Bullet drop out to 500 yards- reticle question

[Arbor]

I am currently looking for a new scope in the $400-550 range that will sit atop one of my rifles (currently a Savage 110 in 7mm Rem mag, but eventually will probably find itself on a FNAR .308, I like the feel of this rifle but not ready to pick one up at this time) and will be shot out to about 500 yards max. Now, I already have a Bushnell 3200 4-12ao on my Stag AR-carbine, and I am really impressed with the quality of the glass. I have only shot out to about 300 yards with it, though, which I feel is about the effective range of the gun anyways.

The 3200 I'm using has a ballistic reticle with 3moa crosshairs below the main crosshair, and i like this system of drop compensating a lot since I hate messing with turret knobs. This will be especially important with my new scope, since I intend to shoot it out to 500, and might do some long range hunting where time is a factor. However, the scope I have my eye on, the Bushnell 4200 4-16ao just has a plain jane crosshair, without drop compensator/rangfinder and it seems like I will be dead in the water unless I adjust my elevation knobs whenever I want to make a long shot.

Is there another scope in this price range with the quality of the elite series that has a compensating reticle? Or should I just suck it up and expect to adjust the turret knobs whenever I want to make a long shot? I would like to avoid doing this, since I am not even shooting benchrest and I don't need perfect precision.

Thanks

 

[DAN CARROLL]

I would save up 300.00 more and get a carl zeiss you wont regret it and the glass is awesome. If you get the z reticle (600 or 800) you won't ever need another scope and it will do everything. I don't like bushnell the elite is clear glass but my went bad on me hunting black tails got moisture in the recticle. The zeiss is a much better scope. German glass doesn't get any better

 

[Rubber_Duck]

No need to mess with turret knobs.

Above is a pic I took through a Bushnell Elite 3200 10x40mm scope on my Kar 98K 8x57mm Mauser. The pic shows an evil fire extinguisher at 628 yards.

Centering the lowest mil-dot on the target will place the shot right on it (with a 2/3 hit ratio). The center crosshair is zeroed for 100 yards using Yugo M75 "sniper" 196 grain FMJ. Standard plinking ammo, however, was Yugo 196 gr. FMJ standard ammo. Seems to shoot about the same when shooting objects so I save the M75 sniper ammo and use it when shooting for groups.

The standard 196 grain ball ammo is cheap so I've had plenty of long-range practice helping me learn just how and where to hold-over.

So my bullet drop system is simple:
-100 yards: center crosshair on center of target.
-150 yards: hold center crosshair at top of target.
-300 yards: hold 2nd mil-dot at top of target.
-575 yards: place target between 3rd and 4th mil-dots.
-650 yards: center the 4th mil-dot on the target.

The above works, or at least is very close, when using surplus 196 grain ammo.

This is about the best I can do without getting really technical with ballistics charts and trajectory calculators and adjusting x clicks for various distances. I think the proper use of mil-dots is actually for range estimation, but I have a rangefinder, so for me the mil-dots are much handier for bullet-drop.

This scope cost me all of $180 and it is very impressive for the money. It has not lost zero even with the recoil of the 8mm Mauser, and there has been hundreds and hundreds of rounds fired through it. The eye relief is perfect for the high recoil and the glass is also pretty good (not as good as my Trijicon ACOG but only 1/5 the price so no contest there). I take it that you want something more, "premium" so in that respect it falls short of your 400-550 dollar budget. But I just thought I'd share my experience with this scope and how I use the reticle, I think we have the same idea (correct me if I misunderstood).

Hope this helps.

 

[sscoyote]

I wish i had bought 1 of those Bushnell Ballistic reticles when it was offered--it was a great system really in an affordable optic. They've now gone the way of most optics companies and have a Dead-nutz reticle or some such BDC-style reticle, that matches "avg." trajectories. Nothing wrong with these really as long as u match true trajectory to reticle subtension, but that old Bushnell had it all with the windage stadia--all based on a 3 MOA system. If it were me i'd see if u can get ahold of another Bushnell with that reticle in it.

I've always liked a more direct system of windage reference with a tree reticle system like that one, Leupolds Varmint Hunters, Rapid-Z's as mentioned and Rapid Reticles right here-- www.rapidreticle.com

Hey RD, is that fire extinguisher about 22" tall ? If it's occupying 1.0 mil according to what i see--top of red to bottom of red, it should be 22" tall?? Fun to play around with the math on this stuff.

 

[Arbor]

Dan: I would really like the Zeiss (who wouldn't), but since I am already looking at almost a 1500 dollar investment for the FNAR+mounts, I would like to have some money left to shoot it. Is the Zeiss as much clearer than the Bushnell as it is more expensive? Or is this the law of diminishing returns again? I am also curious about durability, seeing as I don't want my 800 dollar scope breaking if I drop it on a rock in the woods (god forbid), and the 4200 has a good warranty. Did Bushnell replace your scope when it got ruined?

Rubber_duck:
That's basically what I do right now with my AR15. I calculated the approximate ballistics out of my rifle at various ranges and figured out how much to hold over. It's simple and easy to remember, although I prefer MOAs to mils, easier for me to use.


coyote:
I have the option to get another scope like I have, but I would like to upgrade to the 4200, and get the 4-16 magnification. I don't know if Bushnell ever made a scope like this with Ballistic reticle, but if I see one I'll probably get it.

 

[Rubber_Duck]

sscoyote,

I'm not sure how tall it is since I've never measured it but your guess sounds about right. It's an industrial fire extinguisher so it is a bit on the large side.