primer for long range scope use?????

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flexible

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Hi everyone, flexible here. Been shooting pistols for decades and clays for almost 5 years.

Just started rifle shooting (taking a class in September) and am looking for the equivalent of 'Rifle Scopes for Dummies'. The more basic the better.

Using the Hornady 4D0F, parallax, changing for distance, wind etc.

Any recommendations?

Thanks
 
The ocean of knowledge regarding riflescopes and optical physics is wide and deep. I’ve never seen a book or website which was a compendium of knowledge on riflescopes, although there are brilliant sections in several marksmanship manuals.

What type of shooting do you desire to learn? What specific uncertainties do you have? Operating scopes for various long range shooting pursuits is pretty straight forward, but how the optics are managed will vary by varying discipline - so knowing that answer helps a lot.
 
As mentioned already:
1. What calibre?
2. What rifle?
3. What distance?
4. What type of shooting:
Prarie dogs?
White Tail?
F-class competition?
Other?

This will help us to help you determine the following:

First Focal Plane or Second?
Magnification ?
Objective size?
Parallax adjustment?
Reticle type:
MIL, MOA, Duplex ?
Turret type:
Mil, Moa, exposed, Bdc?

As these decisions get worked out, then it's much easier to help you and to narrow down videos and other articles that will help you learn to use your scope properly.:)
 
In the meantime, you might get on you tube and watch some videos.
Search some of those points I mentioned in the previous post, I.E moa vs mil, FFP vs SFP etc.
I personally like many of Ryan Cleckner's and X-Xing's videos among others.
 
Some stuff is very generalized. Things like MOA vs Mil, first vs second focal plane, dialing vs BDC reticles, etc...

However much of it is specific to what you are wanting to do.

You say you are taking a rifle class. Is this a carbine course where you shoot AR-15s out to 50 yards? Are we shooting AR-15s at full size silhouettes from 100 to 300 yards? Is it a hunting centric course that involves taking shots in field positions at deer targets? Are you taking a precision rifle course where you are shooting 15 inch plates at 1000 yards?
 
My first question is...

What's your budget, all questions start here.
Valid statement at a later time, but unl ess I missed it, the Op hasn't asked about price.
He did ask about instruction/education on scopes in general. When he works out the other aspects already mentioned, then it can be determined if his budget can be matched to a scope that does what he needs.:)
 
Well, how far are you shooting, what are you shooting and what are you shooting at?

There are scopes with good glass and built like a tank and there are scopes with great glass but you don't have to pay for the tank.
 
Hi, thanks for all the responses.
I'm not looking to buy anything right now, just learn to use what I have.
which is:
1. Savage LRP #12 in 6.5 Creedmoor. Had the stock bedded and trigger work done.
2. Leupold Vari X III 6.5 x 20x E.F.R. with a 2X entender. 40mm. Rear (second) focal plane, cross hair, turret MOA
3. bought it when my son-in-law retired to try rifle (other than handgun & clays)
4. Took a Bench Rest class 18 months ago and learned some stuff, the 2nd day was all the students shooting at 100 yards and i actually came in first in BR Production class. 100 yards. Took a long range class (plates up to 750 yards and i was hitting everything but the instructor was doing the scope adjustments for me.
5. I was a competitive pistol shooter for years and got pretty good. My breathing and trigger control are very good.
6. I will be shooting primarily at 100 & 300 yards (live in New Jersey so short ranges till i retire and leave NJ)
7. I plan to shoot monthly BR competitions which are 100 yards and shooting further whenever i can.

Thanks
 
Hi, thanks for all the responses.
I'm not looking to buy anything right now, just learn to use what I have.
which is:
1. Savage LRP #12 in 6.5 Creedmoor. Had the stock bedded and trigger work done.
2. Leupold Vari X III 6.5 x 20x E.F.R. with a 2X entender. 40mm. Rear (second) focal plane, cross hair, turret MOA
3. bought it when my son-in-law retired to try rifle (other than handgun & clays)
4. Took a Bench Rest class 18 months ago and learned some stuff, the 2nd day was all the students shooting at 100 yards and i actually came in first in BR Production class. 100 yards. Took a long range class (plates up to 750 yards and i was hitting everything but the instructor was doing the scope adjustments for me.
5. I was a competitive pistol shooter for years and got pretty good. My breathing and trigger control are very good.
6. I will be shooting primarily at 100 & 300 yards (live in New Jersey so short ranges till i retire and leave NJ)
7. I plan to shoot monthly BR competitions which are 100 yards and shooting further whenever i can.

