower rounds with poor BC's will make it you use your reticle holds or dialing at much closer distances.

As far as your questions goes, I don't like particularly Horus reticles, though they have place, a Mil Dot or Mil Hash works best for me. I can hold or dial. I speak both MOA and MIL and have scopes that use both systems, although I prefer MIL.

I don't like so-called BDC's of any kind, as they are neither fish nor foul.

IMHO and YMMV

Common sense, I would think, would dictate that LR shots under those conditions are a bad idea, I don't care how much experience a shooter has.

I have read and reread most of this, and by golly my ignorant ass learned something/you drove something through my mental barriers. Laugh at me if you wish, you all know by now that I don't mind being laughed at, but I never had considered changing magnification to force subtensions to work at certain distances. I knew that changing magnifications would move the subtensions, but I never fully "understood" the concept until today. After reading all of this, I set my rifle up in my rifle vise and experimented. A light bulb finally went off.

This really made my day.

Paul,

Not to confuse you more, but "changing magnifications" only changes subtensions of SFP (Second Focal Plane) scopes. FFP (First Focal Plane) scopes the subtensions are correct at any magnification, but are usually not used for any holds below 5x as they are too small to be utilized effectively.

IMHO and YMMV

I knew that as well. All of mine, but one el-cheapo, are SFP.

On an unwounded bull elk, I'd agree.

I used a dope card that I printed and laminated

I don’t think you truly understand yet.

I use subtention almost exclusively in the field hunting to intermediate ranges. 2 days ago I shot a coyote @ 340 yds. with a 17 FB XP-100 pistol, using the plex reticle in the new 2-6X WEaver handgun scope. I simply calculate bullet drop relative to plex subtention in 50-yd. intervals (in this optic) at 6x which measures 6.6' X to post tip. So for 350 yds. the entry (in my range sticker in the ocular Butler Creek scope cap cover) is this-- 35-.4-.6, range, vertical, windage always in that order as simple as possible. Now the problem with this setup in that that subtention is a bit too wide--I actually prefer the 2.5-8X Leupold that measures 2.5' at 8x, since i can get to about 300ish with it and dial the M1 turret beyond that to about 400ish yds.

The most important aspect to subtention is that subtention is inversely proportional to magnification in SFP scopes(which has been alluded to a few times in this thread), The practical application of this concept has netted me successful connections at ranges I couldnt believe many times over the many years I've been a student of subtention.