Time to change scopes on the BRK Ghost.
For most of the first 18 months an Athlon Midas Tac sat atop. For the last 5ish months it has had a PARD electronic scope. The PARD allowed the filming of some prairie dog pesting, as well as the filming of an Ultimate Field Target match (all of that shared here already). But I need some more magnification for the UFT matches than is available from the PARD. And the Midas Tac has since moved on to another gun that I'll use for AAFtA field target....
My homeless scopes that were potentials were a 20x fixed SWFA and a Falcon X50 10-50. The SWFA has been successfully used for UFT before but not the X50.
Pros to the SWFA are: mil, size, weight, fixed power so no FFP/SFP concerns. (Could still put the Ghost in the factory hardcase with this one. )
Cons are: IQ and only 20x so can't turn it down for the forced offhand shots
Pros to the X50 are: IQ and 25x (max allowed), can be turned down to 10x for the offhand shots
Cons to the X50 are: SFP, moa, size, weight.
Pretty much decided on the the X50 mostly for the IQ. But i was somewhat concerned about the 1/8moa clicks requiring more than a revolution for 100 yards during UFT matches, not having enough elevation to shoot out to 200+ yards (remember this is my dedicated slug gun now), and the SFP. So I did some number crunching and theorizing by mocking up a profile in Strelok and referencing the X50 manual.
Strelok says I'll need 72 clicks at 100 yards and 19 clicks at 20 yards (max and min for UFT) for a 30 yard zero. Since I'll prob set my zero more like 40-45, we're all good there. Scope has 80 clicks per revolution, so 20-100 yards are within one revolution. It's not a complete deal-breaker if a scope doesn't work out to one revolution for a comp gun, it's just easier to not get off by a complete rotation by forgetting where you're at on the turret.
Assuming my vertical zero will be about what it was from the previous gun, I've currently got 260 clicks of vertical before maxing out, which would take me to 190 yards with the BC and speed of the .20/18.9 NSA slug.
I also am seeing in the manual that it's MOA @ 25x, and everything doubles at 12.5x. Since the reticle goes to 20moa, it'd be 40 moa of holdover @ 12.5x. 40moa would get me to 218 yards. So with a combo of clicking and holdover @ 12.5x, I can get as far as I have any business throwing hail Mary's (which I sure enjoy doing).
So, the X50 is now on the Ghost. Will run it primarily at 25x and mostly dial the turrets to avoid/account for the SFP problem. Will also figure out holdover+dialing solutions for 12.5x @ 190+ yards. Next step is to zero it and work out my actual dope by shooting it at 20-250ish yards. Then a dope card. Then we'll be all ready to see how it does at the next UFT match at the end of January.
(Man this X50 is a monster of a scope. I'm not sure if I mounted a scope on the Ghost or if I mounted the Ghost on the scope. It'll be interesting to see how top-heavy/tippy it makes the Ghost platform.)
For most of the first 18 months an Athlon Midas Tac sat atop. For the last 5ish months it has had a PARD electronic scope. The PARD allowed the filming of some prairie dog pesting, as well as the filming of an Ultimate Field Target match (all of that shared here already). But I need some more magnification for the UFT matches than is available from the PARD. And the Midas Tac has since moved on to another gun that I'll use for AAFtA field target....
My homeless scopes that were potentials were a 20x fixed SWFA and a Falcon X50 10-50. The SWFA has been successfully used for UFT before but not the X50.
Pros to the SWFA are: mil, size, weight, fixed power so no FFP/SFP concerns. (Could still put the Ghost in the factory hardcase with this one. )
Cons are: IQ and only 20x so can't turn it down for the forced offhand shots
Pros to the X50 are: IQ and 25x (max allowed), can be turned down to 10x for the offhand shots
Cons to the X50 are: SFP, moa, size, weight.
Pretty much decided on the the X50 mostly for the IQ. But i was somewhat concerned about the 1/8moa clicks requiring more than a revolution for 100 yards during UFT matches, not having enough elevation to shoot out to 200+ yards (remember this is my dedicated slug gun now), and the SFP. So I did some number crunching and theorizing by mocking up a profile in Strelok and referencing the X50 manual.
Strelok says I'll need 72 clicks at 100 yards and 19 clicks at 20 yards (max and min for UFT) for a 30 yard zero. Since I'll prob set my zero more like 40-45, we're all good there. Scope has 80 clicks per revolution, so 20-100 yards are within one revolution. It's not a complete deal-breaker if a scope doesn't work out to one revolution for a comp gun, it's just easier to not get off by a complete rotation by forgetting where you're at on the turret.
Assuming my vertical zero will be about what it was from the previous gun, I've currently got 260 clicks of vertical before maxing out, which would take me to 190 yards with the BC and speed of the .20/18.9 NSA slug.
I also am seeing in the manual that it's MOA @ 25x, and everything doubles at 12.5x. Since the reticle goes to 20moa, it'd be 40 moa of holdover @ 12.5x. 40moa would get me to 218 yards. So with a combo of clicking and holdover @ 12.5x, I can get as far as I have any business throwing hail Mary's (which I sure enjoy doing).
So, the X50 is now on the Ghost. Will run it primarily at 25x and mostly dial the turrets to avoid/account for the SFP problem. Will also figure out holdover+dialing solutions for 12.5x @ 190+ yards. Next step is to zero it and work out my actual dope by shooting it at 20-250ish yards. Then a dope card. Then we'll be all ready to see how it does at the next UFT match at the end of January.
(Man this X50 is a monster of a scope. I'm not sure if I mounted a scope on the Ghost or if I mounted the Ghost on the scope. It'll be interesting to see how top-heavy/tippy it makes the Ghost platform.)
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