40 moa rail yes or no

[savageshooter81]

I currently have a 20 moa rail and I run out of elevation 3 moa shy of my 1200 yard shots. I keep a 100 yard zero. I am currently able to dial 44 moa up. I am debating replacing this rail with a 40 moa rail. This would allow me to dial beyond 1300 yards and not have to use any holdover in doing so. I am not seeing a downside to this choice as this would still leave me plenty of moa down adjustment to shoot from 0-100 yards all I would ever need would be 1 moa down for anything substantially closer than 100 yards.

If I go with a 40 moa rail that would give me a total of 64 moa elevation adjustment and another 35 moa in the reticle of holdover. So long question short.. is it a good call to get a 40 moa rail?

Thanks

 

[Darkphage]

What caliber rifle are you shooting? What optic are you running on said rifle? What is your main objective? Simply to be able to engage longer range targets?

Thanks in advance.

Dark

 

[Fursniper]

If your rifle/caliber is capable of ELR, why not? Changing out a rail is no big deal. If you're constantly going to be shooting those distances and enjoy doing so, then set up your rig for the job. I'm putting a 40 moa rail on a build in progress that'll probably never be shot under 1000 yds. Why "shortchange" myself, lol.

 

[CoryT]

The question is how much down do you have available now from your 100 yard zero? If you still have 20+ moa down then going to a 40 MOA rail will not affect the 100 yard zero and you'll gain 20 MOA up. You can only gain the elevation left in the scope, so if you only have 10 MOA down, that's all you'll get and you won't get a 100 yard zero either.

I just went 70 MOA total with a Vortex 4.5-27 and zero at 5 mils high at 100, leaving 28mils up in the scope plus 11 mils of holdover and the 5 mils above center, 44 mils elevation in total. That's a compromise I'm willing to make, since shooting the 375CT under 1K is unusual, but still workable with the top half of the reticle.

 

[Fursniper]

The question is how much down do you have available now from your 100 yard zero? If you still have 20+ moa down then going to a 40 MOA rail will not affect the 100 yard zero and you'll gain 20 MOA up. You can only gain the elevation left in the scope, so if you only have 10 MOA down, that's all you'll get and you won't get a 100 yard zero either.

I just went 70 MOA total with a Vortex 4.5-27 and zero at 5 mils high at 100, leaving 28mils up in the scope plus 11 mils of holdover and the 5 mils above center, 44 mils elevation in total. That's a compromise I'm willing to make, since shooting the 375CT under 1K is unusual, but still workable with the top half of the reticle.

Cory, when you say "70 moa total", how much of that is rail? Thanks.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

You need to know the total in your scope, if running a .308 subtract about 6 moa from 1/2 of the total. That equals the amount of rail you need to use almost all of the erector travel. I run a 30moa base with a leupold that has 75 moa of total travel, I still get a 100yd zero and 70 moa of up if I want to dial. I prefer holding everything in the ret but there are times (sub's) I dial it all instead then add the ret for max distance. HTH's

 

[oneshot.onehit]

It's pretty much a echo of what Cory stated, if you know whats left in your scope below your 100 yard zero you might as well increase your rail to take advantage of it.

On my 375 I run a 80 moa rail and in turn with the Vortex Gen II 4.5-27x56 I have 10 mils of hold under needed for the close ranges very seldom ever shot at then 28.5 mils dial up and then the ability to hold over 11 mils when the dial runs out. A correctly calibrated scope and no other moving parts leaves me with 49.5 mils of solid usable corrections.


Cheers
oneshot.onehit

 

[CoryT]

The rail is 40 MOA, then a Spuhr mount of 30 MOA.

 

[ELR researcher]

If you can afford it, I'd go with the ERA-TAC Adjustable Incline mount - 0-70 MOA in the mount - http://era-tac.de/index.php/en/products/one-piece-mounts/adjustable-inclination-mounts Leaves you with max clean 100 sight in and load development and plenty of up side (all UP) befoe you even need to use any in the scope.

 

[savageshooter81]

I am shooting a .308 178 BTHP at around 2710 FPS out of a 24 inch barrel. I currently have a PST FFP 6-24x50. Main objective is long range shooting with the occasional shot at 100 yards or closer.

Factory Specs are 65 moa total. My reticle EBR-2C has 36 moa hold over and hold under as well. Now as I zoom in all those arent usable as its a FFP and the cross hair grows/shrinks with magnification. Even if I only have 12 moa reticle holdover/hold-under available and still have a 100 yard zero I see the bigger rail being of help and not a hindrance of any kind.

I assume since factory spec is 65 moa total and I have a 20 moa rail now that I can safely assume I have 85 moa total right now. I know I have 44 moa dial up at the moment so that would guarantee I have 41 moa available to me under zero.

I would love to have one of those ERA-TAC Adjustable Incline mount's but wow they are pricey.

 

[thesheepdog]

I have a 20 MOA ADM mount on a Vortex PST 4-16 FFP mil/mil. Out of my 16" 308 AR, I am 3.5 mils shy of what I need for 1200 yards. At that distance, I just use the reticle to get my extra holdover.