Varmint Hunters Reticle

[Gary in MD]

Has anyone tried Leupold's varmint hunters reticle? I'm thinking of trying it in a 8.5 - 25 x . It would be used for varmints out to about 500 yards on my 6mm ai.
Likes and dislikes welcomed.
Thanks in advance,
Gary

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Might very well be the best reticle out there for what we do. I have nine of my Lupy's fitted with the VHR and would not change a thing. Great for longer range shooting w/o dialing, and the wind ticks alone are worth the price of admission.

 

[Hotshot]

Reticle shows up well while still being fine enough for small targets at long distance. With a 200yard zero my 204R load works out to 370, 460, 540, 615 set at 14X. I also use an M1 turret in case I want to dial(learned that from Rick). You won't be sorry with that choice.
P.S. I have 6.5-20X scopes and only use the higher power for load testing at the range. 14X is all you need in a prairie dog town.

 

[expiper]

Gary,,,,any of the "ladder rung"(moa/mil dot/etc.) reticles are very helpful for long range shots at various distances,,,,,that is why military long range shooters use them,,,,when a target apears at various distance and or the wind changes,,you can adjust your hold immediately !!!..and if you miss and see the "splash" in the dirt you can guage it by how many strata it was left/right--up/down...for a follow up shot...Pretty handy,,,...Roger

 

[shooter63]

was wondering if this reticle is the same as the/ h70 reticle in the horis vision 2000 preditor scope / i have 1 but never used it/ have played the game on their site but never used it past 100 yds. in real life / not trying to steal a post but thought someone might have had experience with this reticle or scope since ive heard the leupold company & military were going to adopt this for use thanks for any knowledge on this regards shooter63

 

[timeout]

I have one in a 6-20X50 VX3 and I like it except - it is not calibrated to the ballistics of my rifle. I have the first crosshair sighted in at 200 yards. Second cross hair is dead on at 300 yards. After that things go haywire. I am going to try the MOAR reticle offered by NightForce and see if that might fit my needs better. I'm not big on a lot of reticle clutter in my scope, especially for hunting, as in when things are moving and happening fast. The Varmint hunter reticle doesn't seem to bother me much, just doesn't match my yardages like I want.

 

[Gary in MD]

I don't like too much clutter either and don't figure on the hash marks matching my exact load but was hoping to get something close. Thanks for the opinions, keep them coming.
Gary

 

[waterfwlr]

I have two of the 8.5-25 with that reticle on my varmint rifles. I really like them. It's fine enough for the long shots at pd's. Great clarity and with that western wind, the windage hashes work well.

 

[itchyTF]

Maybe it's just me...... I had a few of the VHRs but what I didn't like - if you had something other than a 10 or 20 mph wind (and you didn't want to use the turrets) it seems like you would have to hold somewhere in the "white space". Eyeball interpolation of an intersection of vertical holdover and wind. On a large target it may not be that important but on a PD sized target at some distance holding in the "white space" seemed too imprecise.

 

[varmintshooter]

Gary I have that same scope and thought it was great until I learned more about it. The problem is that for the hash marks to match your load you will have to be at a certain power setting. The marks will not be on at 300, 400, 500 etc but may be close.The windage will only work on max power ( 25 in this case ), so you can't use both at once. I also have a zeiss with that ret. and can go to their web site, put in all my load information and it will tell me what power setting to use. This is still not the perfect setup but I feel it is a little better. I just picked up a new scope with a MOAR. It is a 4 x 16 and will need to be on 16 power for both elevation and windage hash marks to equal moa, no matter what your load moa is moa so if you need to come up 8 moa you just hold on the 8 moa hash mark. If I want to dial in my elevation I can still use the windage hash mark as long as I am on 16 power. I shot with this scope at 100 yds to zero and played around with it and think this will be the best yet. I hope.

 

[tjtjwdad]

If you have a smart phone, down load the "Istrelok" app. They have just about any reticle out there. Fill in the ballistic info and the app allows you to set the range settings for the entire zoom range of the scope.

