Leica's New Geovid HD-B

[Alan Griffith]

I should know better than to say "never", LOL. I kept coming back to the HD-B's and the two issues I take with them.

1. The click out put instead of moa. Again, can be over come with a simple 4 division cheat chart kept with/near the rille.

2. The fact that the online ballistic calc will only allow G1 and not G7. I started thinking about scenario's where the difference in drop might become apparent so I did a 1000 yd comparison with my 338 Edge, running a 300 Hybrid around 2900 fps and at 1000 yds, the difference was 1". One little measly inch. Now as you start to go out farther, the difference is larger, to the tune of around 14" at 2k. At this point I did a rethink and said to my self, "self, if you go out beyond 1000, you're going to start wanting to figure in spin drift and coriolis, neither of which is computed in my beloved Gunwerks G7". For the record, the HD-B's only calc to 875 yds; at least using one of the 12 pre-set ballistic curves. Beyond 1000, I would typically pull weather, etc, off my G7 or my Kestrel and input them into my Shooter program on my smart phone.

To make a long story short, (also getting tired and can't think clearly), I talked to the Leica rep, Hamilton Boykin and when he discovered I worked for an archer shop that was a Leica dealer, he offered the employee discount that was just too hard to pass up. I've had my pair for about 3 weeks now and i'm in love. Only calc to 875 but beyond that, or at least beyond 1000, i'd very likely pull the yardage, weather, angle, etc from what ever I had in hand and input the data in to my Shooter program and use that data.

I did some SxS testing against the G7 and i'm impressed; enough to sell my G7's to a new home in KY.

Happy Dance!

Alan

 

[Alan Griffith]

Did kind of a dual test yesterday.

I settled on using 42.3 gr of Rel 17, Fed 205m and the 142 Matrix VLD, seated .085" off the lands for 2917 fps from a 24.5" #3 Broughton barrel screwed into a Pierce CM action all set in a McMillan Rem Sporter and topped with a NF 2.5-10x42. Oh, yeah, 6.5x47 Lapua.

I then downloaded the info from the Leica web site into a micro SD card and dropped it into my new set of Leica 10x42 HD-B ranging/ballistic calc bino's. I have a nifty range 5 min up behind my house where I have plates running 5"(431 yds) to 25" (2000 yds) in size. Using only the HD-B for calculating drop I first round hit at 567, 618, 735, 860 and 1011. These were in varying uphill angles from 11 to 17 deg. The HD-B is supposed to only give dope to 1000 buy mine does to 1007. I added one more 1/4 moa click for the 1011 yds and center punched the 13" H x 22" W plate. For the 1390 yd plate, I pulled the yardage, 18 deg up angle, 64 deg temp and 25.1 barometric pressure and dropped all the data into my Shooter program and nearly center punched the 24" x 24" plate. I'd say the .318 G7 BC worked.

I just realized, the HD-B's only use G1 and of course I entered G7. Oh well, it's only 2.4" difference.



Love it when it all gels together.

Alan

 

[cummins cowboy]

Did kind of a dual test yesterday.

I settled on using 42.3 gr of Rel 17, Fed 205m and the 142 Matrix VLD, seated .085" off the lands for 2917 fps from a 24.5" #3 Broughton barrel screwed into a Pierce CM action all set in a McMillan Rem Sporter and topped with a NF 2.5-10x42. Oh, yeah, 6.5x47 Lapua.

I then downloaded the info from the Leica web site into a micro SD card and dropped it into my new set of Leica 10x42 HD-B ranging/ballistic calc bino's. I have a nifty range 5 min up behind my house where I have plates running 5"(431 yds) to 25" (2000 yds) in size. Using only the HD-B for calculating drop I first round hit at 567, 618, 735, 860 and 1011. These were in varying uphill angles from 11 to 17 deg. The HD-B is supposed to only give dope to 1000 buy mine does to 1007. I added one more 1/4 moa click for the 1011 yds and center punched the 13" H x 22" W plate. For the 1390 yd plate, I pulled the yardage, 18 deg up angle, 64 deg temp and 25.1 barometric pressure and dropped all the data into my Shooter program and nearly center punched the 24" x 24" plate. I'd say the .318 G7 BC worked.

