hammerdown45

Ive been looking on different websites at their reticles to help me decide on the scope I want. Ive noticed nikon has their bdc and bdc 300 and bushnell has the doa. They have different marks on the vertical part that are for different range shots like if you zero it at 100 yards the circle below will be for 150 then 200 then 250 then 300. The question I have is do these really work since each round has a completely different trajectories? I wondered if its just universal and isnt exactly on for every round or if they make them for different rounds?
Thanks for any help in advance.

hometheaterman

I've never used Nikons BDC or Bushnell's DOA, but on my Burris FFII with it's reticle like that it comes with a chart. The chart lists most popular calibers and grain bullets and you pick the one you are shooting. It then tells you what each mark means. For example if you zero it at 100 yards, the second mark down is 200 yards for a 150 grain 30-06. However, it might only be 150 for a 30-30. Those numbers are just purely examples, they might not be accurate as I'm not sure what the marks mean other than for the 30-06.

Now of course, you still need to shoot it at these ranges and verify for yourself that it's where they hit as every bullet and gun is different.

That being said, a lot of guys claim they work fairly well. I'm not a big fan of them after having one, but they aren't that bad and some guys love them. I'm a bigger fan of turrets you can dial in.

Sheridan

Here's an overview for the Burris Ballistic Plex "system" that HTM was talking about.

I use these on all my bolt action rifles (I have one mil-dot also).

http://www.burrisoptics.com/pdf/BALLPLEX.pdf


I like lines (as long as there are not too many) rather then circles.

timbercruiser

If you are shooting longer distances the marks can be of help, if you do enough shooting to develope a chart. For every day shooting IMHO the German #4 is hard to beat.

Roger46982

Here is a chart for the Nikon http://www.nikonhunting.com/spoton/

Mojotex

I am in Timbercruiser's camp on the German #4. I tried one of the "multi-mark" scopes on a ML and found it too busy for me to accomplish quick target acquisition. I am confident that with practice, that could have been at least mitigated, if not totally overcome. I do not do much truly long range hunting or range shooting for that matter. About 200 yards is it where i hunt 99.5% of the time, with well over 75% of my shots 100 +/- yards. Holding dead on with my rifle zeroed 1" high at 100 yards works excellent for me.

I have been out west a few times, taking mule deer out to about 350 - 375. I did a bunch of range work, zeroed at 200 yards. I made me a "key" from that practice to help me with"hold-over". Laminated it and taped it to the rifle stock. I practiced out to 500 yards but decided that 400 yards would be my limit. The German #4 made it relatively easy for me to work this out. Plus for my old eyes, the heavy plex works great in low light.

ranger56528

I've spent hours the spoton site and it sure opens up your eyes when you start seeing how the BDC really works with differant zeros and bullet weights and target distance.
IMHO the BDC is more of a headache then anything else,not as user friendly as you think...

Roger46982

I am going to sight in with one bullet type and weight, charge weight and zero and leave it at that, shouldn't be too much to get used to.