Putting together my first precision rifle

[jmt1271]

I am going to try my hand at LR shooting and hunting. I ordered a Savage 10FCP with HS Precision stock, and a Zeiss Conquest in 6.5-20x50 with target turrets and mil dot. Hoping to get it all together tomorrow and zero it this weekend. Hopefully by next deer season I will be proficient enough to consistently take deer at 500 yards and punch paper at 1K. Any LR shooters here? I was going to get a Leupold MkIV but after seeing my buddy's conquest I had to try one. The brightness and clarity was notably superior to any scope I had looked through. Any opinions on the components I chose?

 

[USSR]

I am going to try my hand at LR shooting and hunting. I ordered a Savage 10FCP with HS Precision stock, and a Zeiss Conquest in 6.5-20x50 with target turrets and mil dot. Hoping to get it all together tomorrow and zero it this weekend. Hopefully by next deer season I will be proficient enough to consistently take deer at 500 yards and punch paper at 1K. Any LR shooters here? I was going to get a Leupold MkIV but after seeing my buddy's conquest I had to try one. The brightness and clarity was notably superior to any scope I had looked through. Any opinions on the components I chose?

jmt1271,

I have been shooting 1,000 yard F Class for the past 5 years. After your first time shooting this discipline, you have the 1k "smile" for the entire drive home. I would seriously recommend NOT shooting at game animals at long range. An "oops" shot, as the result of the wind or the animal moving once the bullet is on the way, results in a poorly placed shot and wounded animal. Regarding your rifle setup, make sure you get a 20MOA picatinny base and sturdy rings, as the scope you have doesn't have enough elevation to get you to 1k. Hope that helps.

Don

 

[jmt1271]

I would never attempt to take any game @ 1000yds(unless it was a survival situation). I hope to become good enough to take deer @ 500 yards though. The 1000 yard dream will be target shooting.

 

[skinewmexico]

I think USSR is trying to say that just because you're good enough to take one at 500 doesn't mean you should. Besides, that takes a lot of the fun out, which is stalking. I would agree on the 20 MOA base too. And if you're going to 1K, you'll probably want a different scope, because most mil-dots have huge dots. I know the one I used to use completely hid the target.......at 500 yards.

 

[redneck2]

If you get Burris Zee rings, you can get inserts that have the .020 offset built in. That's what I've got on my 7 mag 1,000 yard gun. The Zee rings float and self align.

 

[jmt1271]

Skinewmexico-

Pretty much every LR shooter/sniper would disagree with you about the mil dot. The very center is just a regular crosshair anyway, no dot. The dots are designed to allow the shooter to range distant targets.

I just got everything together and I am hoping to break it in tomorrow. Supposed to be 70 beautiful degrees here in west TN. Have a great weekend guys.

 

[jmt1271]

USSR

I used Burris XTR rings and a Warne tactical (LOL) rail. Both seem very heavy duty. I am getting conflicting opinions from the LR community as to whether or not the flat rail will allow me to take this scope/rifle to 1K, but most think I will have to go with a 20 MOA rail to do so. I intend to try to become competent out to 5-700 yards first and once that happens I will try to stretch the legs of this combo. If a new rail is needed, I will add one then. I have never shot much over 300 yards, so just going to 500 will be very very fun and challenging. My LRF will be challenged at 1000 anyway. LOL.

 

[USSR]

I used Burris XTR rings and a Warne tactical (LOL) rail. Both seem very heavy duty. I am getting conflicting opinions from the LR community as to whether or not the flat rail will allow me to take this scope/rifle to 1K, but most think I will have to go with a 20 MOA rail to do so. I intend to try to become competent out to 5-700 yards first and once that happens I will try to stretch the legs of this combo. If a new rail is needed, I will add one then. I have never shot much over 300 yards, so just going to 500 will be very very fun and challenging. My LRF will be challenged at 1000 anyway. LOL.

jmt1271,

There is zero doubt that you will need a 20MOA base. Your scope only has 45MOA of elevation adjustment. In a perfect world situation in which your scope has a 100 yard zero exactly in the middle of your elevation range, that only gives you 22.5MOA of "up" available. I am assuming that your cartridge is .308 so, depending upon the load you use, you will need somewhere's between 32MOA and 40MOA of "up" from your 100 yard zero. It ain't there. If you want to see for yourself without actually shooting at 1k, try adjusting your scope so that your rifle shoots 36" high at 100 yards. Also, you don't want to have to use all your scope's elevation to reach 1k, as this restricts the amount of windage adjustment available.