I just realized, the HD-B's only use G1 and of course I entered G7. Oh well, it's only 2.4" difference.



Love it when it all gels together.

Alan

that is awesome those are working for you like that. I had very poor results with RL 17. really temp sensitive for me. it was crazy I had sub 3/4" at 200 yards, this turned into 5.5" of vertical at 585 yards. worse yet all shots were either low or high on the extreme ends of that spread. basically a miss on a coyote every time. re tested my load last week at north springs, I am running 4831sc, it held 1/3 moa of vertical to 1000 yards.

is this a private range you shoot at

 

[Alan Griffith]

Yep, very private. Not my land.

I've found the little 6.5x47 loves Rel 17 when matched with the Fed205match primer.

Alan

 

[tommyid1]

Hey all,
I am seriously considering the Geovid HD-B's. is there any planned update to that balistic calculator online? not being able to account for sight height is pretty annoying? i wonder if there is a way to edit the downloaded balistics file to account for this. What powders are yall using as well? Im using H322 which seems to be pretty immune to temperature variations. how does the temperature come into play when these binos calculate balistics etc? It should simply go off of absolute pressure yes? in any case, is there a chance they may fix the moa roundup issue and the mediocre balistic program?
another question, whose got the best price on the 10x42's?

thanks,
Thomas

 

[Alan Griffith]

Call Hamilton Boykin. 843-532-2472; East coast time. He's the national Leica rep who answers questions such as yours.

I'm not tech savy enough to know if you can alter anything on the SD Card, once you down load it to your computer.

The bino's do account for current temp and barometric pressure and do feed that info into the onboard ballistic calculation.

Thomas, PM me for help getting a set of HD-B's

Alan

 

[Alan Griffith]

Acid test for my Leica HD-B's last week during our 2nd week of the Utah general elk season. I had both a cow tag and a spike tag. Weather has been very warm for Utah elk so the've been heading into or coming out of the trees very close to the start or end of shooting light. If you weren't Johnny on the spot, you were SOL. I had been watching a Western facing hill the last 2 hours of the day with nothing but mule deer does moving. I decided to move to a spot to see across a sage flat to the West. Within minutes I spotted two elk which had just come out of the trees. Legal shooting light was over in about 10 minutes. I quickly took an initial range of 1020 yds to make sure they were in range. I then set up my Zeiss spotter to insure each was a legal animal. One spike and one cow. I then took a solid range of 1020. My HD-B's will give me dope to 1008 with the published info being 1000 yds. I kept bouncing the laser off different pieces of sage until I hit 1008/91 clicks. From there I just added two 1/4 moa clicks to get 23.25 moa. I got set up for a prone shot and sent the bullet. I saw a clean miss hit the dirt just over the bull's back. I quickly ranged again and got 950 yds. Sucker had moved in on me and I hadn't noticed in the fading light. I quickly dialed down to 83 clicks or 20.8 minutes. He was now quartering towards me and the bullet struck just to the inside edge of his right shoulder and entered into his thoracic cavity. At the shot, in the fading light, with 4 minutes left, I did not see the bullet impact nor his reaction, if their was one. I bolted another round into the chamber and started to squeeze when I noticed him do a slight hesitation to the right. Then to the left but he kept side stepping left until it caught up with him and he went over. If I hadn't had my HD-B's, i'm not sure I'd have been able to quick those shots off as quickly as possible.

A few weeks before the hunt I put together a small division 4 cheat sheet and took it to Kinkos to have it laminated. I used a luggage tag sized lamination plastic then grabbed two of their luggage tag attachment straps, for lack of a better term, and used it to attach the cheat sheet to my HD-B's. Makes converting clicks to a decimal moa format super quick and easy. Mush brain proof!

Alan