Thread: Bought a new basic tactical scope today

I wanted a utility scope that could be dialled quickly and accurately ,was calibrated in Milradians and had a ballistic reticule as well as practical dialling. The intended range was out to 700 metres.

I looked at several brands and specs, but must admit I have been a long time user of Léopold's and trust their backup implicitly, along with the fact that they have been providing the US military for a long time now.

I wanted a scope that was lighter than the large 3-12+ tactical ffp scopes which are heavy, and was reasonably priced.

My (personal choices) selection came down to either a Vortex Viper 3-9 by 40 at around $500, but only available in MOA turrets and holdover reticule, or Leupold Mod 1 AR 3-9 by 40 which had a milrad ballistic reticule and milrad turrets with the elevation turret incorporating a dialup scale suited to military .224 ballistics, but the distance scale on the elevation turret was in yards, not metres
I much prefer to use mls with metres (not yards) as no fancy calculations and conversions are required.

My rifle is .308 and the rounds intended are 135 grain SMK's with MV 2930 fps. My problem if I went with the Leupold was how to best use the elevation turret for quick dialup using .308 instead of .224. On researching and reading Leupold information booklets I found they made a comment to the effect that if your rifle was slightly different ballistically from the standard military 223 round, that using a zero of around 300 yards would result in only small variances in compliance with the turret elevation range readings. I decided I might be able to work my way through that issue as well as the yards vs metres problem and asked Taupo Fly and Gun to order me a scope. Price was under $600.

After a few hours experimenting with on-line ballistics calculations I discovered that if I zeroed my rifle as 180 metres, that out from point blank to 215 metres the variance from the distance scale (reading it as if it were metres instead of yards), was less than 5cm plus or minus and beyond that, the dial read pretty much exactly true in mls corrections for the range indicated (but read as metres not yards) right out to 700 metres; so I am a very happy boy

Admittedly not ffp but 9 power on 2fp for using the ballistic reticule is tolerable and with the combined ml / distance calibrated top dial being confirmed so accurate by using a 180 m zero, the magnification setting doesn't matter a jot and very quick sighting is possible using the crosshair alone after rapid dialling to the range selected! The weight is only 14 oz. Awsome.