Don

 

[jmt1271]

Copy, looks like it will be a 20 MOA or more down the road. As long as I can 6-700 I am good to go for now.

 

[skinewmexico]

Pretty much every LR shooter/sniper would disagree with you about the mil dot.

They can disagree all they want, and then come look thru the actual scope I was referring to, and admit they were wrong. I was giving you my actual experience, not anecdotal stories from internet blowhards. Maybe yours is fine.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

The dot is the same angular size in all mildot-equipped scopes. It only appears huge if you have high magnification as it fills up your field of view, but it still covers the same amount of target. A mil dot is .25mil and covers about 4.5" of target at 500 yards on EVERY scope with a mildot reticle. Of course, a mildot reticle at 10x has smaller apparent dots than a mildot reticle at 24x, but the dot covers the same angular area regardless because your magnification at 10x is less than 24x.

Now, skinewmexico is 100% correct if he has a mildot reticle on the second focal plane. For second focal plane variable scopes, the reticle is calibrated to one magnification only. When you change magnification, the reticle doesn't shrink or grow. In that case, most variable scopes calibrate at the highest magnification, the mil dots will be ginormous at the lowest magnification and incorrect for ranging.

Those with first focal plane reticles will have a mildot reticle that will shrink/grow when you change magnification so the scale is always correct.

 

[geronimo13]

On my mueller mil-dot the center cross hair covers about 1/4" and it doesn't matter whether its 50 yds. or 500 yards. So not all mil-dot cross-hairs cover your target. The dot (not cross-hair) is large (I believe 2 mils circle). It reads mils accurately on 10 power but not any other (although for better ranging I divide by 2 the mil reading @ 20 power-mine goes from 8-25X).

 

[jmt1271]

I am trying to say that the center crosshair (@ least on my Zeiss mil dot) is not a dot at all, but a regular crosshair, like a duplex. So the target is not obscured at all. I suck a photos but here goes.

 

[jmt1271]

"They can disagree all they want, and then come look thru the actual scope I was referring to, and admit they were wrong. I was giving you my actual experience, not anecdotal stories from internet blowhards. Maybe yours is fine."


SkiNewMexico, there are plenty of internet blowhards, no doubt, but there is a lot to be learned from those who really have more experience than we do. There are a lot of good guys over on SnipersHide and other sites who are experts in this field. Many I trust. They all, without fail, use mil dots for long range/sniping work. You can disagree all you want, but I dont. No big deal, fortunately for all of us, we are free to use what we like best. For now at least.

 

[skinewmexico]

I guess I should have been more specific. My mil-dot did not work for me in F-Class. If I was just trying to get a hit anywhere on a 12-24" steel plate, it would be fine. I mistook the word precision in the title for...........well, precision, which to me means F Class or 1000 BR.

 

[jmt1271]

Precision isnt synonymous with F class, although that falls within the definition, I suppose. By precision i meant, well, precise. I would like to shoot small targets at long distances of not necessarily known values. Mil dots can be handy for this.

 

[pdd614]

i would like to know why you would limit yourself to just a mildot reticle. i think there are much better mil based reticles out there. p4, p4f, gap, mp20, genII just to name a few.

 

[LongRangeInternational]

I've been very impressed with the Pride Fowler ranging reticles. Makes life a lot easier.

 

[jmt1271]

I went with the mil dot because I found a really good price on a Zeiss Conquest in 6.5-20x50 with mil dot and target turrets. I have really been wanting a Zeiss since looking through a friends. The optics are unreal.