 

[triggerhappy243]

only one scope I have has that BDC circles and I am sorry I bought it. I prefer a very fine vertical cross hair system..... with no hash marks. clutters up your field of view. at 600 yards the fine line still covers up a prairie dog. and I use the body size of the p-dogs to gauge the hold over. Don't miss much.

 

[waterfwlr]

If you have a smart phone, down load the "Istrelok" app. They have just about any reticle out there. Fill in the ballistic info and the app allows you to set the range settings for the entire zoom range of the scope.

Yes, I do that as well. Strelok has that reticle.

 

[Gary in MD]

Thanks guys, this is all good info.
I started with a Zeiss Conquest 6.5 - 20x with a duplex (and did pretty good on groundhogs) then decided that I "needed more power" for shooting targets at the range. I went to a Burris Black Diamond 8 - 32x, I'm just not happy with it, can't explain. I guess that I could send the Zeiss in for a reticle change.
Gary

 

[wapiti25]

The Varmint Hunter's and the Boone and Crockett reticle both are one size fits all. Not good but can be used with a lot of trigger time. I zero at longer range such as 400 and then the 200 and 300 are off a little and the 500 is not as bad as using the 200 zero.

 

[mr45man]

What wapit25 said. Tweek the 4 or 500 yard impact to the scope to be dead on , and the closer ranges will be with in MOA of P Dog.
John H.

 

[sundance]

I have 5 of them and like them (obviously). 2 of them are on 6 ackleys. If you buy it and don't like it you can always sell it and try something else. The only negative for me is that the windage turret makes it a challenge to close some rifle cases. Once I sight in the rifle I hold off so that turret doesn't get used much after that. I am saving to buy my 6 th one soon.

 

[DCRYDER]

I figured it up once and IIRC a bullet with a bc of .330 at 3325fps works out perfect with the vhr. The only bullet I could find to match that bc was a 6mm 75gr max.

 

[sscoyote]

I also love the VHR. Only have one, but I'm gonna be switching most of my scopes to VHR's eventually. Have a buddy who has used it on a 243 AR-10 for coyote sniping and has been unusually successful out to 785 yds. on 1st shots (600-something via reticle). I love the 1.77 MOA windage units along the horizontal axis for precise windage reference along with a target elevation turret (only--no windage needed). This way you have the best of both worlds--a great ballistic reticle for fast applications along with a quality turret/windage reticle for more precise apps.

I don't worry whether a ballistic reticle matches even 100-yd. intervals. I just calculate trajectory, match it to the reticle subtensions, troubleshoot via shooting, then recalculate in 50-yd. intervals, and put dope in a Butler Creek scope cap cover, range, elevation, and windage like this--



Besides having a reticle that matches intuitively to even hundred yd. intervals this is the simplest system of subtension application that I could come up with. I have made one addtl. change to my dope sticker in that I have eliminated zeros for the range, since it makes it just a bit simpler (and smaller) with no addtl. thinking required, i.e. 3 for 300, 35 for 350, etc.

 

[sscoyote]

was wondering if this reticle is the same as the/ h70 reticle in the horis vision 2000 preditor scope / i have 1 but never used it/ have played the game on their site but never used it past 100 yds. in real life / not trying to steal a post but thought someone might have had experience with this reticle or scope since ive heard the leupold company & military were going to adopt this for use thanks for any knowledge on this regards shooter63

The H70 HV Predator reticle is based on inch per hundred yards (IPHY) or shooter's MOA (SMOA), or even inch of angle (IOA) as it's also commonly referred to. Ballistic reticles do not repeat their subtensions, since they're based on the parabolic curve of a trajectory, although they are still applied the same. I also have 2 of those, one of which is on a Magnum Research Picuda 22 long rifle that we've actually shot as far out as 600 yds. at 135 MOA reticle + turret, believe it or not--



@8X--


@ 26X you can see all of the 20 SMOA line.