Thanks

That helps answer some questions :)

So what I infer from that response is what you really want is to learn how make your own corrections. I.E. : to dial your scope and make adjustments for elevation, windage, Bdc etc,

So here's a couple notes that you will also find in some of those videos I mentioned.
Let's get the hardest out in the open first: Windage.
This takes the most practice and experience to get right. Again, there are many good videos on this by Ryan Cleckner and others, but I'll touch the basics for you.
It's called "windage" for obvious reasons: the wind.
At 100yds, this is rarely gonna be a concern for a 6.5cm. Your talking about 1/2" of drift for a 10mph wind.
At longer ranges, it would be simple if the wind was steady and didn't change directions, but that is rare.
I was at my club's 600yd range recently. The flag at the bench was out in front about half flag, meaning wind was from behind and roughly 4mph. The 200yd flag was almost limp, 400yd flag was right to left about half, and the flag at 600 was left to right and almost straight out. So what does all that mean for your scope adjustment? Thats where the practice comes in. One of those flags is having the more effect on your bullet. Figuring out which one is the trick, but generally, the flags further away from you are the better indicators. Why?
Because , the further away your bullet gets, the slower it is going, thus it is exposed to the winds near the target for a longer time than the wind at your muzzle. So, in a case like I mentioned, If using the an app, I would estimate the wind at target, subtract a little bit to account for the opposing wind at 400, and dial that in and see where it gets me. At 600yds, depending on the bullet used, a 10mph wind is gonna drift the poi of 6.5 Creedmoor about 2 feet. At 600yds 1 moa is about 6.25". So that means I would make about 4moa adjustment.
For most scopes with moa turrets, that means I would need about 16 clicks.

Elevation and BDC adjustments are a bit easier to deal with. BDC for any bullet is easy to find or figure out, but off the top of my head, depending on the bullet, 6.5cm is gonna drop about 7ft at 600yds.
Thats about 14moa , so about 56 clicks....but...some scopes don't have that much adjustment. I think your scope has 60moa of total adjustment, that's only 30up or 30down, assuming your scope is mechanically zeroed. So you might be able to dial that in. Move out to 1000yds and you probably don't have enough adjustment either. That's where 20moa rails come in.:)
 
6.5cm is gonna drop about 7ft at 600yds.
Thats about 14moa , so about 56 clicks....but...some scopes don't have that much adjustment. I think your scope has 60moa of total adjustment, that's only 30up or 30down, assuming your scope is mechanically zeroed. So you might be able to dial that in. Move out to 1000yds and you probably don't have enough adjustment either. That's where 20moa rails come in.:)

The OP’s Leupold is listed at 45moa internal, cut in half is 22.5, minus 4 for optic height and absolute gravitational drop is 18.5… so he’s right on the ragged edge at 600-700 where some loads might slip out of his scope’s capacity.

Adding a 20moa rail makes the most sense.
 
Does that Leupold have the duplex or the fine duplex reticle?
One of those (forget which) will let you hold "off" and add another 6-7 MOA of elevation (if with arguments of square versus pointy on the reticle change).
 
It has the 'fine' duplex reticle

That scope and its reticle are better suited to fixed target shooting than they are to variable range, multi-target styles. Think more akin to benchrest than to PRS. It CAN work for variable condition shooting and multi-target engagements, but it’s just not well suited for the task. You’re best served with that scope to dial everything so your single aiming point is always dead hold. Measuring wind holds and creeping elevations with a fine duplex isn’t a productive game (except on very large targets where anything really works).

Stick a 20moa rail under your scope, get yourself up in the middle of your optic instead of falling out of the bottom, and dial everything.
 
Took a Bench Rest class 18 months ago and learned some stuff, the 2nd day was all the students shooting at 100 yards and i actually came in first in BR Production class. 100 yards. Took a long range class (plates up to 750 yards and i was hitting everything but the instructor was doing the scope adjustments for me.
So then that was a waste of time and money.
 
No, not a waste of time or money I found out my strengths (trigger control & breathing) carried over from my pistol competition and my weaknesses (need a LOT of work with the scope) i had instructors setting the scope up for me and making the changes.
 
Hi everyone, flexible here. Been shooting pistols for decades and clays for almost 5 years.

Just started rifle shooting (taking a class in September) and am looking for the equivalent of 'Rifle Scopes for Dummies'. The more basic the better.

Using the Hornady 4D0F, parallax, changing for distance, wind etc.

Any recommendations?

Thanks
Good luck.
 
I've found a good ballistic program to be useful. I use Strelok.

As for the scope, look at specs. I like 100 MOA of adjustment in the elevation department. When I got bitten by the bug to shoot .308 at ridiculous ranges, I was shooting two scopes. One was a Vortex PST and the other a Nightforce, both of the 5.5-22X variety. Those on top of +20 MOA bases.

What Vortex did for me with my PST made me a fan for life. I sent it in and they took 20 MOA out of the bottom and put it on the top for me. Honestly, the Nightforce could survive a nuclear attack, but I preferred shooting with the Vortex.
 
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