Bronco

This is the ticket. My first custom stock was a McMillan, the last 3 have all been Manners with the mini-chassis. Bolt the action in, mount the scope, go shoot. The last one I put together from the time I unboxed it to first shot was under an hour.

About the best thing I've found is plastic pellets used for blow molding. About the same size and shape as rice, but won't split the seems on your bag if they get wet.

Hey Jeff, you have a max rifle distance for us?

I like this method much better, moved me up the list.

Fun match, just barley got to attend as my boss is an ahole. Squad 5 was a hoot to shoot with enjoyed everyone. Special thanks to the Nordic guys for their support. Shooting those pos cube things will be fun with a shotgun!!

With a DPMS 1 in 10 twist 20" barrel, pushing a 155 SMK (2155) @ 2850 fps using 45.0 gr. Reloader 15, LC brass. Use 43.5 gr. IMR 8208 in LC brass for bolt rifle, sends a 155 Scenar @ 2900 out of a 24" barrel, damn near 3000 out of a 30". Tried 175 SMK, both 155 SMK's, and the 155 Lapua, the 155 SMK (2155) consistently shot the best groups out of my rifle out to 800 yd.

I'm a FFP fan but I haven't seen an advantage in 3 gun comps. Works great for unknown distance steel matches and bolt gun comps. In 3 gun comps you want a scope that is fast on the close stuff (1X bright red dot big enough to pick up quickly) and when the power is turned up gives you a reticle that can be used for hold overs out to 500 yd. (used to be 300 yd. but keeps getting stretched out). This implies a second focal plane scope where the reticle doesn't shrink or grow depending on power setting. As with all things shooting it has more to do with the shooter than the equipment.

Of the 3 you listed the Burris is the most bang for the buck, you can save on the mount by getting an Armalite mount for around $80.00. You might consider a used Meopta K-dot, I ran one for years and still consider it a top 3 gun optic. What ever you end up with, put in the time to learn the reticle with the load your going to use. Hitting the targets is the main objective, but hitting them quickly gets you points.

Your asking a reticle to do an awful lot. Granted it would be nice to have a reticle that will take all the thought out of aiming, but until you can control the wind and other atmospheric conditions your stuck having to adjust for them. The beauty of the standard mil or moa reticle is that the hash marks are equal, your not stuck with one bullet choice or velocity. Look at a typical long range rifle stage that you might see at any major match. You will have maybe 8 to 10 targets from contact to 400 yds. If your zeroed at 200 yd. then there is very little elevation change needed to hit a 8" plate out to 250 yd., hold center mass and it hits. At 300 yd. with my load (69 SMK @ 2750) it is .8 mil hold over, so just hold first mil. dot under cross hair in bottom 1/3 of plate and you have a hit, at 350 it is 1.3 mil hold over, just move first dot up to top of plate and another hit (at 300 yd. a 10" plate just fills the space between the mil marks). Move to 400 yd. and hold over is 1.8 mils, put 2nd. mil mark in bottom 1/3 of the plate and you get another hit. OK so we have shot all the targets out to 4ooyd. and we haven't even used 1/2 of the reticle yet. With minimal practice these holds become automatic. Plus you can pull the scope off the .223 and put it on a .308 and the reticle is still good to go.

