A case for BDC Turrets

[JASmith]

This is one of my favorite topics!

It appears that you plan to use the rifle, optic, and load for medium to large game hunting. How often will you shoot that load from the bench? In the field? For things like Groundhogs?

Consider this series of questions that could relate to groundhogs or almost any other similar-size plinking target::

1. Do you use this technique in your groundhog shooting?
2. If so, how often do you score first round hits out to about 600 yards?
3. How does the frequency vary with range?
4. How does it change with wind conditions?
5. How wild are the first shot misses?

If I'm not mistaken, the groundhog is smaller than the canonical 10" vital zone for deer, but not a bad approximation of the heart and the blood vessels close to it. Hence your frequency of hits on groundhogs could be an indicator of your maximum ethical range (and shooting conditions) for deer and other largish game.

Bottom line: a fair bit of shooting is necessary to become sure that your sighting system is doing what you expect it to be doing. There are surprises!

 

[paphil]

Wind and up or down angles are the much bigger variables that must be acounted for on a 600 yard shot.

 

[davkrat]

The nearest groundhog is probably 1,000+ miles away from me, never even seen one. As for wind and angle they have absolutely nothing to do with the difference between a BDC and a Target knob. You still have to make corrections with both. I just believe for 99% of my uses the BDC is perfectly fine.

As for the steep incline shots where I am in California the brush is so thick I can't think of a single place you could really take a steep angled shot. The only real long range stuff we get is across canyons when animals are in a clearing and therefore usually not much of an angle. The steepest canyon I've ever shot down into was only a little more than 250 yards deep.

Plus for windage you can do like the Best of the West and have a windage hold off added to your BDC. Makes it quick and easy for the majority of your shots.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Believe it or not, I've even seen this with a couple of the older Leupold Vari-X series.

I'll believe it. My uncle, his son and his hunting parter still insist on using VXIII 3.5-10 scopes. We have talked about this before, on all of their scopes the click adjustments put in moved the poi way more than it should. All had multiple times/multiple repairs made for reticle shift from recoil. As a result of the failures animals were missed and a couple even wounded. I believe with Leupold you're just paying for the name unless you want to buy their expensive stuff over $1000. Have not heard of problems with their high end tactical scopes.

 

[Bart B]

We have talked about this before, on all of their scopes the click adjustments put in moved the poi way more than it should. All had multiple times/multiple repairs made for reticle shift from recoil.

Some years ago at the National Matches, I talked with John Unertl (yes, the old man himself who made all those excellent scopes and mounts) about scopes shifting their reticule from recoil. He told me he and a friend got hold of one each of all the scopes with 10X or more magnification to test for durability. Each was mounted on a match rifle then shot off sand bags at a 200 yard target for 10 shot groups. Most of them held up well for that test except for a Simmons and some other cheap scope.

Then each scope was mounted on an M1A with a worn out barrel and 50 rounds of ammo shot under each one. They thought that was a decent test of the scopes' durability and keeping the reticule mount repeatable. Then they put each scope back on the match rifle for another 10-shot test group.

Some scopes had loosened up to a couple MOA or more. Others had about a 3/4 to 1 MOA slop. Two had 1/2 MOA or a bit less error. Only one had zero error, maybe 1/4th MOA rarely at most. Best scope tested was a Weaver T16 with its micro track adjustments. It was also the one that tested best in repeatability of adjustments both before and after the firing tests. High end Leupolds did pretty good, but they still lost some preciesion.

 

[angsniper]

For the most part, as long as you're shooting the same ammo, your turrets will work in 90% of the cases. I have a set of custom turrets on my long range weapon but I shoot several different types of ammo. I change the turrets when I'm shooting ammo other than that which the turrets were made for.