Posted By: txtrophy85
Interesting observation yesterday - 06/29/18 09:22 PM
after work yesterday my buddy had his new Christensen arms classic in 6.5 Creedmoor he wanted to shoot. He owns the exact same rifle in .300 win mag and bought this one to practice with for upcoming hunts. After a generous ribbing on him buying a rifle in 6.5 creedmoor, we went to a spot where we could shoot across a canyon at some distance. Gun had a 2.5X 10 nightforce scope with a weird tactical reticle I've never seen before.
Popping softball sized rocks at 200 yards was no problem. we looked across a canyon and found a basketball sized rock we wanted to shoot at. neither of us brought a rangefinder so we guestimated the distance. Here is where some learning took place....
After last weeks discussument over reticles I decided to utilize the ballistic reticles. I guessed what the drop was and instead of using my Kentucky windage guestimation I picked the appropriate crosshair (again a guess because I didn't know what the numbers meant) below the standard crosshair and let it rip. surprisingly to both of us the rock had a big chunk taken out of the lefthand side. we both traded off using the ballistic drop reticle ( we both dislike them and never use them....he is the same style shooter as me, doesen't target shoot, but hunts a ton and has killed piles of game) and were able to make very accurate shots. We checked the distance on our mapping program and figured out the rock was 492 yards away.
So.....the take away from my shade tree experiment.....That even though I would never take a shot at a game animal that far at an unknown yardage....the ballistic reticle DID in fact make it easier to hit. I know I would not have been able to hit the rock consistently like I did with just a basic duplex at that distance with a 10x scope. Maybe with a 14x or 16x it would be differetnt. At 400 yards I still feel confident I would have been able to make hits with a basic reticle, but it would be easier with a ballistic reticle.
Also.....the 6.5 creedmoor, shooting 143 grain ELD's....is pretty impressive. Recoil is very mild and it would reach out there.
Again, we are talking about shooting rocks of unknown and varying sizes at unknown and various ranges
And that's all I have to say about that
Popping softball sized rocks at 200 yards was no problem. we looked across a canyon and found a basketball sized rock we wanted to shoot at. neither of us brought a rangefinder so we guestimated the distance. Here is where some learning took place....
After last weeks discussument over reticles I decided to utilize the ballistic reticles. I guessed what the drop was and instead of using my Kentucky windage guestimation I picked the appropriate crosshair (again a guess because I didn't know what the numbers meant) below the standard crosshair and let it rip. surprisingly to both of us the rock had a big chunk taken out of the lefthand side. we both traded off using the ballistic drop reticle ( we both dislike them and never use them....he is the same style shooter as me, doesen't target shoot, but hunts a ton and has killed piles of game) and were able to make very accurate shots. We checked the distance on our mapping program and figured out the rock was 492 yards away.
So.....the take away from my shade tree experiment.....That even though I would never take a shot at a game animal that far at an unknown yardage....the ballistic reticle DID in fact make it easier to hit. I know I would not have been able to hit the rock consistently like I did with just a basic duplex at that distance with a 10x scope. Maybe with a 14x or 16x it would be differetnt. At 400 yards I still feel confident I would have been able to make hits with a basic reticle, but it would be easier with a ballistic reticle.
Also.....the 6.5 creedmoor, shooting 143 grain ELD's....is pretty impressive. Recoil is very mild and it would reach out there.
Again, we are talking about shooting rocks of unknown and varying sizes at unknown and various ranges
And that's all I have to say about that