I've recently been asked to help a mate out with some gun stuff which happens occasionally. I'm happy to help though, impart some of my knowledge. He's reasonably new to long range shooting and is getting set up with equipment which, with long range shooting is always quite costly.
As a guide the scope you see in the image below, one of my own scopes, cost me $4,200AUD when I bought it, just for the scope, not the rings to mount it...That's the scope done...Now gun, bipod, picatinny rail, trigger job, ballistics app, Kestrel environmental meter, reloading of ammunition, anti reflection device, range finder, shooting mat so on and so on...It's a long list of things, and all costly.
So, in discussions with him we decided to try and get some of the equipment second hand which will save him some money; Considering I know a lot of long range shooters here in Australia, people I compete against, I figured I'd be able to source what he needed. We've slowly been gathering his kit and in the mean time I've been training him to shoot out to great distance.
So, a week ago an opportunity came up to buy a Vortex scope, that's the brand, and he was pretty keen. I'm not a big fan of them to be honest but they come with a lifetime replacement warranty so they are reasonably popular. They are also a lot cheaper than some of the other brands.
Anyway, my mate asked if I would check it out and I agreed. Luckily I know the seller and he gave me the scope yesterday so I could test it which is done with a box test. I'll be mounting the scope on my 6.5mm Creedmooe, an extremely reliable long range rifle, and I'll give the scope a work out in the nest week or two.
The box test simply tests the scope's ability to track well through the elevation and windage adjustments; Basically it checks that 20 MRAD (Milradian) of adjustment is indeed 20 MRAD of adjustment. The need to know this is critical because if a shot calls for a set elevation or windage adjustment to make a shot it is critical that the actual adjustments are correct - So, 20.3 MRAD is 20.3 MRAD for instance. Otherwise the shot will miss.
The rifle being used for the box test above
There's a few different ways to do this, but I do it like this and it works so I stick with it. It's simple and effective.
Conditions need to be right, weather-wise I mean, and the shooter needs to be capable of very accurate shooting. The rifle must also be a very accurate shooter, repeatable, proven consistent accuracy and needs to be very accurately zeroed at the distance being used, in my case 200 metres. I also clean the rifle prior to shooting and then take a couple of shots to foul the barrel a little, and to warm it up; Cold bore shots land differently than warm/hot barrels and we're looking for consistency.
The above all assumes the scope is correctly mounted of course, a process in itself. A post for another time though.
I'll dot point this so it doesn't get too wordy. Each shot needs to be aimed at the shot one aim point and the corresponding amount of MRAD adjustment needs to carefully recorded for each.
You should be left with six holes. Once in the centre and the other five on the edges of the target forming a box. I've sketched it out below for you. Forgive my very rough sketch.
Now you head down range with your MRAD ruler and measure the distance between the holes in MRAD. The ruler is the same as a normal ruler but has MRAD measurements as well as MOA, millimetre, centimetre and inches.
If the scope is tracking correctly, that is, each adjustment is actually true and correct, then you will have what you see here. Of course the other factors have to have been correct too: The shooter, firearm etc.
The top two holes will be 20 MRAD apart, they will be 20 MRAD above the bottom two holes and those will be 20 MRAD apart from each other. A successful box test. Of course, they are not always successful as the scope might not be tracking correctly or there may be some other variation somewhere. I always perform the test twice making sure that conditions are the same and the gun has been left to cool right down.
20 MRAD of windage and elevation is enough for my 6.5mm Creedmoor to hit 1000 metres down range so it's going to be ample for my mate. I usually go all the way to the limits of the scope though as I use it all out to past 1600 metres (1 mile) and need to know it's tracking perfectly. Mine do, but that's what you'd expect from premium rifle scopes.
I'll be taking my mate, a young lad, out to show him how this is done, but I'll do the shooting as he's not really up to it just yet and this test needs to be be done expertly. He will learn the method though and add it to his growing set of skills.
I'm hoping the scope comes up well although I have my doubts. We'll see though. It's a decent scope and as a first long range scope should be good for 1000m and at the price, only about 45% of retail at $1200, I'm rooting for it to perform as it's a good buy.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Again, this is not an instructional training manual and I have left some elements out, kept it simple, but it gives you an idea of what's involved in long range shooting, as all my posts on the topic are designed to do. Feel free to ask questions.
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