advice for new elr shooter

[johndoe297]

i'm just getting into elr, and i'm wondering where about the typical zero range is for the sport. i have a decent setup, but i'm having a heck of a time even theory crafting.

i'm running a ruger rpr .338 with a vortex strike eagle, and a 20 MOA mount. thus giving me a 50 MOA total offset from the built in base ruger puts on the chassis. i know some guys run MOA offsets way higher than 50, but where are you all zeroing at? i usually do a standard 100 yrd, but i don't think it's even possible on this rig. i do have 110 MOA of total travel, so 55 down without the zero stop. with that installed, i drop to 47 total, and only about 23 down.

does anyone know of a ballistic calculator that one can plug canted offset into? or should i just drop to a 0 MOA mount? this is a bit frustrating because i feel like i'm just guessing at where to start. making a drop table without a real zero just spits out numbers that don't make sense (to me at least).

 

[Matches Malone]

I’m confused, but your starting point should be the range. Just go shoot 100y for zero. You’ll dun know foshizzle then.

I’m not sure where you are getting the 50 moa offset from. You’re scope is 110 moa per vortex. Plus you have a 20 moa base, which puts you at 130 moa total travel on elevation.

You don’t put your scope base into a calculator, as it’s built into your zero. I can’t tell you if you should drop to zero moa mount, but you should be able to zero just fine at 100y with at least a whole rev to spare on your scope.

 

[phlegethon]

I assume this is the 5-25x scope. Without using the zero stop, you should have 110 MOA total elevation, so you should be able to zero at 100 with your 50 MOA mounts. That should get you a little past 2200 yards before you have to hold over.

 

[phlegethon]

Plus you have a 20 moa base, which puts you at 130 moa total travel on elevation.

That is not correct. The cant in the base brings you closer to the bottom of your scope travel. It doesn’t increase your total travel. It does increase your max elevation, but it’s coming out of the bottom end if the mount cant is more than 50% of total travel.

Other things about this stuff: if you are very close to the edge of elevation, image quality will suffer. This will be pretty noticeable on the Strike Eagle. It may be less of an issue if you are always shooting at distance. Also, near either end of elevation travel, you will be limited on windage dialing.

 

[johndoe297]

That is not correct. The cant in the base brings you closer to the bottom of your scope travel. It doesn’t increase your total travel. It does increase your max elevation, but it’s coming out of the bottom end if the mount cant is more than 50% of total travel.

Other things about this stuff: if you are very close to the edge of elevation, image quality will suffer. This will be pretty noticeable on the Strike Eagle. It may be less of an issue if you are always shooting at distance. Also, near either end of elevation travel, you will be limited on windage dialing.

yeah, it's never gonna be a close range rig, i have other rifles for that. i am curious though on what adding the zero stop will do, since when i do get it zeroed, i'm gonna essentially be bottomed out. that revstop system cuts the total from 110 to 47. i suppose i could just install it at the bottom and see how much travel would be left over.

 

[phlegethon]

yeah, it's never gonna be a close range rig, i have other rifles for that. i am curious though on what adding the zero stop will do, since when i do get it zeroed, i'm gonna essentially be bottomed out. that revstop system cuts the total from 110 to 47. i suppose i could just install it at the bottom and see how much travel would be left over.

You cannot use the zero stop in your setup unless you want a 1500 yard zero or so. You have a lot more time with ELR matches so you shouldn’t be frantically dialing and I think you ought to be OK without it.

 

[johndoe297]

You cannot use the zero stop in your setup unless you want a 1500 yard zero or so. You have a lot more time with ELR matches so you shouldn’t be frantically dialing and I think you ought to be OK without it.

why is that? i haven't messed with this type of stop system, so i'm not really familiar. i figured the ring would just cut off whatever amount from the total when i come up from the bottom, where it will likely be zeroed.

 

[phlegethon]

why is that? i haven't messed with this type of stop system, so i'm not really familiar. i figured the ring would just cut off whatever amount from the total when i come up from the bottom, where it will likely be zeroed.

I would call Vortex to clarify. It’s unclear where the elevation is being reduced from the documentation.

 

[Matches Malone]

That is not correct. The cant in the base brings you closer to the bottom of your scope travel. It doesn’t increase your total travel. It does increase your max elevation, but it’s coming out of the bottom end if the mount cant is more than 50% of total travel.

Other things about this stuff: if you are very close to the edge of elevation, image quality will suffer. This will be pretty noticeable on the Strike Eagle. It may be less of an issue if you are always shooting at distance. Also, near either end of elevation travel, you will be limited on windage dialing.

Yeah, that’s not in question. I’m aware how scopes work. I don’t know how 50 moa is in the equations.


Back to basic 6th grade math.
The op has 110 moa in a scope. The base is 20 moa. The op gets 130 moa of travel is = to a true statement.

ok the OP has 110 moa of travel, the mechanical zero is half, which is 55 moa but the 20 moa base bring is closer to 35 moa. The China eagle has 25 moa per rev.

