Dope cards

[PantherCity]

A “dope card” is nice… But please make sure to verify actual hits in the field at known yardages before printing out a calculated card and slapping it on a rifle and calling it “good”.

Not doing that, I printed that dope card with the environmental data I used and dope I verified out to 977yds a couple weeks ago.

 

[Antares]

It works ok, don’t get me wrong. Some people do think it is an easy button and they have one turret and think just dial and shoot. That is the problem I have, people don’t have all the information with it they need.

I have helped my buddy shoot long range, so he does ok with his CDS dial, but others in the hunting group were slinging lots of lead without much thought. Like dozens of shots.

If you are shooting like I have on a ledge 350+ feet off the valley below and the laser distance is 550 yards, what are you going to dial? If you use angle compensation in your rangefinder for a shoot to distance, then you don’t know the actual distance for your wind call. If you use actual distance you then need to calculate the shoot to distance because of the angle.

Dials aren’t sent with a manual about its limitations. Dope cards have their own limitations, but I use them as backup. And, true they aren’t much different than a dial.

I don’t like to leave anything to hope or guesswork. I like to have exceedingly high levels of confidence. @SkinnerinAZ and I killed our bucks at 575 with one shot in AK. Like this…

I just take issue with this idea that CDS turrets are inherently sloppy. There is no difference between CDS turrets and cards. They are both just a list of drops for a fixed combination of ballistics and environmentals.

As for the example about shooting off a cliff...I'm going to dial the angle compensated range from my rangefinder. Then I'm going to make my wind call and round up or add a click to account for the angle. You need to have a pretty extreme combination of angle and/or range for the difference between the horizontal range and the LOS range to start outweighing your wind calling error.

 

[hereinaz]

I just take issue with this idea that CDS turrets are inherently sloppy. There is no difference between CDS turrets and cards. They are both just a list of drops for a fixed combination of ballistics and environmentals.

As for the example about shooting off a cliff...I'm going to dial the angle compensated range from my rangefinder. Then I'm going to make my wind call and round up or add a click to account for the angle. You need to have a pretty extreme combination of angle and/or range for the difference between the horizontal range and the LOS range to start outweighing your wind calling error.

We don't disagree. You are right, they aren't inherently sloppy. My point is that they have limitations and people don't know them, then they miss. In many situations, the slop factor doesn't make a difference, but in my case it would have made a difference on animals I have killed.

And, in fact, when I first got started, I missed because I didn't understand extreme angles at long range.

I would bet that 90% of guys with CDS turrets use it as an easy button and couldn't make first round hits on targets out to 600 yard at the range. I say that with some confidence because my sample at the range is 100%.

 

[Shocker998md]

If money isn't an issue, I would buy a range finder with the onboard ballistics and environmental readings to calculate bullet drop. Unless you're amazing at pinpointing exact distances you will be using a range finder anyway to get the distance.
I would check out the Sig 5k as its a lot cheaper than the other options out there
https://www.sportsmans.com/hunting-...uer-kilo5k-7x25mm-laser-rangefinder/p/1701090

Ndayton do you have hands on experience with that model?

 

[ndayton]

Ndayton do you have hands on experience with that model?

Sorry I don't.

 

[Shocker998md]

Sorry I don't.

Ndayton would you txt me at 443 five two three 4973 I have a question about one of your adds.

Sorry for the derail guys.

 

[hereinaz]

Ndayton do you have hands on experience with that model?

For the money buy the 2400 BDX, it ranges past a mile AND has applied ballistics for shooting.