Ballistic turrets for me?

[7magcreedmoor]

Lonewolf, I culled the herd of a couple "less-than-long-range" rifles to pay for that BR2. Where there's a will....

And Greyfox, I also use the dual format turret with yardage for my home area conditions, and the MOA for anything else. Truly the best of both worlds, so to speak.

 

[Bravo 4]

+1 on Greyfox and 7magcreedmore post.
The Army has used a BDC turret on the M24 and a dual (MOA/BDC) turret on the SR-25 and M110 for a long time, some of them decades. I like the dual better, it's the best of both worlds. If yours shots are going to be at medium ranges, as WillHunt stated, the difference is very small (especailly 400 and closer).
Here is a picture of the M3A turret we use:

 

[7magcreedmoor]

To give myself some perspective on this topic, I ran a chart for my 7mm load at 150' elevation, 85 degrees F, 85% humidity (my home conditions in SC during early fall) and compared it to 5000' elevation, 41 degrees, 50% humidity (my stab at average pronghorn hunting conditions).

At 500 yards, the difference looks to be about 1 inch in drop. At 1000 yards, the difference is more like 15 inches.

Obviously this is a long range hunting forum, and that's what most of you do, but for an average-range hunter like myself, it looks like I could go with a ballistic turret and be just fine no matter where I hunt as long as I limit the distances to 500 or so, unless I figured something wrong.

For the one turret approach, as you see from your ballistic program, the difference at closer ranges is not a problem, and when you go out to 1000 it amounts to approx. 1.5 MOA. If you have the turret for your home conditions and want to use it at the higher elevation, you can upon arrival on site, re-zero for approximately 2/3 of your intended maximum range. If you zero at a distance of, say, 700 yards, 7 on your turret will shoot a little high. Make the correction, then slip the turret so that 7 is 700. Now a 200 yard zero will be approximately 250 on the turret scale, and work for any MPBR shot. Midrange will match the turret so close it won't be a problem, and a couple clicks correction will work at 1000 yards (1000 on the turret will shoot a bit high but you can work it out in your ballistic program and carry a cheat sheet on the hunt). Your windage will be less at higher altitude as well, so remember to re-work that dope before leaving home as well.