I'm sure most of you know by now that I am a huge fanboy for March riflescopes. I bought my first one, a 5-50X56, 10 years ago. I subsequently upgraded to the 10-60X56 HM 3 years ago, and now my F-TR rifle sports a Majesta 8-80X56 HM with the MTR-WFD reticle. Yesterday, I shot my second match with this setup and I thought I would tell you about it. This time around, I had all my equipment with me, and everything worked fine. The competition was the Bayou Rifles monthly LR 1000-yard match.
I should mention that Bayou recently redid the target line, they removed the pits and placed all the targets on the ground, not 10 feet in the air. So now, we get the full effect of the mirage, right in the soup. And yesterday, the soup was served along with a nasty little inconsistent left to right wind.
Last month was my first outing with the Majesta and I found that the position of the riflescope was not optimum. So, when I got home I took it off and reset it to what I felt was a good position and remounted everything. Yesterday I was a little anxious about where the riflescope was pointing and I had not had a chance to verify anything. We have a rule that you have to be on target within two rounds, because of the amount of electronics downrange. (It used to be 7 rounds when we had expendable humans pulling targets. Just because they were behind a 2 inch thick armor plate on the other side of a 30 foot thick berm.)
So, when my turn came, relay two, I was a little worried. I aimed dead center at the X and pressed the trigger. The Shot Marker showed its little blue icon inside of 2 seconds, so I relaxed. Then after the stupid, unnecessary, pointless, arbitrary, mandated 7-second delay, the score showed up. X. I was in business.
I took two more sighters, both 9s low at 10 o'clock and asked my scorer to punch it for me as I didn't have ammo to spare. I'm in my loading process for the Nationals. Murph punched it, I made some adjustments on the scope and my hold and took my first shot for record. 10. 10. X. 10. X. X. Slap, a 9 low. Then another pair of 10s and a few more 9s. I ended up with a 195-5. Even though the flags were limp, there was something going on out there. The Majesta was set to 80X and the IQ was great. In the scope I was focused on the aiming circle, and simply placing the central dot where I wanted on the target. I would see my whole target and the bottom of the number sign above the target. This was I could confirm my target number. Then I noticed that the target number was also written on the top left of the frame. I could read it quite well, at 80X. The reticle was great, it felt like a HUD display and it was a joy to use.
Match #2. The conditions had changed quite a bit. The wind was coming from the left. I decided that I would need 1.5MOA left, but opted to not put in any correction in the scope. I wanted to use the reticle to see if that would work out for me. My two sighters were a pair of 9s out the right. I asked Murph to punch it for me after the second sighter and held on the target using the reticle and the rings. By that time the mirage had come to play and the IQ degraded some, but the aiming black stayed perfectly round and the rings were quite distinct. My first shot for record was an X, followed by another X. Then I missed a let off and got a 9. I was also plagued with some elevation issues and I think that now that the targets are on the ground, the verticals will be more common. I plodded on alternating between holding with the reticle, Ie placing the proper hash mark on the X, or holding on the rings themselves. Both worked well for me, and my dropped points were mostly elevation. I was not alone in that aspect. At one point, I got an 8 low and Murph said the velocity was of by 80FPS. I finished with a pair of 10s and a 192-6X. At the end of my string we had reached maximum badness for the day.
Match #3. Same conditions as before but now there were letoffs and pickups. Just to make it more challenging. I opted to stay at 80X and continue the technique of holding with the rings or the reticle. My 2 sighters were a pair of 9s, and then I asked Murph to pucnh it and to be ready to have his mind blown again. First shot X. Next shot 9. Ah, the let off were there. I elected to use only the reticle from now on and used it as a slider scale depending on what I was observing in my Kowa 883 right next to me. At the end of the first 10, I had dropped 4 nines, collected 4 Xs and 2 10s. I stayed on with the strategy but tried to pay closer attention to the intensity of the mirage river in the Kowa and also in the Majesta. For the back 10, I shot 4 Xs and 4 tens and a pair of 9s. My last shot was a 9 and I let that one happen; I should have stayed focused but by that time, I was hot as heck and actually relieved to be finished. 194-8X. In heavy, intense mirage, but at 80X. Total of 581-19X. I won Master class and came in second overall. For the conditions, I think this is one of my better showings and I think the Majesta made that possible.
I did take the time to check the outer wings and they cradle the 10-ring nicely at 80X. I didn't have to use them because the wind wasn't that strong but it's nice to know they will do the job if you have to use them. During my last match, I was adjusting the equivalent of near the edge of the black to holding almost dead center. It was that kind of wind. I also did not pause and wait for conditions to change except for once, when we had a big letoff and it started picking up again almost instantly. I waited a whole 30 seconds or so to make sure it was not going to blow more than the prior observed maximum.
