Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold brought back the LRD

I thought Leupold's Illuminated Long Range Duplex was a great hunting reticle. I had several in the VX6 2-12. Small lit red dot for dark timber hunting, and three holdover dots, zero at 200, dots for 300, 400 and 500. So, of course they discontinued it.

Well it seems they brought it back, but now they are calling it the Creedmoor reticle. I see its available in their 4-12 VX-Freedom line (no illumination). Not sure if its available in other scopes.

https://www.leupold.com/reticle/creedmoor/

I have a couple of scopes with the old LRD reticle. I know it is now old school/out of fashion nowadays, but they work great out hunting with no turret twisting.

Son has a 6x36 on his 270, and I have NIB 6x42 that has not been mounted on a rifle yet.

That's what they used to call the long range retical on the vx1 series. Have a 4-12 with those in it.

Real men twist turrets.

I have a few VX2’s with the Long Range Duplex reticle. It’s always been my favorite Leupold reticle. Glad to see it back, and I hope this time they keep it around!

Maybe 15 years ago I had a couple LRD. It wasn't the worst design as far as BDC's go; but as far as BDC reticles go, I don't really care for them. A measuring reticle easily works equally well for any bullet at any speed in any atmospheric conditions.

Another shortfall of many simple BDC reticles, such as the LRD, is the lack of anything to account for wind down at the 500 yd+ dots. Because if it's variable nature, wind is the hardest condition to account for at that and further ranges. I know a lot of hunters will bemoan anything that resembles a tree style reticle, but it's better to have a wind measurement tool right there where you're aiming; otherwise it's hold and hope.

Actually you can use the holdover locations of course for elevation and use the horizontal "crosshair" for wind holds. If you will take the thin horizontal line from the center to the thicker sunstension and assign it 3rds or imagine it in your minds eye that way you can accomplish 2.5mph, 5mph and 10mph holds with this reticle.

Still one of my favorite reticles for a typical big game hunting rifle that moves a decent spitzer somewhere between 2,700 and 3,100fps, using a zero around 200 yds. I like the LRD, the B&C, the Ballistic Firedot, and the Accu-Range in the Redfield Revolution. They all use the same subtension values and I pretty much use them all the same way.

Real men use iron sights

The rest of us are spoilt

Yep, but that is pretty far away to be precise when using the dots for longer shots.

I have one on my 257 Roberts.
80gr ttsx's smoke out of it.
Sighted in for 300, you get 400, 500, and 600 out of it.
I shot an antelope doe at 550 yards with it.
Member Chip on here, was with and did the ranging.
Hit her 3 out of 3 shots, holding between 500, and the the thick to thin point.
Another trick to get even more distance, but you must practice, is if over 600 yards, say 700, hold the thick to thin point on the plate, and look where the 500 yard dot is.
Raise the thick to thin point to that spot, and send it.
It'll thwack the 700 plate !
Try even further with holding other dots.
You'll be surprised !

I’ve used and like both the LRD and the B&C.

If you bowhunt and use multi-pin sights....say 5 pins 20 yards to 60 yards on the 10's, adapting to a LRD type reticule (or Burris Ballistic Plex) is a no brainer. Start at 200 yds to whatever your lowest mark, usually the top of the where the cross hair thickens....500 or 600 yards depending on scope and caliber...sighting in at the longest range then letting the closer yardage float off the even 100s a bit.

And you can drop down the magnification a bit off maximum if your given load is below 2,800fps and still have the dots jive at 300,400 with a 200-ish zero. My 18" 6.5CM needs to be set at 10.5X instead of 12X due to velocity. The kid's 7mm-08 needed 7X instead of 9X with a slightly reduced load. Was easy to calculate with JBM before verifying at the range.

Cool, I really like the LRD, I've had an illuminated VX-6 2-12 that also has CDS for a few years now, best of both worlds, it's great!

It's a good feeling when you range something, make adjustments get all ready behind your rifle take the shot and everything goes as planned. You get meat in the freezer.

Now I know, not always things don't go as planned. Your bow string isn't right, and your sight got knocked off.

Oh gee, I'm going to be hearing about that one.

It was just a joke.

Same here, gotten away from that sorta reticle, but in a few cases, I still use them and they are quite useful with some math and shooting.