Nightforce Velocity 1000 Reticle Review
Saturday came and I had loaded up all my gear the night before anticipating a good morning of shooting. I drove out north of town, met my friend, and we got all set up to stretch out the Nightforce Velocity 1000 reticle. His range is set up perfectly, with steel at all 100 yard increments, the furthest being 1000 yards. I verified everything with my Vector IV rangefinder, checked the wind and got ready to shoot. We had a slight 5 to 7 mph out of the 9 o'clock and that fell right into what I had hoped for.
We started shooting from in close (100 yards) to out far (1000 yards), as much as I wanted to go right to the 1000 yard steel and see if I could get a first round hit with the new scope. With my 200 zero, I used the first hash mark above center and fired, first round hit at 100 yards. The good part of testing had officially started. I made sure the scope was on 15x power, as the reticle is made to run on the highest power, and lined up on the 200 yard steel. Direct hit! This went on all the way to 1000 yards and I am very pleased to say all shots were first round hits even with the wind changing a little on the further steel targets by the hill. I think the hold offs for the wind are very close for the load I was using and am excited to see what they do in stiffer conditions.
My friend trying out the Nightforce scope on the steel at 500 yards.
Steel at 987 yards from my shooting position.
Now I'll touch on something I mentioned earlier in the article, the zero stop feature. Like must hunters, myself included, I like to travel and see other places. This leads me to a very important topic often talked about by shooters in the know. The big gripe with ballistic type reticles is everyone thinks they are for one rifle, one set of conditions, similar parameters and can't be used without changing things up. In comes the zero stop. I set the zero stop feature so I had one MOA adjustment below my actual zero. This allows me to do a slight down correction if I travel to higher elevations and I can always dial up a quarter or half MOA from my zero if needed if I go to places that have lower elevation.
For example, I live in Wyoming at about 4650' ASL. I like to go to Montana to shoot and hunt with a friend in Glasgow, which is 2600' ASL. When we shot out to an 830 yard steel, I only needed .25 MOA up correction to put me dead on, which equals about 2 inches at that distance. (.25 X 8 = 2") That shows what a small amount the reticle was off when I changed over 2000' in elevation. Most shooters, myself included, and especially in a hunting type of situation, can't hold .25 MOA.
Another drill I did back in Wyoming with the Nightforce 1000 Velocity reticle was to set up 6 random steel targets at various unknown distances from our shooting position. I then had a shooting buddy get his rifle out as well with the Nightforce R1 reticle in it and we decided to have a shoot off or contest. We had to range all 6 targets, engage them from left to right, and closest to farthest. First round hit scored 10 points and second round hits were 5 points. We also tried to time each other as accurate as possible. I ran the course in 41 sec, all first round hits for a score of 60. My buddy ran the course in 78 sec. or 1 min 18 sec. with a score of 50, having two second round hits. He attributed the misses to having to come off the rifle, dial for each shot and trying to hurry his shots when getting back on the targets, knowing he was up against the clock. He then ran the course again just trying to use the reticle but couldn't get below 57 seconds with having to read his drop chart for every shot, and missed one target completely for not having good dope at uneven increments. (His chart was set for every 50 yards) This test or drill really showed what I had hoped for, that the Nightforce Velocity 1000 reticle did exactly what it was designed for.
Since getting this scope to T&E, I have now shot at steel in the field and out in actual hunting situations at various elevations and conditions. I am extremely pleased with the Nightforce Velocity 1000 reticle and its performance on known and unknown distance targets and animals. I think Nightforce knocked it outta the park with this reticle! I would not hesitate to and in fact would highly recommend it as a great reticle/scope combination to purchase.
Scott Shreve is a life-long hunter and avid predator caller. He is a Team FOXPRO member and enjoys taking his son, family and friends out calling predators. Scott lives in Buffalo, Wyoming and spends his free time hunting, shooting long range and reloading.
We started shooting from in close (100 yards) to out far (1000 yards), as much as I wanted to go right to the 1000 yard steel and see if I could get a first round hit with the new scope. With my 200 zero, I used the first hash mark above center and fired, first round hit at 100 yards. The good part of testing had officially started. I made sure the scope was on 15x power, as the reticle is made to run on the highest power, and lined up on the 200 yard steel. Direct hit! This went on all the way to 1000 yards and I am very pleased to say all shots were first round hits even with the wind changing a little on the further steel targets by the hill. I think the hold offs for the wind are very close for the load I was using and am excited to see what they do in stiffer conditions.
My friend trying out the Nightforce scope on the steel at 500 yards.
Steel at 987 yards from my shooting position.
Now I'll touch on something I mentioned earlier in the article, the zero stop feature. Like must hunters, myself included, I like to travel and see other places. This leads me to a very important topic often talked about by shooters in the know. The big gripe with ballistic type reticles is everyone thinks they are for one rifle, one set of conditions, similar parameters and can't be used without changing things up. In comes the zero stop. I set the zero stop feature so I had one MOA adjustment below my actual zero. This allows me to do a slight down correction if I travel to higher elevations and I can always dial up a quarter or half MOA from my zero if needed if I go to places that have lower elevation.
For example, I live in Wyoming at about 4650' ASL. I like to go to Montana to shoot and hunt with a friend in Glasgow, which is 2600' ASL. When we shot out to an 830 yard steel, I only needed .25 MOA up correction to put me dead on, which equals about 2 inches at that distance. (.25 X 8 = 2") That shows what a small amount the reticle was off when I changed over 2000' in elevation. Most shooters, myself included, and especially in a hunting type of situation, can't hold .25 MOA.
Another drill I did back in Wyoming with the Nightforce 1000 Velocity reticle was to set up 6 random steel targets at various unknown distances from our shooting position. I then had a shooting buddy get his rifle out as well with the Nightforce R1 reticle in it and we decided to have a shoot off or contest. We had to range all 6 targets, engage them from left to right, and closest to farthest. First round hit scored 10 points and second round hits were 5 points. We also tried to time each other as accurate as possible. I ran the course in 41 sec, all first round hits for a score of 60. My buddy ran the course in 78 sec. or 1 min 18 sec. with a score of 50, having two second round hits. He attributed the misses to having to come off the rifle, dial for each shot and trying to hurry his shots when getting back on the targets, knowing he was up against the clock. He then ran the course again just trying to use the reticle but couldn't get below 57 seconds with having to read his drop chart for every shot, and missed one target completely for not having good dope at uneven increments. (His chart was set for every 50 yards) This test or drill really showed what I had hoped for, that the Nightforce Velocity 1000 reticle did exactly what it was designed for.
Since getting this scope to T&E, I have now shot at steel in the field and out in actual hunting situations at various elevations and conditions. I am extremely pleased with the Nightforce Velocity 1000 reticle and its performance on known and unknown distance targets and animals. I think Nightforce knocked it outta the park with this reticle! I would not hesitate to and in fact would highly recommend it as a great reticle/scope combination to purchase.
Scott Shreve is a life-long hunter and avid predator caller. He is a Team FOXPRO member and enjoys taking his son, family and friends out calling predators. Scott lives in Buffalo, Wyoming and spends his free time hunting, shooting long range and reloading.
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