dial in/scope?

sniperman

hi all,have heard the words dial in,track,when lads are talking about their scope,what does that mean,and what scopes have those features,thanks all,ps,hope to have a 223 soon,will i need to know /learn,about the above?

clivej

sniperman wrote: »

hi all,have heard the words dial in,track,when lads are talking about their scope,what does that mean,and what scopes have those features,thanks all,ps,hope to have a 223 soon,will i need to know /learn,about the above?

I'll try to explain.

OK your scope is zeroed at 100m, so the cross hairs are on the centre of the target and the rounds are hitting dead centre.

Now if you now shoot out at say 300m the bullet will drop a certain amount say 6". Now you could aim of by that 6" I.E. aim 6" higher or you can dial in the correct amount on the scope to move the reticle by the same 6"

Eo1n8wrd

This lads video explains tracking quite well, I tried the exercise with mine last week but it didn't look so pretty at the end #musttryharder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q886sc-2grk

FISMA

sniperman wrote: »

hi all,have heard the words dial in,track,when lads are talking about their scope,what does that mean,

Sniperman,
First, remember that all crosshairs are reticles but not all reticles are crosshairs.

My reticle is a ballistic plex. I zero at 200ya and the hash marks underneath the intersection of the lines correspond to, about 300, 400, 500, and 600ya.

Some people prefer to have crosshairs and no hash marks at all. If you are hunting inside of 300ya, zero at 200ya, and have a hot round: 308, 30-06, 7mm rem mag, you'll just hold a bit high or low and be fine.

The lads that I know using crosshairs usually use a ballistics ap. They have variables such as bullet mass, ballistic coefficient, muzzle speed, scope reticle, and others factored in to the program.

Suppose they see a target and have their scope zeroed at 100ya. All they need to do is to range the target and put the distance in to the ap. The ap then tells them how many clicks up or down they need to get the target at the center of the crosshairs. Rather, than holding over or under.

Works very well. However, again, I hold over. Personally, I do not want another item in the field, nor do I always have those extra few seconds to use the ap and click.

Your choice.

Wadi14

sniper all scopes will come with the facility to adjust it, if you buy a scope with a mil dot reticle pattern you can use the dots to aim off once the sight is zeroed, no matter what type of reticle is on the sight learn how to dial it in. Its written on the adjustment screws what the adjustments are, for example 1 click = 1/4 inch at 100 yds, if ur an inch right at 100yds 4 clicks to the left will bring u back in to centre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWokcWXmcSk there are loads of videos with scope info from zeroing to dialling in. An again learn how to dial in even if u never use it

sniperman

thanks lads,great info and advice.

Cass

The lads have covered the meaning of dialing in perfectly. Just thought i'd my my own opinions on tracking.

Tracking refers to the scopes ability to be dialed in/adjusted, but return to a preset setting. For example your zero or to accurately and repeatedly move the exact amount you dial.

This can be very hard as a lot of factors can affect this. Factory ammo compared to handloads (inconsistencies with speed, etc), weather conditions (wind, etc), shooting position, etc, etc. There are a couple of tests iff you fancy doing one or some.

Linear Test.

This is a simple test. Place a target (blank sheet of paper at least 48 inches tall and 24" wide) at a set distance with a single aim point/dot. With your scope mounted you take up a solid and stable shooting position. Have the gun as "clamped" as possible to avoid errors. Have the scope elevation set at 0 or bottomed out. Now dial up in increments of 5 or 10 MOA (or any amount you want) and fire a single shot after each adjustment.

You MUST keep the same point of aim throughout this test. Also use the same amount of adjustment each time until you run out of adjustment. ?When you have no adjustment left take the target down, and measure the distances between each bullet hole in the target. They should be equidistant. They should also be perfectly vertical. Any continuous left/right adjustment can be down to either poorly mounted scope (not perfectly aligned when mounted) or inability of the scope to track straight up and down. Do this once or twice to verify.

Return to Zero test

Simple test. With your scope mounted and rifle zeroed at 100 yards set yourself up much as above at a target. Fire 3 to 5 shots to create a zero group. Record the setting on the scope for your zero as you'll have to return to this. Now start to adjust the scope as much as you can (through it's entire range of adjustment) up, down, left, right and combinations of all. Now return the scope to the recorded zero. Fire a shot. It should be in or clipping the group you just fired. If not then it could be a scope tracking issue. As with all tests it's best to try it a few times to prevent corruption of the results from shooter error, wind, shooting position, etc.

Box Test

Put up a sheet of paper (blank) at 100 yards. About 48" square would be fine but as big as you have is grand. Find the dead centre of the sheet of paper. Place a half inch black dot in the centre. This is your aim point. You want no other markings on the paper to distract you. You need to be very careful that its 100 yard and no more or less than 100 by a yard. Most scopes click values are designed to work at 100 yards so you really need to be sure of the distance. Fire a couple of shots, and make sure you are in the bull with each one, and your zero is perfectly on for 100. That means not an inch high, or low.

Once you have the "perfect" zero put up a fresh target or if they are all in the black dot you can use the same sheet. Again making sure its still as bang on for 100 yards as possible. Now dial up 10 MOA (40clicks) on the scope. If the scope is worked in 1 click = 1cm @ 100 yads dial on 25clicks. That'll give you 25cm or roughly 10 inches. Aim at the bullseye and fire.

Now dial right 10 MOA (for 0.25 click valus scope) or 25 clicks (for 1cm per click). Again aim at the bullseye, and fire.

Now dial down 20 MOA (80 clicks in a 0.25 clcik value scope) or 50 clicks (if the scope is 1cm per click ). Aim at the bullseye and fire.

Now dial left 20 MOA (80 clicks in a 0.25 clcik value scope) or 50 clicks (if the scope is 1cm per click ). Aim at the bullseye and fire.

Now dial up 20 MOA (80 clicks in a 0.25 clcik value scope) or 50 clicks (if the scope is 1cm per click ). Aim at the bullseye and fire.

It's important you only fire 1 shot per adjustment. Measure the distances from holes to holes. The holes of the bullets should "draw" a perfect (within a half an inch for human error) square. You should have something like this:




The problem, as i touched on above, with all these tests is:

• Shooting position/platform
• Ammo
• Weather conditions
• Shooter ability
• Rifle ability

If any of these is not "at it's best" then results may not be accurate, but it's still possible to do the tests and get a rough idea of your scopes ability.