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custom turrets do you need them

insulator

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Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
18
Was thinking of having custom turrets made for our scopes for upcoming Elk hunt.I don't plan on shooting more than 400-500 yards.My range finder computes my holdover or under so I could adjust with my factory turrets.Do a lot of you guys use them and why?If I get them for where we are hunting this year and then hunt someplace that is at different elevation would I have to have another set made?Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.
 
I don't use them for the reason you mention, they will only be accurate for the elevation range they correspond to and if you ever change your muzzle velocity (different bullet or powder) that would also result in a large enough error to miss a target, depending on the particulars. Especially if you are shooting out to 500 yd and you have a range finder that reads out moa or mil corrections based on your ballistic data, why not use a standard turret. I tape a chart on the rangefinder that has mil data for the range of elevations I hunt in and I use an altimeter watch.
 
I've owned both Huskemaw and Swarovski scopes with custom ballistic turrets on them. They work great but what I really found was I yearned to learn a traditional dial up method manually so I could better understand what I was doing and why. The other issue with a custom turret is you're locked into that specific ammo. Of course you can have others built for you for different rounds.

Depending on what you are shooting as far as round / rifle etc, you may have little need for a lot of dialing. For instance if you zero to something like 250-275 yards you may only need a few clicks of the turret at 400.

I've killed my last four elk with scopes that had ballistic turrets but the reality is none of them were far enough to require any change at all for my 250 yard zero in my 300 Win Mag.

Good luck! ~Robert
 
I shoot a 300 short mag Tika T3 with aTrijicon 5-20x50mm I am zeroed at 300 yards.Do you think that is to long for my zero?
 
I use custom designed tapes from this company:

Custom Turret Systems | Affordable Custom Turret Labels

FAR less expensive than having a turret built, and you can swap tapes when you change location, elevation, load, etc. Using yard data on the scope seems to remove one more variable when out in the field. You only have to spin the dial the wrong way once and miss an animal to decide that yardage on the turret isn't so bad.
 
Sounds like your system is already working so why change it?
I've always carried the philosophy if it aint broke don't fix it.
Plus shooting angles/slopes in elk country you are going to have to make adjustments +/- so just keep doing what you are doing.
 
Thank you for the opinions.I guess I get caught up in all the stuff you long range shooters use and think I need it to.
 
I had a custom made turret made once on my zeiss conquest. I also had the MOA turret. After changing the scope over to another rifle I had to put the MOA turret on the gun. With the invention of all the good shooter apps out there is just to easy to use the MOA turret. Here is an example from yesterday. I had 2 different loads, same bullet but different powder at different speeds. I used up one load and simply changed over to the other and selected the different powder/velocity combination. OOOO YA....I also made my first 3 1000yard shots in the wind. I was shooting at a rock that was about 12inchest tall by 15 to 16 inches long. It took me about 4 to 5 shots to get the wind dope right. Even then the wind was going from 2mph up to 12 mph. So I had to take the shots when the mirage was moving a lot less. I was keeping and eye on my wind meter watching when the wind would die down and then start to pick up. but anyways just a good MOA turret works great.
 
Simple answer, no.

Had a set made once. Thought that out to 500 yards they would be close enough. Too many variations can make them pretty useless. Got rid of mine, went back to MOA turrets and got a Kestrel with ballistics. Now shooting out past 1000 yards.
 
I agree with all of the others. The simple answer is NO!!

The atmospheric conditions change so much that you would need at least 4 different turrets for your own area, and then the turret would need to be calibrated to a known and accurate ballistics solver.
 
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