 

[Matches Malone]

If the OP is just using a scope and a 20 moa mount, the rev stop aside, he is not the 1st or last to use a 20 moa base. Ive never seen a person not be able to zero their scope at 100y because a 20 moa base was too intense or excessive for a scope with 31 mils of total travel.

 

[phlegethon]

Yeah, that’s not in question. I’m aware how scopes work. I don’t know how 50 moa is in the equations.


Back to basic 6th grade math.
The op has 110 moa in a scope. The base is 20 moa. The op gets 130 moa of travel is = to a true statement.

ok the OP has 110 moa of travel, the mechanical zero is half, which is 55 moa but the 20 moa base bring is closer to 35 moa. The China eagle has 25 moa per rev.

No, the base doesn’t add to the scope’s internal travel. It simply shifts where that travel occurs. If your scope has 100 MOA of travel, then on a zero MOA base, it will go from -50 MOA at the low end to zero MOA at the midpoint to +50 MOA at the high end. On a 20 MOA base, the low end will be -30 MOA (relative to the base, which hopefully is parallel to the bore), the midpoint will be +20 MOA, and the high end will be +70 MOA.

If the base MOA is greater than half the scope elevation travel, then you can no longer get a hundred yard zero. In our 100 MOA example, if the base cant were 60 MOA, then the extreme low end of scope travel would be (-50 MOA) + (+60 MOA) = +10 MOA. The high end would be 160 MOA. The total travel is still 100 MOA.

Also, you seem to have missed that the OP has a 20 MOA mount and 30 MOA rail on the rifle, for a total of 50 MOA. So again, he should be barely OK without the zero stop.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Yeah, that’s not in question. I’m aware how scopes work. I don’t know how 50 moa is in the equations.


Back to basic 6th grade math.
The op has 110 moa in a scope. The base is 20 moa. The op gets 130 moa of travel is = to a true statement.

ok the OP has 110 moa of travel, the mechanical zero is half, which is 55 moa but the 20 moa base bring is closer to 35 moa. The China eagle has 25 moa per rev.

…….just no. If a scope has 110 moa travel, it has 110 moa travel.

 

[GIXXER2000]

I run a Cadex Shadow 375ct with a 40 moa rail and a adjustable moa mount set at 10 moa for a total of 50 moa. I am able to zero at 100 yards and only lose .6 of the 34 total mils of range my scope has. So when you go to zero make sure you have your elevation turret bottomed out so it has full range. So what i mean is if you scope 110 moa of total travel when you scope is at 0 and you turn the turret up it goes all the way to 110. Then you will see if you have to much moa in the rail and mount or you can still zero it.

 

[Matches Malone]

Ok so after cracking open a reign things are clearer
I did miss the mount, and 110 moa is 110 moa.

 

[Matthew488]

It's understandably confusing if you've never dealt with it. The purpose of the zero stop is to have a mechanical stop at or just below your zero preventing you from accidentally going a full revolution below your zero.
The RPR338LM has a 30moa rail and you used a 20moa base totaling 50moa. Your scope has an advertised total elevation of 110moa which would zero around middle of that on a rifle with a zero moa base and rail. With your setup your 100 yard zero should be somewhere around 5moa from bottoming out the scopes travel. So no need for any other stop. Just zero the rifle, index the caps to show 0 and have fun shooting.
A very nice upgrade to do would be switching out the muzzle brake for a Terminator T3 or T4 like I did with mine.

 

[Bandit320]

i'm just getting into elr, and i'm wondering where about the typical zero range is for the sport. i have a decent setup, but i'm having a heck of a time even theory crafting.

i'm running a ruger rpr .338 with a vortex strike eagle, and a 20 MOA mount. thus giving me a 50 MOA total offset from the built in base ruger puts on the chassis. i know some guys run MOA offsets way higher than 50, but where are you all zeroing at? i usually do a standard 100 yrd, but i don't think it's even possible on this rig. i do have 110 MOA of total travel, so 55 down without the zero stop. with that installed, i drop to 47 total, and only about 23 down.

does anyone know of a ballistic calculator that one can plug canted offset into? or should i just drop to a 0 MOA mount? this is a bit frustrating because i feel like i'm just guessing at where to start. making a drop table without a real zero just spits out numbers that don't make sense (to me at least).

I have the same Strike Eagle scope on my rifle with a 40 MOA base. It gives approx 92 MOA up adjustment (40 MOA from the rail + 55 MOA from half the internal adjustment- ~ 3 MOA for 100 yard zero). With your 50 MOA rail it would give you approximately 102 MOA up adjustment. Since the ring is 25 MOA per rotation you don’t need the zero stop; just dial it down to the bottom and rotate it back to your zero. I’ve shot mine out to 2010 yards, yours will work great for you.

Mike

 

[badassgunworks]

With a 110 top-to-bottom travel scope by adding a 20 MOA rail on it you have 75 usable usable Moa ,zero at 100 yards.