Lesson Learned with Custom Turrets

[Firedad]

You can create your turret tape or custom turret to show moa or mil if you want. Then when outside of the parameters your turret was made for you can still use a dope taped on your stock or ballistic app for your current conditions. But for hunting within your average parameters it works. I'd never shot my brother-in-law's rifle but for certain reasons I used his rifle for my elk hunt. Before the hunt I was shooting out to 600 yards using a custom turret. Ranged, adjusted, hit.

 

[Damage Inc.]

So…. there's no difference between a custom turret, and a custom drop chart…. except for where they're located?

 

[Taylorbok]

So…. there's no difference between a custom turret, and a custom drop chart…. except for where they're located?

Correct

 

[Damage Inc.]

Wow… John Burns was right?

 

[Idaho Lefty]

Super common misconception. There is no "easy button" to long range. Those turrets give false confidence when not verified out to actual long range.

YUP,.. ^^^ A LOT of, "Fun Work" goes into, VERIFYING those, "Cold Bore" shots, every 100 Yards out to, your Max,. distances.
and then, you will have, Confidence in,.. YOUR, "Rig" when, Done !

 

[Dr. Vette]

You can have one made for your scope if you prefer. I have several of these:

Custom Turret Systems | Custom Ballistics Turret Labels

 

[Idaho Lefty]

And,.. BALLISTIX,.. looks, "pretty good" to us, "Old guys" !
I like the Bigger Numbers and "Hash Marks" every, 25 yards, taller one at, 50 yds and,..
Only, 2 Rows, easily and quickly, readable, like, the One that, my Son made me

 

[Wyo37]

What's the difference between an accurate BDC turret and a laminated drop chart?

I guess the only difference is one is limited to one specific bullet, velocity, environmental conditions. Just kinda gimmicky.

I've found most people that get turrets simply assume they are correct and go hunting without validating them through shooting. That can lead to issues.

 

[Damage Inc.]

Drop charts are unaffected by bullet, velocity, and environmentals?

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Up until this year, I have dabbled with custom cut turrets for the scopes on my rifles. After handloading and finding the setup that gives good accuracy and SD's, I would order a custom turret using LabRadar verified velocities and the factory supplied BC's. After recently taking a long range shooting course (Barbour Creek) and learning the correct fundamentals, I decided to test my custom turrets. Out to 500 yards, mine were close. Beyond that, they were significantly off. I suspicion that the factory supplied BC's were not entirely accurate. Using a Sig Kilo8K with Applied Ballistics, I shot to 800 yards and then corrected for drops. I am now completely comfortable shooting out to that range and will continue practicing out to 1,000 yards. Point is, prior to taking the course, I falsely believed that these custom turrets were accurate to whatever range I wanted to shoot. Now, I know that wasn't the case.

We had several Leupold VXIII 4.5x14-50 sent back and had custom turrets installed. They were for easier to see the numbers and Knob to turn. We always use a Ballistic program to dial in. You can make a "Cheat Sheet and tape to you stock the VERIRIED range, also make tape with #s for your turrets or just use a Kestrel with AB to show you what to dial. There are also products out now that connect by Blue Tooth and a small 2"x3" display will give you data and can mount right next to your scope.

 

[cajun]

There was a very interesting Hornady podcast that talked about using statistics the number of shots it really took to verify a load. But also to verify a zero. I think the minimum number of shots was 30. They even mentioned guys who shoot a 5 round group at 100 for zero then moved out to 600-1000 yds and their drops were not matching their ballistic program. So they were assuming the bc was off when actually the 100 yd zero was off.

 

[Damage Inc.]

I'll admit it, I like BDC turrets (that also have MOA/MIL markings). I shot them a ton on coyote/deer rifles for a decade, from sea level to over 10k. There's a lot of ways to make subtle adjustments based on environmentals.

Anymore…. I just let the Sigs tell me the range, and the angle compensated dope. It's the easiest Easy Button I've found.

 

[Damage Inc.]

None of it works, if you don't shoot.

 

[reeldawg]

Get a Kestrel and verify your dope. Stick with MOA or Mils.