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February 2nd, 2023

Western Hunting EXPO February 2-5 in Salt Lake City

western hunting expo salt lake utah deer sheep elk

The 2023 Western Hunting and Conservation EXPO opens today at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Western Hunting and Conservation Expo is the largest hunting convention open to the public in the Western USA. The EXPO features daily seminars, waterfowl and elk calling championships, auctions, drawings and more. Exhibit halls open 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Thursday through Saturday and 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Sunday. A partnership between the Mule Deer Foundation, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, and Utah Office of Tourism. With over 400 hunting and outdoor business vendors, this year’s event should attract over 55,000 attendees.

western hunting expo salt lake utah deer sheep elk
CLICK HERE to register for the EXPO. Various packages are offered. There is a basic 4-day Hall Pass, and other deluxe packages including banquets and entertainment.

western hunting expo salt lake utah deer sheep elk

New Elite Hunter Bullets from Berger
Berger Bullets will attend the 2023 Western Hunting EXPO this year in Utah. Berger’s hunting bullets — VLD Hunting, Elite Hunter, and Classic Hunter –are designed for controlled expansion and extreme hydrostatic shock at both short- and long-range distances. These bullets are available for handloaders, and these bullet options are also offered used in quality factory ammo.

New for 2023, Berger has expanded its successful Elite Hunter ammunition with the following offerings: 6mm Creedmoor 108 Grain Elite Hunter, 6.5 Creedmoor 140 Grain Elite Hunter, 6.5 PRC 140 Grain Elite Hunter, and 300 PRC 245 Grain Elite Hunter.

This article, as published in AccurateShooter.com, contains copyrighted content. It shall not be republished in whole or in part without advanced permission in writing. The act of republishing constitutes legal consent to licensing fees.

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February 2nd, 2023

How to Verify Your Scope’s True Click Values — Box Test

Click Optics MOA turrent verification test

Let’s say you’ve purchased a new scope, and the spec-sheet indicates it is calibrated for quarter-MOA clicks. One MOA is 1.047″ inches at 100 yards, so you figure that’s how far your point of impact (POI) will move with four clicks. Well, unfortunately, you may be wrong. You can’t necessarily rely on what the manufacturer says. Production tolerances being what they are, you should test your scope to determine how much movement it actually delivers with each click of the turret. It may move a quarter-MOA, or maybe a quarter-inch, or maybe something else entirely. (Likewise scopes advertised as having 1/8-MOA clicks may deliver more or less than 1 actual MOA for 8 clicks.)

Nightforce scope turretReader Lindy explains how to check your clicks: “First, make sure the rifle is not loaded. Take a 40″ or longer carpenter’s ruler, and put a very visible mark (such as the center of an orange Shoot’N’C dot), at 37.7 inches. (On mine, I placed two dots side by side every 5 inches, so I could quickly count the dots.) Mount the ruler vertically (zero at top) exactly 100 yards away, carefully measured.

Place the rifle in a good hold on sandbags or other rest. With your hundred-yard zero on the rifle, using max magnification, carefully aim your center crosshairs at the top of the ruler (zero end-point). Have an assistant crank on 36 (indicated) MOA (i.e. 144 clicks), being careful not to move the rifle. (You really do need a helper, it’s very difficult to keep the rifle motionless if you crank the knobs yourself.) With each click, the reticle will move a bit down toward the bottom of the ruler. Note where the center crosshairs rest when your helper is done clicking. If the scope is accurately calibrated, it should be right at that 37.7 inch mark. If not, record where 144 clicks puts you on the ruler, to figure out what your actual click value is. (Repeat this several times as necessary, to get a “rock-solid”, repeatable value.) You now know, for that scope, how much each click actually moves the reticle at 100 yards–and, of course, that will scale proportionally at longer distances. This optical method is better than shooting, because you don’t have the uncertainly associated with determining a group center.

Using this method, I discovered that my Leupold 6.5-20X50 M1 has click values that are calibrated in what I called ‘Shooter’s MOA’, rather than true MOA. That is to say, 4 clicks moved POI 1.000″, rather than 1.047″ (true MOA). That’s about a 5% error.

I’ve tested bunches of scopes, and lots have click values which are significantly off what the manufacturer has advertised. You can’t rely on printed specifications–each scope is different. Until you check your particular scope, you can’t be sure how much it really moves with each click.

I’ve found the true click value varies not only by manufacturer, but by model and individual unit. My Leupold 3.5-10 M3LR was dead on. So was my U.S.O. SN-3 with an H25 reticle, but other SN-3s have been off, and so is my Leupold 6.5-20X50M1. So, check ‘em all, is my policy.”

click values scope Mrad moa scope test

From the Expert: “…Very good and important article, especially from a ballistics point of view. If a ballistics program predicts 30 MOA of drop at 1000 yards for example, and you dial 30 MOA on your scope and hit high or low, it’s easy to begin questioning BCs, MVs, and everything else under the sun. In my experience, more than 50% of the time error in trajectory prediction at long range is actually scope adjustment error. For serious long range shooting, the test described in this article is a MUST!” — Bryan Litz, Applied Ballistics LLC.

Bryan also uses a Tall Target Test to determine true click values. CLICK HERE to read a detailed, explanatory article about Litz’s Tall Target Test.

This article, as published in AccurateShooter.com, contains copyrighted content. It shall not be republished in whole or in part without advanced permission in writing. The act of republishing constitutes legal consent to licensing fees.

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