A week or so back, I received 3 CDS elev dials from Leupold. Yesterday I was able to test the 5500' ele dial.

Purpose built Alaska Pre 64 M70, Custom by Lee Christianson (Redneck) and Charley Santoni
D'Arcy Echols Legend stock by McMillian
9.3x62
250 Accubond running 2606 fps, .8 MOA, 5 SD (60 gr Varget)
VX3 1.75-6x32mm with standard duplex reticle
CDS dial was marked for 2606 fps, 50 deg F, 5500' elev


Sighted @ 200 yds, 5144' elev, 50 deg, 24.38 baro

Shooting condition:
34 deg F
6565' elev
22.9 baro
6-13 mph winds switching from 9 to 4 from mostly from 7 to 5.
Fired from prone off 6-9" Harris bipod and rear sand bag.


Out to 350 yds, I had zero problems hitting any of the plates.

300 yd pig


The turkeys, @ 385 yds needed the dial turned to 400 yds

385 yd turkeys


The 400 yd plate needed the dial turned to 420 yds to get hits.


I got numerous hits on the 8" plate on the left @ 400 yds. We call this set up "Know Your Limits".


The 500 yd plates/Rams were a bit more of a challenge. Even with a spotter directly behind me, he had to walk me in to get hits.

Had to dial up 550 to get hits @ the 500 yd ram.


Even though the dial had a number 6 on it, the dial would not turn past 550.

What confused me was that I was shooting @ 6565' and the sight in elev is 5144'. I should have been hitting high as the air is thinner.

I ran my Droid Shooter ballistic program

Sight-in day

Baro 24.38
temp 50 deg F
500 yd drop = 48.7"

Shooting day

Baro 22.9
temp 34 deg F
500 yd drop = 48.1"

I should not have been missing either the 400 yd plates nor the 500 yd rams, low.

What do you think is the issue; parallax or the dial? Possibly a bad 200 yd zero. I'll check it next week!

Alan

ALAN

hi as usual great shooting, i usually stay with a 100 yard zero when i use dial in turrents....its easier to get a accurate hundred yard zero, then its to get an accurate 200 yard zero...i would start there
Also did you chronagraph the loads on the day, to see how they compared from your previous chronagraphing sessions
third try shooting of a Bag, not a bipod and see if it makes a diffrence
Daniel

Daniel,

Thanks for the response and ideas.

As I am a tactical/sniper competitor I fully understand and support a 100 yd zero. Less weather related issues to bugger up a solid zero. My other rifles which have twisty turrets have a 100 yd zero.

That said, had I done so, I could not have gotten out to the 500 yds I shot yesterday as the dial only gave a 3/4, or there abouts, turn.

Alas, I did not shoot over the chrono, even though it was set up, as I wanted to try this test under field conditions; ie prone with bipod. Also, many of the sub moa groups I shoot with other rifles are done so with the Harris bipod and have total faith in it.....but, we'll see

Alan

A friend, Daniel, emailed me and suggested I try a 100 yd zero. I originally ordered the dials to use with a 100 yd zero as seen here.


Being a tactical/sniper competitor, I fully understand and agree with the 100 yd zero concept with twisty turrets. In this case I used a 200 yd zero because I could only get 3/4 turn on the dial from 200 to 550-560 yds figuring I'd limit my max range 100 yds less.

With that said, I'll re-sight in my rifle for 100 yds and see where that takes me.

Here is the dials side


Alan

Alan
let us know how it pans out

Daniel,

Looking at the dial, counting the marks between numbers it runs thusly.

Between 200-250-300 their are 5 clicks/marks each.

Between 300-350-400-450 their are 6 each.

Between 450-500-550 their are 7 each.

and

Between 550-600-200, their are 8 each.

This means that for a 100 yd zero I will more than likely need to be two clicks below the 6.

Thanks for the push towards "100"! You may have figured it out for me.

I'll report back again when it's all done; in a week or two.

Alan

It's been 2-1/2 months since my last post. The problem is solved. After running a successful box test, verifying my 2606 vel over my Oehler 35P chrono and making sure all the screws were tight, I basically started pulling my hair out. The Leupold CS rep, Sean Hunter, was fantastic. He emailed me a prepaid UPS shipping label so they could go over the scope from top to bottom. About a week later, he responded that they had also shot a box test with their 300 WM using 220 MK's; perfect! They checked the scope out top to bottom and determined that I had used 17 of 22 MOA to get my 200 yd zero, leaving only about 5 MOA to keep shooting further out. With that said, he returned the scope with a free shim kit. The kit has six 12/1000" thick shims; 3 for long hole and 3 for short hole spacing. Once home, I mounted two of the long shims under the rear QR base. Yesterday, after completing a sniper match I got on at 100, zero at 200 and had another shooter get behind me with my 15-45 Zeiss spotter. I then proceeded to shoot 8", 10 and 12" steel at 300, 400 and 500 yds. BAM, BAM, BAM went each steel. Perfect!

Alan

And....on paper yesterday morning.

200 yd zero and 400 yd impact. I still need to move wind a skootch to the right.


300 yd impact


500 yd impact. At 500, I'll need 1-2 more clicks past the 500 yd dial marker to be on.


600 yds was a wash. For one the dial, even though it's marked for 600, only clicked up to about 570 yds. So, maybe 550 or so will be max. Also, for shooting at paper with 6x, I could not discern any of the triangluar aiming points so simply shot center mass of the large white paper backer. The 3 hits are low left, down near the end of the maul handle.


Alan