Elevation « Daily Bulletin

teslong borescope digital camera barrel monitor

As an Amazon Associate, this site earns a commission from Amazon sales.

February 2nd, 2010

Nightforce Adds High-Speed Elevation Adjustments for 2010

Nightforce Optics has enhanced their elevation adjustments in this year’s lineup of high-magnification Nightforce scopes. Now you can get DOUBLE the elevation travel with a SINGLE TURN of the elevation knob. For an NXS with 1/4-MOA clicks, this means you can get a full 20 MOA of elevation travel with a single turn of the knob.

Bravo, Nightforce — this simple enhancement can make a BIG difference in the field. With most “high-performance” calibers, 20 MOA will get you to 700 yards or beyond. This means that the varminter can zero at all likely hunting yardages within the same revolution of the turret. That makes life much simpler, and reduces the chance of being way off in your elevation. No more confusion about which revolution you’re on….

Likewise, a tactical shooter, moving from near to far targets and back again, can likely stay on the same revolution at most target yardages. Even if you shoot out to 1000 yards, you will be able to get all the way out to 1K within two complete revolutions. This upgrade — doubling the elevation travel in each turret revolution — gives Nightforce scopes practical performance (inside 700 yards) similar to much more expensive scopes fitted with a single-turn or double-turn elevation systems (such as the U.S. Optics EREK knob). The new high-speed adjustment system will be offered in Nightforce’s 15x, 22x, 32x, and 42x series of scopes. Anticipated delivery date for scopes with the high-speed adjustment is May, 2010.

What About Retro-fitting Older NF Scopes?
Nightforce plans to provide an upgrade path for existing Nightforce scopes “eventually, but not right away”. The upgrade would allow installation of the “high-speed adjustment” system on older NF scopes. We don’t have any more specifics. Nightforce has NOT revealed how much the high-speed conversion would cost or when it might be available for pre-2010 scopes.

Permalink - Videos, New Product, Optics 2 Comments »

July 5th, 2009

Custom-Calibrated Windage & Elevation Knobs from Kenton

Kenton Calibrated Windage Knob Here’s something that can save you lots of time and aggravation on a varminting trip. This little $90 gizmo is great for varmint hunters and any one who needs to make a quick shot in shifty wind conditions. Instead of the traditional 1/4-MOA hash marks, the Kenton windage turret features markers corresponding to the wind drift your rifle will encounter at various distances.

Custom-Calibrated Windage Knobs
Kenton Industries’ Tuned Windage Compensator (TWC) has built-in windage marks for 10 mph cross-winds at 100-1000 yards. How do they do that? Well the knobs are calibrated either for specific calibers/loads, or they can make custom knobs using your observed field data. The knobs can compensate for various wind speeds (2-20 mph) and angles (15°- 90°), by applying some simple conversion ratios. As a general rule, with a “full-value”, i.e. 90°, crosswind, the wind drift will go up or down in direct proportion to the change in windspeed. That means, for example, a 10 mph crosswind will push the bullet twice as much sideways as a 5 mph crosswind.

Two versions of Kenton’s TWC knobs are offered. The $89.95 TWC #1 features calculated ballistics for standardized factory ammo for the caliber and barrel length you specify. The $89.95 TWC #2 feature customized windage settings based on bullet BC, environmental conditions, elevation, and ballistic information you provide.

Custom Elevation Knobs
Kenton also makes an $79.95 elevation-compensating TTC knob, that can be customized to your rifle. With this elevation turret, yardages are marked in 50-yard increments, and you can literally just “dial in your distance”. However, to work effectively the TTC knob must be tailored to a particular load (velocity and bullet). Moreover, actual bullet drop will differ with changes in altitude, temperature, and shooting angle — so it’s not as simple as it sounds, and you may need multiple knobs if you shoot a variety of loads. Kenton offers it TTC #1 model calibrated for standardized factory ammo. The TTC #2 is calibrated out to the maximum effective range of your cartridge based on bullet type, muzzle velocity, altitude, and temperature. Select the type of yardage format to be used. The #2 is recommended for wildcatters or for those who want to adjust to specific conditions. Lastly, a TTC #3 elevation knob is offered that relies on the purchaser’s actual recorded drop data from the field. The TTC #3 elevation knob will be calibrated based on the click-value or MOA you provide for each 50-yard increment.

Permalink Optics 2 Comments »

May 28th, 2009

Print and Laminate a Ballistics Data Card

Three-gun match competitor Zak Smith employs a simple, handy means to store his elevation and wind dift data — a laminated data card. To make one, first generate a come-up table, using one of the free online ballistics programs such as JBM Ballistics. You can also put the information in an Excel spreadsheet or MS Word table and print it out. You want to keep it pretty small.

Below is a sample of a data card. For each distance, the card includes drop in inches, drop in MOA, drop in mils. It also shows drift for a 10-mph cross wind, expressed three ways–inches, MOA, and mils. Zak explained that “to save space… I printed data every 50 yards. For an actual data-card, I recommend printing data every 20 or 25 yards.” But Zak also advised that you’ll want to customize the card format to keep things simple: “The sample card has multiple sets of data to be more universal. But if you make your own data card, you can reduce the chance of a mistake by keeping it simple. Because I use scopes with MILS, my own card (bottom photo) just has three items: range, wind, drop in MILS only.”

Once you have the card you can fold it in half and then have it laminated at a local office store or Kinko’s. You can keep this in your pocket, tape it to your stock, or tie the laminated card to your rifle. If you regularly shoot at both low and high elevations, you may want to create multiple cards (since your ballistics change with altitude). To learn more about ballistic tables and data cards, check out the excellent “Practical Long-Range Rifle Shooting–Part 1″ article on Zak’s website. This article offers many other insights as well–including valuable tips on caliber and rifle selection.

Another option is to place your ballistics card on the back of the front flip-up scope cover. This set-up is used by Forum member Greg C. (aka “Rem40X”). With your ‘come-up’ table on the flip-up cover you can check your windage and elevation easily without having to move up off the rifle and roll the gun over to look at the side of the stock. Greg tells us: “Placing my trajectory table on the front scope cover has worked well for me for a couple of years and thought I’d share. It’s in plain view and not under my armpit. And the table is far enough away that my aging eyes can read it easily. To apply, just use clear tape on the front objective cover.”

ballistics data scope cover