Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Leupold CDS Confusion

Howdy CF amigos,

I recently visited with a shooter who described his CDS setup as follows. He uses two dials, one calibrated to 2000', and one cal. to 6500' - both using the 165 gr. Hornady Interlock at 3200 fps. His routine is that he practices and sights in at the local range, using the 2000' dial, then when he goes to CO to hunt, he switches to the 6500' dial, which he claims requires no further tweaking. He is what I would consider an advanced shooter, and his system seems to work for him.

My thinking was somewhat different. I have two CDS dials (each cal. to 5000' and 35 deg. F with 200 yd. zero), but they are for two different bullet weights and velocities. I also sight in and practice at the local range (2000') and accept that the 5000' calibration will result in minor POI changes. These can be more or less predicted using the on-line ballistics programs, and are not a huge source of error, especially under field conditions. To compensate, I establish zero at a mid-range distance, say 400 yds., rather than the recommended 200 yds. and accept that there will be minor differential impact changes throughout the distances I expect to shoot.

My original plan was to zero both dials at a range and during temp. conditions that would match the factory calibration, then use those settings for everything betweeen 2000' and 9500'. However, until I can make that happen, I have just been zeroing at the 2000' elev., and splitting the correction required.

What is the thinking on the best all around strategy for achieving a realistic zero for changing conditions, while taking advantage of the versatility of using the same rifle with CDS dials for two or more bullet weights?

Thanks all.

forepaw

Ok, my question is how far are you going to be taking shots at live game? Seems this chit gets more and more confusing as technology advances and more tools are at our fingertips to help us make a more informed longrange shot. I grew up in good ol Nevada (was born there in fact) and back in my day, nothing trumped practice...Shot long range everyday when I could, practiced on many thousand jackrabbits and yotes that ran around the land...Shoot your rifle and let it tell you what it's going to do at 2,000-10,000' elevation. There's no easy way to get the answer except to shoot, write the info down in a log book and then you know...You can look at ballistics calculators, graphs, etc. and they will help to guide you, but before you pull the trigger on a game animal at super long range I suggest you know what your rifle is going to do in varrying temperatures, elevations, and windspeeds. You've got one of the best places on earth to practice your longrange shooting, so I suggest you take advantage of that....

By far the easiest way to deal with changing conditions/elevation/bullets is to run a straight up MOA dial and a confirmed drop chart.

If your shots aren't over 500 yards, just use whichever one is closer and verify your zero.

This^

Yep

+1 Prairie Goat. Zero Stop helps if you are really crankin it way out there.

One thing I wouldn't do is zero the rifle for 400 yds. Back in the day when I used the Rule of Three, that's three inches up at 100 yds., I found I shot too high at 200 yds.
So, like others have suggested, the only way to really know is to shoot and see how it does.
BTW, nothing else will teach you how to make a wind call. And that is the most important information you need to make a long shot. E

I wouldn't run a CDS without a zero stop. The turrets move far too easily and the zero stop keeps it honest. I found the only way to really keep it in place is with tape..... 'tis why I no longer have any CDS scopes.

yep, had mine for a few months but its going back for a target turret..I tried to like it.

Ditto

NO not ditto. I say keep the dials you have and do what the marines used to do with unertls and their BDC turrets. and that is learn at what point you need to start to deviate from your calibrated BDC dial. I would wager a guess that out to at least 500 yards the difference in altitude isn't enough to worry about. so if you get a shot beyond that learn how much difference there is this is normally something that is fairly easy to keep in your mind I do it with my dials. I just figure a 600 yards shot reguires me to add or take away 2 clicks from the indicated yardage. 700 3 clicks, 800 4 clicks etc.

So how's that different than knowing to add 1/4 MOA, 1/2 MOA, etc?

Being able to slap a million different come ups tables on the stock sure as schit is about 1,000x easier than having to order custom dials from bean-counters.

That's all I know.

Great way to make easy [bleep] difficult..carry on

That's pretty much what I have found. And 600 yds. is probably my limit, so that is a pretty good work around. If USMC scout/snipers use it, then good chance it is something that works. I suppose you could fudge the clicks added depending on elev. i.e. at 2000' add 2 clicks at 600, but at 6000' only add 1 click.

Thanks for all the feedback.

forepaw

Zackley, I bought a couple of custom turrents and then went back to the original.

I agree....but......
Only time I will choose a CDS dial over an M1 turret is on my muzzleloader.
2 yrs ago I shot a doe over 200 yds and I held waaaaay over her back, yeah I killed her but I thought to myself there has to be a better way?? And I didn't want no M1 turret sticking out on top of my muzzleloader, that's when I discovered the CDS.
I doubt I will ever shoot my muzzleloader over 300 yds anyway so that's why I will have leupold stick a CDS dial on a scope this summer.

After running many different ballistic options, I built my range card for 5,000 feet, using 30 degrees and 30.00 for the barometric pressure. I am good out to 600 yards , unless one of the inputs really changes. 600 is as far as I want to shoot anyway.