Rifle Scopes Leupold height turret ?, I need some help.

[Eagle1*]

I have mounted my Leupold MK4, 4.5-14x50 mildot scope on my GAP AR10. After zeroing it out, It seems that I can only turn the height turret an additional 3.3 turns up. I need to know if this is enough height adjustment to shoot out to say 800-1000 yards if I need to.

Also, will this effect the windage adjustment if I am topping out on my height adjustments?

I am wondering if this is not the best scope for this rifle application. The rings that it came with it from GAP are Badger "extra high" rings and I have at least 3/8" clearance from the forend to my 50mm lens cap cover. Does this have anything to do with the height adjustment. On the height adjustment turret, I am zero'ed at the 5 mark, you know the marks that show you how many full turns I have went up.

It just seems to be to much but maybe I am wrong, can anybody help me with this please, Thanks..

 

[SJshooter]

Re: Leupold height turret ?, I need some help.

The rings don't affect how much you can turn the turrets. If you stop and think about it, how many Mils is 3.3 turns? Then figure out your drop in Mils to a 1000.

Also, don't those scopes have zero reset feature?

 

[Eagle1*]

Re: Leupold height turret ?, I need some help.

I have rezeroed the turret but it does not allow me to push it down so that my zero would be at the first slash mark. It is actually on the 5th horizontal slash mark from the top. Kinda weird I think but I am not an expert...

mills would be around 48 moa of upper elevation that I have but I have been told the closer I get to my max height, the less windage adjustment that I have.

 

[kombar]

Re: Leupold height turret ?, I need some help.

Elevation doesn't affect windage as much as people think it does. However, it's not all that difficult to figure out what the remaining windage is at a given elevation. Bear with me and just follow along in the example. Hopefully it makes sense.

First, you'll need to find the percentage of what is dialed on the knob from the center of the adjustment range. Let's say that you needed 38 MOA to reach 1k. Your scope has a rated adjustment range of 100 MOA. If you are at the center of that range, you'll have 50 MOA up, and 50 MOA down. You currently have about 49 MOA of avaiable up, which means that you are 1 MOA above the center of the adjustment range. Once you dial in 38, you will now be 39 MOA above the center of the adjustment range. You then divide that number by half the total travel, which is 50. This will give you 0.78, which is the percentage of the total elevation used from the center of the adjustment range.

Now, you'll take the arcsin of that number, 0.78, and then take the cosine of the answer. In the case of the example: cos(arcsin(0.78)) = 0.62. If you're using the windows calculator, you'll need to be in scientific mode, and have the little "Inv" box in the upper left checked before taking the sin. It doesn't matter what angular mode you're in.

So what this answer is telling you is that you have about 62% of your total windage adjustment available when you are dialed in for 1000 yards. 62% of 100 MOA is 62 MOA, or 31 MOA per side. On top of that, you'd have an additional 5 mils which you could use to hold off. That would be a total windage capability of about 48 MOA per side, which is far more than I've ever used at that range.

Of course, this method assumes certain design aspects of the scope, namely an un-restricted range of elevation and windage, but it will give you a good estimate. Also, the formula automatically takes some internal geometries into account, so it should work with most scopes. Also, there won't be a hard stop on the windage. If you exceed the calculated numbers, the windage will still adjust, but the erector tube will start pushing down the side of the main tube, and you'll lose elevation adjustment.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[Eagle1*]

Re: Leupold height turret ?, I need some help.

kombar, thanks for the help, as I read what you are saying, that I should have plenty of up (elevation) to get me to at least 1000 yards and still have some windage up that high.

The only thing I do not like is that my scope zero hash marks are showing me on the #5 mark down, not at the even zero mark like I would have thought. This sure would make it easier for me to know where I am at on the turret but now I have to remember that I am zeroed at the 5th mark.