Do scopes/red dots with bullet drop selections exist

A lot of rifles like the ak47, M16, and many military bolt action rifles from world war 1 and 2 have iron sights that can be easily adjusted to pre set ranges like 100 yards, 300 yards, 500 yards ect. to accommodate for bullet drop. Has anyone made any scopes or red dot sights that you can easily set for pre determined ranges like you can with the iron sights I mentioned? 223/5.56 would be ideal or if they have any that you can set for different calibers and would have the bullet drop change based on what caliber you select.

 

Not pre sets, but Ultradot have several models with a click elevation knob.
You would still need to count clicks.

 

There are several companies that offer scopes like that.

I think most people shooting inside 400-500 yards, though, prefer subtensions that are at least somewhat calibrated for their cartridge, so they can quickly switch between distances.

 

There are several scopes that offer that, but none are perfect, just relatively close. Nikon makes some for the .223/5.56 as well as .308 Win I believe.

 

Are there any that you can use for both 22lr and 223?

 

For 5.56/.223 the ACOG is king. BDC allowing for fast hits on torso size targets out to 600 or so and can be used in close quarters.

 

You can't just switch the scope and use the same turrets. The trajectory of the rounds is far too different.

 

There are many scopes that do the same thing for considerably less money. For a military application? Sure, the ACOG is nice. But go watch a 3 Gun match and you will see that the ACOG is far from 'King' when it comes to engaging targets from up close out to 600 yards.

 

Eotech XPS3-4:



If you prefer a magnified optic, there is the Primary Arms 1-6x scope with illuminated rangefinder/BDC reticle (scroll down for pics and video), which is pretty affordable for what it is.

I believe Leupold and others make .223/5.56mm scopes with BDC reticles as well.

 

There's also the Trijicon ACOG and Nikon makes a BDC reticle.

ACOG TA 11

 

Can you change that red dot with a switch to different ranges or are you supposed to use the little lines underneath it for different ranges?

 

The lines are your hold-overs. But you can always zero that red donut to different ranges.

 

Why don't you tell us what you need to do with the rifle...

 

OP never stated a purpose...the PA 4x will do it for way less $ than an ACOG, just won't be as rugged. https://www.primaryarms.com/Primary_Arms_4X_Compact_Prism_Scope_p/pac4x.htm

As posted in all the replies above there are many, many, choices out there! The best one will depend on exactly how you are going to use the rifle and your budget.

 

Another option not yet mention is the leatherwood system. Rather than a reticle with multiple aiming points, the scope sits in a cradle with a cam that moves the scope physically up or down to adjust for range. Say you want the scope zeroed for 500yds you adjust the cam to 500yd and fire away using the crosshairs just like you would at close range. I've got a leatherwood M600 on my ar-15 and it is a neat rig for battlefield type accuracy.

 

Leupold's Mark AR series uses traditional duplex or mildot crosshairs and "calibrates" distance with the elevation turret. Yardages are marked so you simply adjust the elevation to the corresponding yardage and shoot to the crosshairs center every time. If your specific load doesn't match, you can purchase a custom dial after providing specific load data.

Pride Fowler makes a line of first focal plane scopes that are caliber specific, calibrated for use with holdovers. They provide specific load data corresponding to those holdovers and a list of calibers that will match up closely. This gives the option of using, say a scope meant for .308 with .223 instead.

Lots of options.

 

I have several with BDC's. The Shepherd is the one I like best, out of the ones that I have.

There are lots of them all over the spectrum from super cheap to Schmit and Bender's that run more than $4k.

 

One solution to the different ranges is to get a ballistic calculator and plug all the different load data, print it up, confirm on the range, laminate it and then zip tie it to your scope rings, tape it to your stock or interior of lens cap or have one of those retractable deals from Leupold for easy access.

 

I'm going to suggest the opposite.

Red dots are used to pick up a target quickly and put rounds downrange at it. Many offer just the one dot, no mils or stadia. If the weapon is zeroed at it's best point blank range, then putting the dot COM on the target will mean no more rise than drop out to about 250m.

