How much elevation travel for a mile

[mrb1982]

I bought a 338 Edge for the specific purpose of practicing to shoot a mile. I have shot out to 1000 yards in the past but decided to challenge myself to shoot a mile.

I am thinking about buying one of the leftover 8.5-25x50 Leupold Mark 4's that are still waiting to be sold these days. Only problem is that it only has 75 MOA of elevation travel.

My question is, is that enough for me to shoot a mile? My calculations tell me I am gonna need 60-67ish MOA depending on a lot of factors. My question is will I be able to find the right combo with rail since I will be using a large percentage of the elevation? Doesn't leave much room for error.

Also, if you are someone using a scope like this for this purpose, how many MOA rail are you using? My gun had a 40 MOA when I bought it, but I am pretty sure that won't work for this scope. It would have to be a NF for the 40 MOA to work.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Stgraves260]

Look into the Valdada 4.8-30x56. 40MM Tube. It has 45 mills of vertical adjustment. You can also get it in MOA with 150 MOA of vertical adjustments. It will run you about $2600. I don't know Of any scope on the maker that will perform like this one even at 4 times the price. Good luck on your build.

 

[nmbarta]

It will work just fine if you only intend to shoot long range with it, You just need to figure out the right rail for it.
You 60-70 moa of adjustment if you want to be able to dial down to a 100 yard zero. If you set it up to where is really close to bottomed out at 500 yards, you'll have all kinds of room. If it's set up specifically for shooting at a mile, there really isn't much need to dial below 500. you can still use your reticle for closer shots if need be.

 

[nkyshooter]

Depending on your muzzle velocity and the BC of the bullet you choose, you'll likely need a 40moa rail for it ...

In general, when you scope is "zeroed" with no rail elevation, your scope is (again, "in general") at about halfway through it's elevation travel ... in your case that 75moa/2=approx 37moa of usable. From there you add using the mounting system.

If your velocity/bc combo says you need mid 60's moa, then you should make sure you have well into the 70's unless you want to be holding over using the reticle.

Note: some folks find the adjustments at the outer limits are not quite as precise. In addition, you are using more of the outer portion some of the lenses and my understandings is that the best quality optics in a scope are typically using roughly the centers of all the lenses ...

I'm in process of building a 1 mile range rig now ... It will be a 30 sherman magnum and I hope to be running 230g A-Tips in the 2850-2950fps range. Based on calculations, I'll need 55-60 moa of elevation. I'm planning on using a Burris XTR II that has 90 moa of adjustment ... so I'm only expecting about 45 usable. I have a 20moa rail to make it 65moa and while I "think" this should be enough, my backup plan will be to either move to a 30 or 40 moa rail depending on how short I am.


BTW - your 40moa rail will work just fine ... it just means you'll most likely have to zero at a distance further than 100 yards. But you'll have no issue getting your 60-70moa out of the 75/2(scope)+40(rail) (77ish) that you have.

Good luck!

 

[mrb1982]

So I will be using it for a little hunting too so I am hoping for a 200 yard zero. Still work?

 

[nkyshooter]

What bullet at what velocity are you anticipating and what are the g1 and g7 bc's?

 

[mrb1982]

It will be the 300gr OTM's. I am figuring on the low side at 2800fps. My calculations say 62.5 MOA at 1 mile with a 200 yard zero.

 

[nkyshooter]

Remember that roughly half of the total elevation is available in the down direction as well (75/2=37 down) ... the rail moves you up ... yours is 40moa so you very well may not be able to zero at 100 and you'll probably be near the limit at 200yards ...

You'll know when you take it out to zero it the first time ... if you run out of adjustment while zeroing, it will be in the down direction and you'll know how much you're off ... you can decide then to either change rails or zero at further distance.

While it might sound counter-intuitive because it is typically NOT desirable to have more available in the scope in the down direction than in the up when zeroed, if you are 'lucky' your scope will be "off" a little bit and short you on the "upside" ... i.e. If you had 35 up and 40 down instead of 37.5/37.5 for your 75 total ... then your 40 moa base will let you zero at 200 no problem (maybe even at 100) and you'll have 75 total up available to you from there ...

 

[mrb1982]

I am feeling like this could turn into a situation in which I shoot a mile and then I decide I need to stretch it some more and would end up getting even more creative. I had rationalized most of the same things everyone is saying in my head but I wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing.

 

[ChrisAU]

I'm reading that scope has 70 MOA. And I'm not sure how much of that is available to turn in the turret. For instance a Mark5 has 120 MOA but only 71.5 of it are accessible from a set zero.

 

[skipglo]

Look into the Valdada 4.8-30x56. 40MM Tube. It has 45 mills of vertical adjustment. You can also get it in MOA with 150 MOA of vertical adjustments. It will run you about $2600. I don't know Of any scope on the maker that will perform like this one even at 4 times the price. Good luck on your build.

While you mention Valdada...op could just buy the 0-200 MOA BASES they recently brought to market for 399.00....and save 2200.00...just me...I just ordered one Friday...lol

 

[mrb1982]

Well I ended up finding a deal on a NXS so I should be good to go with the 40 MOA base I have on the gun at the moment. I appreciate everyone's input.

 

[Rich Coyle]

While you mention Validada...op could just buy the 0-250 MOA BASES they recently brought to market for 399.00....and save 2200.00...just me...I just ordered one Friday...lol

We need, yes need, pictures.

 

[skipglo]

We need, yes need, pictures.

You asking me Rich.... absolutely when i get it Sir! I'm looking forward to playing with it!!! And darn....0-200 not 250...but i won't need more than 200...lol