Lesson Learned with Custom Turrets

[morgaj1]

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.

 

[Huntnful]

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

 

[CanisLupus]

Up until this year, I have dabbled with custom cut turrets for the scopes on my rifles ... I falsely believed that these custom turrets were accurate to whatever range I wanted to shoot. Now, I know that wasn't the case.

interesting ... I'm not familiar with "custom cut turrets" ... mind posting a pic or two to help illustrate this concept/methodology?

 

[morgaj1]

interesting ... I'm not familiar with "custom cut turrets" ... mind posting a pic or two to help illustrate this concept/methodology?

Don't have a picture, but there are several companies that produce them: Leupold CDS, Kenton, etc. I don't think there is anything wrong with a custom turret. They use ballistic software to calculate drops. Problem is, they are only as good as the data input. Even with verified velocities, I got different results. Plus, environmental factors such as temperature, altitude and barometric pressure impact results.

 

[HSmithTX]

If you get your turret 'cut' for the environmental conditions you are shooting in and use actual dope instead of supplied BC's they are very accurate. Until environmentals change.......

 

[WapitiBob]

I thought everybody verified their drops?

 

[Firedad]

I looked into this, thought I'd make a turret tape first so I could verify 100-600 yards at 25 yards increments. Took it to the range and so far it appears I am an idiot. Going as soon as possible to figure out how I went so wrong

 

[Joefrazell]

They typically work well enough for hunting big game out to around 600 as long as they're pretty trued up. Environmentals aren't going to change enough to allow a miss unless you're going from in extreme to another. After 600, definitely need a calculator and dial a specific door for that particular shot imo.

 

[cohunt]

I've always wondered about changing from 10000 feet to sea level-- and large temp swings.

So I have never ordered one- nore will I.

 

[Firedad]

I made the turret tape to try out using a middle of my average condition and elevation. Only wanted it for up to 600 yards. I think what happened to me was my turret was turned way off of zero when I pulled the turret cap off to apply the tape and set the cap at 0. When the weather settles I'll get back to the range and zero at 100 again and reapply the tape just to give it another try

 

[HSmithTX]

Just change the environmentals in your calculator and see what it does. Combine that with your real shooting ability in the field, your wind reading ability and see at what distance you get into potentially marginal precision. Miss your station pressure and humidity by a bit, misjudge the wind by 2-3 mph and take a 1 minute shot. Plot the errors from exact in each as addition to the shooting error, because it can happen that way.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Your actual drops may not correspond with the dial but you could sight the rifle in at the halfway mark and minimize any inaccuracy. Once I have my custom dial, I dial it to 400yds and sight in at that distance. This way I know I'll be dead on at 400yds. Shorter distances are never a problem even if they are off a tiny bit and longer distances are closer to the dial setting then they would be if you did a 100yd sight-in with the dial at 100yd setting.

 

[Wyo37]

I just can't figure out why people would use a "custom" turret, instead of just using a mil/mil (or moa/moa) scope and go shoot it. Confirm your dope, write it down, and keep shooting.

No magic formulas, turrets, or programs involved, just shooting.

 

[frostop]

The up and downhill angles are the main reason that I stayed away from them, same goes for BDC reticles.
There all good if shooting flat ground at the sea level that you sight in at.

I live in Idaho, sight in at 2100 ft and generally hunt 4000ft and nothing is flat!