Most soldiers and hunters rarely shoot that far. In point of fact, the Army had been studying that and discovered it long ago, entirely the reason they considered the .276 Pedersen. It was a 7 x 51 that fit the actual use in the field, and allowed the soldier to carry more of it.

What happened was footdragging and obstinacy, but we finally achieved a version of it with the 5.56. Since modern high speed low drag bullets have a flatter trajectory, and most only shoot under 250m, there's almost no need to have range finding stadia marks on a red dot. Zero for 200m and you can call it good for 85% of what the rifle needs to do.

When a target presents itself for a window of just a few seconds, which is all you can count on, you need to have the most expedient targeting you can get to pull the trigger. Working up hold over and setting reticles isn't possible. It's mostly square range or sniper work - and red dots aren't the preferred method for those applications.

Nice to have if you do, but not significantly worth the expense if it's going to cost extra. Practice would offer more skill and ability than fiddling with dots and turrets.

 

This is an old phone photo taken on a foggy morning at close turkeys and a deer but you can see how the Shepherd scope is a range finder/BDC. Width set inside the "O" (18") gives you range and drop at the same time.

 

Other neat feature is that there are two separate reticals. One in the first focal plane and another in the second.

Each are independent of one another.



Both have their own adjustments. One shot zero made easy, aim shoot move one cross hair to the impact while the other is at point of aim. Two scopes in one.

 

wouldn't it be easier

To just range your scope to max point blank range. Then you would be flat all the way out to 300 yards flat




steve

 

I'm not a firearms expert but pretty handy with math and physics. So to your point, isn't that principally true (the variance when changing bullet weight, barrel length, etc.) if you don't re-zero your BDC-equipped sight for the new config? But if you do, won't it be essentially correct?
Seems that the only pertinent variable is bullet speed. That is, if you had an infinitely fast bullet, you would only ever use the top line of the BDC (the 'closest in one') as there would be no drop at such a speed. But the variance between a fast and slow bullet in an AR is small enough that the BDC lines would continue to be very accurate assuming it was re-zero'd.
Or am I missing something?
T

 

I've got a Nikon Protarget rimfire scope that came with a few different turrets that are supposed to be calibrated for the two common rimfire bullet weights. But in the end this didn't work out at all. First off the height above the bore affects the ranging out to around 100 yards. From there the error is small compared to the bullet drop out at 200. So I'd zero it at 50 yards, set the turret to "50" then try it at 25 and 100. But for 100 I ended up having to set it closer to 120 yards. And for 25 yards it ended up at the 35 yard mark on the turret.

I blame this on the height of my rings and the variation in rimfire ammo. There are so many various bullet weights and speeds for various ammo and various barrel lengths that you simply can't know ahead of time what the muzzle velocity is. And that's the big part of the issue. The drop settings all rely heavily on the muzzle velocity as well as the other factors.

My suggestion is that you buy a scope with external "target turrets". Put a narrow strip of masking tape around the barrel of the turret so one edge is at a point just under the graduation numbers and marks. Work to zero it for the various distances and mark the tape when it's all done. Repeat for each distance.

Now that you have set marks for that rifle with that scope and shooting that ammo never change anything ever again. Do not shoot any other ammo but the one you graduated the scope turret to shoot. Or at least only shoot stuff which exactly duplicates that test ammo's characteristics in every way.

To make it look nicer you can now carefully drill in little spots and fill them with some paint.

Of course in real life we end up shooting different ammo with different muzzle velocity and different bullet weights. So all this testing goes out the window. It's better to work up a chart like shown above for each ammo load you shoot and simply set the stock graticle value to each distance from the chart you came up with during your testing.

Those ramps on the iron sights aren't as good as you'd think either. Nor are the distance readings on the military staff sights unless you're using the same bullet and loading for the same muzzle velocity as the original military ammo. Even then temperature and air density plays havoc with the settings if you're interested in true accuracy.