BDC type scope

[User4302021]

The OP is only wanting to take game to 500 yards. Most big game rounds are close enough in trajectory out to that range (within 0.1-0.2 at 500 yards) that the minor differences will never be realized.

He can just use a 200 yard zero on the 30-06 class of cartridges, and a 100 yard zero on the magnums. Or, the OP can map the drops in his reticle and use a ballistic app to determine the zero height that will make his round match the drops. Beyond 500 yards is where it starts to spread out fairly quickly.

Also, if the OP is using the BDC, he won't be dialing up and down in the field. He just needs the scope to properly zero and hold zero.

 

[he lives]

I've always had good luck with the Nikon monarch series. In an unscientific opinion, the monarch glass looks as good or better than the vortex viper glass to me.

 

[JoemanchesterUKStalker]

I Also have a 6.5 X55 SE and I just put a Viper Vortext 6-24x50 gen 1 on it, HS Pressision Stock on a howa 1500.

Would love the simplisity of a BDC Retical but they seam to be halibut specific normally .223 .308 bushnil BDC looks very cool.

The chart from ballistics guy Looks brilliant something to refer to using your favourite factory mode with the exact retical so you don't need to think wen your on to a big beast.

How do you make them !

I need one in my life lol

 

[JoemanchesterUKStalker]

Do yourself a favor and just get a regular mil-dot or mil-scale or even MOA scale scope. There are literally 1000 more options for scopes that will then work and BDC's kinda suck because they're only really good for 1 bullet at one MV in 1 set of atmospheric conditions. Inside 400 yards it's not usually enough different to matter unless the game is very small but outside that things start changing dramatically enough to make for a miss or cruel wound even on large game with a large kill zone.

With an MOA or MRAD scale reticle you can get some generous soul like me (PM for details) to make you something like the thing below or make one yourself. That way you can tune and re-tune your BDC setup for the air conditions you'll be in and the bullet you're shooting cheaply (can't do that with a BDC reticle in a scope or BDC turrets on a scope very easily or cheaply or quickly) and you'll be able to engage targets much further out with MUCH higher confidence. When I do a BDC I use an image of your actual reticle and custom tuned ballistics tables and you get a DOPE card with the BDC that spans a wide temperature range so you can do quick reference from the BDC image or a more precise shot calculation from the tabular data.


This is the actual BDC and DOPE card I use in competition for my .243AI. The BDC is tuned for 60F. You can see that despite a .620 G1 BC and a MV near 3200FPS how much difference a little temperature makes when those shots get long. My Ackley is a bloody laser beam upside something like a .308Win, a 6.5x55 would be right about between those two ballistically.

You made this ☝?

 

[nksmfamjp]

Vortex Viper HS 4-16X44

I ended up here. I'm happy so far, but it is a bit large for a std hunting rifle...

 

[BallisticsGuy]

You made this ☝?

Yep. It's quite easy to do with my ballistics spreadsheet (free to download from ballisticxlr.com). You just grab a jpg/png of your reticle and scale it. Each block is meant to be 1MRAD or 1MOA depending on what units your scope uses in the reticle.