Below is the printout of my 3 gun load out to 600 yd. Fifth column from the left is Bullet path which shows come ups using a mil based reticle. AS you can see I've used a 200 yd. zero (1st column is distance to target scan to 5th. column and you see zero elevation required). Now go down to 500 yd. line and you'll see 2.99 mils of elevation are needed to hit the target. Use the third stadia line below the cross hair and it should hit (if you have doped the wind correctly). The ballistic program handles all the math, all you have to do is remember the holds for the different ranges. You can do the same with a moa based reticle, just a different value for the stadia lines. 1 mil = 3.6" @ 100 yd. or 36" @ 1000 yd. 1 moa = 1.04" @ 100 yd. or 10.4" @ 1000 yd. Most of the moa based turrets and reticles are actually set up in what has become known as IPHY (inch per hundred yards)which would yield a 10" value @ 1000 yd. There are several ballistic programs available on the internet, JBM and Nightforce to name two. Your most important inputs are: velocity of bullet BC of bullet (can be found from manufacturer) zero distance height of scope above bore line elevation where shooting and to a lesser extent atmoshere conditions. Hope this helps! Keith Well after I posted this I see it got shoved together and it is hard to tell which column is which. 1st Range to target. 2nd. Velocity of bullet. 3rd. Energy (ft. lb.) 4th. Drop in inches. 5th. Path in mils. This is your come up. 6th. Deflection in mils (wind) 7th. Time of flight. 8th. Lead in mils. (used for moving target) CALIBER: .223 MUZZLE VELOCITY: 2750 fps BULLET WEIGHT: 69 gr. BALLISTIC COEFFICIENT: 0.169 SIGHT HT.: 2.25 in. ZEROED AT: 200 Yds. INCLINE ANGLE: 0 deg. WIND: from 9 O'clock at 10 mph TARGET SPEED: from 9 O'clock at 2.5 mph ATMOSPHERE: Keyboard Entry 65° F./1120 ft./28.33 in. HG/60% R.H. 'G7' VERY LOW DRAG Range Vel. Energy Drop Path Defl. Time Lead Yards fps Ft.Lbs. Inches MILS MILS Sec. MILS 0 2750 1159 0.00 -- 0.00 0.000 -- 50 2623 1054 0.59 0.19 0.13 0.056 1.4 100 2499 956 2.45 0.47 0.27 0.114 1.4 150 2378 866 5.70 0.30 0.41 0.176 1.5 200 2261 783 10.49 0.00 0.56 0.241 1.5 250 2147 706 16.98 -0.37 0.72 0.309 1.5 300 2036 635 25.35 -0.80 0.88 0.381 1.6 350 1928 570 35.83 -1.28 1.06 0.456 1.6 400 1823 509 48.64 -1.80 1.24 0.536 1.7 450 1721 454 64.07 -2.37 1.44 0.621 1.7 500 1621 403 82.44 -2.99 1.65 0.711 1.8 550 1524 356 104.12 -3.67 1.87 0.806 1.8 600 1429 313 129.54 -4.41 2.10 0.908 1.9 VITAL ZONE = 3.6 IN. POINT BLANK RANGE = 230.8 yds. TRAJECTORY CROSSES LINE OF SIGHT AT 41.8 & 200 yds. PATH IS 1.82 IN. OVER LINE OF SIGHT AT 125.4 yds. (OR 0.412 MILS OVER LINE OF SIGHT AT 125.4 yds. & 0.222 MILS UNDER LINE OF SIGHT AT 230.8 yds.)

Reticle will work with any bullet at any velocity, just plug in your specific load to any mil based ballistic program and you will be close.

Any decent ballistic program will work with this reticle, doesn't have to be Swaro's. Just use the mil setting for elevation. Windage as I understand it is preset for max of 20 mph full value wind. Only problem with that is, what bullet at what speed and bc did they use for the calculation. If anyone knows the value of the hash marks on the windage part of the reticle, I'd like to have them so leads could be figured for movers. Mounted mine up yesterday and set zero at 200 yd., used my standard ballistic program for come ups and hit 8" plates out to 400 with printout holds. Wonder why it has taken 10 years for this simple solution to come along?

I like steel for anything past 300 yd. You can see your hits on a fresh painted target to at least 1000 yd. Doesn't require as many trips down range and then all that needs to be done is paint your hits. Have found 1/2 IPSC fine to 500, after that I like to have a full IPSC along with a smaller target for those windy days that give us all fits.

A lot of things affect seeing trace, weather, caliber, quality of optics, position, lighting, etc. Spent most of the afternoon yesterday either shooting or spotting, conditions changed during the time we were out, from around 1pm to 5pm. Midday can be a tough time because the light is "flat" not a lot of contrast. We were shooting from SE to NW and as the sun's angle changed the "seeing" got better during the afternoon. At one point around 4:30 while shooting at 600yd. you could pick up the bullet as it neared the target. Not real common but I've seen it several times. When setting up I try and get as square behind the rifle as possible, usually stand so I'm above the trail early in the bullet flight so it doesn't cloud my view. Don't concentrate on the target, look above and if windy to which ever side the shooter is holding wind. Try and visualize the bullet path and pick it up mid flight so you can watch it into the target. 20 to 25 power is plenty even to a 1000. Real windy days the trace dissipates so quick it is really hard to pick up, around a 10 mph wind will move the trace enough that you have to compensate your call for the changes. With .223 and 6mm I can see my own trace through the rifle scope, about half the time with 308 if shooting at 500 or better. Like most of the stuff shooters deal with, it just takes practice.

I'll dust off the cobwebs and dash a little oil on the ol SX 2 and see what happens. If you need me to work should be able to. Keith