Ballistically matched reticle

[wyobohunter]

Has anybody ordered/tried one of these? I just spoke to Leupold tech. support and they say if I send them my scope and: Muzzle velocity, cartridge (type), bullet type, ballistic coefficient, average elevation and average temperature they will install a reticle that has a 200 yd. zero w/ dots for 300, 400 and 500 yds. All for $69.00 + s&h. Seems like a great deal to me. I have some time to decide if I wan't this done one one or both of my scoped rifles as I'm still trying to find that mythical perfect load. Once I do find the load I really like and will generally stick to why not? Anybody ever had this done?

 

[Jimro]

never had it done myself, but I have friends who have experience with custom reticles in Leupold scopes. They were suitably happy.

Jimro

 

[j.chappell]

I have a few Leupolds that were done by Premier Reticles when they worked with Leupold. We won’t even get into why they no longer work with Leupold.

Anyway, Premier did a fantastic job. I supplied them with everything they asked and they installed reticles to my desires. They asked everything under the sun, down to target size in order to install the correct size stadia and dots.

With Leupold you are restricted to what they want to do. You need to have a 200yrd zero, you can’t pick the sizes of your stadia; you cannot pick your dot sizes. I am not that impressed with Leupolds current quality when compared to their older products. I am just apprehensive about having them work on things right now.

I have actually been using Burris's ballistic plex and ballistic mil-plex reticles and absolutely love them. I have been using some free ballistic software from:

http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3

I have been using this software for over 8 months now and have been more than impressed. I have used it extensively for my 22-250's, 243's, and 308's and have field tested the results and all have been right on from 0-400yrds. I have not been able to set up for any testing past 400yrds. All drop and drift tables have been right on. I guess that I am lucky in that my chronograph is reading correctly as they don’t always do.

 

[2ndchance]

My brother just purchased the Nikon Monarch series scope with their BDC reticle. I bought a Burris Fullfield II with the Ballistic Plex. These are both new to us and we're using them on our 1st deer hunt tomorrow.

I'll report back their performance.

Our hunt guide swears by them. He said, "don't worry about hold-over. Trust the marks on the reticle." So, that's what we're doing. He's shooting 300WinMag. I'm shooting .30-06. We're both sighted in at 200yds, as the scope recommends.

At the range, they seem to be pretty darn close. I shot at 300yds and 500yds and they were within 4-5" of intended target. Not good for sniping, but pretty fair for hunting. LOL.

 

[skinewmexico]

If I'm hunting, I just zero where I can hold dead center to 300. Probably shouldn't take a shot beyond that anyway. Otherwise, all my scopes have an elevation knob, and I count the clicks.

 

[2ndchance]

1st attempt at the Burris Ballistic Plex

1st day on my deer hunt was uneventful. As it turns out the deer can climb much faster than me. LOL. I spent most of the day tracking them, sneeking up on them, just to have them mozy along and over the ridges.

I did get a chance to shoot at a coyote out at 375 yards. I'm shooting a 150gr Remington Core-Loct in .30-06. I have it sighted at 200 yards.

To test the distance markers, we shot at some 6" diameter rocks that we could find on the mountian. This reticule has 3 distance markers under the crosshairs. For this caliber and grain weight, they recommended sighting in at 200 yards. The 1st marker placed the shot at 300 yards, the 2nd marker placed the shot at 375 yards, and the 3rd marker was at 450 yards.

As I stated on my previous post, hold over isn't really required. By placing my 2nd marker at a shot of 400 yards, the impact was only 1.5" different. For deer or other big game, it's not going to make a difference.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day for deer. I look forward to putting these distance markers through a real test.