MTMilitiaman
Member
I have a Springfield Armory M1A Loaded. I am considering my scope mounting options as well as my choices in optics in preparation for turning it into a sort of DMR. One thing I am noticing is that while they seem like simple enough requests to me, optics choices that meet my criteria are even harder to find that suitable mounting solutions. I want something that can take me out to about 800 yards. I have access to these ranges and have taken this rifle out to 600 yards with iron sights, so I feel like this is a fair maximum effective range given the rifle's demonstrated accuracy and the ballistic capabilities of the cartridge. So for power range, I am looking for something with a low-end magnification of no higher than 3.5x and a high-end magnification of no lower than 8x. I believe with the ring height that will be necessary to correctly mount the optics, any objective bell of 56mm or less should be fine, so that is not an issue. I would prefer a 30mm tube, but this isn't a deal breaker.
The problem seems to be in finding a suitable reticle. Most of the reticles on the market revolve around the mil-dot reticle or a variation thereof callibrated with hash marks in mill or MOA. While with practice these are capable of very good accuracy and can be used on targets of any known size, they all require math and formulas. I am looking for something more inline with Trijicons ACOG reticles. Something with a large chevron, horseshoe, or circle dot, which can be illuminated, with a Christmas tree-style stadia line providing both rangefinding and BDC for a target of specific size (torso target of between 18 to 20 inches in width) and specific load (7.62x51, prefer either 147 gr M80 ball or 175 gr M118LR) out to 800 yards. If Trijicon was intelligent enough to put their ACOG reticle on their 2.5-10 Accupoint, it would be about perfect.
In terms of non-math based reticles on scopes meeting my requirements, nothing from Leupold or Nightforce seems to apply. The US Optics and S&B are out of my price range. Trijicon has the technology, but refuses to use it, so they are out. I've really only found three models that seem to apply, and I would like some insight on them:
IOR Valdada 1.5-8
Sheperd 3-10
and the Leatherwood ART 2.5-10
Any info you could give me on any of these scopes, or any other optics out there that meet my requirements would be super. Depending on how my income tax return is, I'd like to get this up and running in time to be ringing steel this summer, but that might be a little optimistic on my part.
The problem seems to be in finding a suitable reticle. Most of the reticles on the market revolve around the mil-dot reticle or a variation thereof callibrated with hash marks in mill or MOA. While with practice these are capable of very good accuracy and can be used on targets of any known size, they all require math and formulas. I am looking for something more inline with Trijicons ACOG reticles. Something with a large chevron, horseshoe, or circle dot, which can be illuminated, with a Christmas tree-style stadia line providing both rangefinding and BDC for a target of specific size (torso target of between 18 to 20 inches in width) and specific load (7.62x51, prefer either 147 gr M80 ball or 175 gr M118LR) out to 800 yards. If Trijicon was intelligent enough to put their ACOG reticle on their 2.5-10 Accupoint, it would be about perfect.
In terms of non-math based reticles on scopes meeting my requirements, nothing from Leupold or Nightforce seems to apply. The US Optics and S&B are out of my price range. Trijicon has the technology, but refuses to use it, so they are out. I've really only found three models that seem to apply, and I would like some insight on them:
IOR Valdada 1.5-8
Sheperd 3-10
and the Leatherwood ART 2.5-10
Any info you could give me on any of these scopes, or any other optics out there that meet my requirements would be super. Depending on how my income tax return is, I'd like to get this up and running in time to be ringing steel this summer, but that might be a little optimistic on my part.