A New Rifle and Scope?

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Ed Hale

So you have a new Leupold VX-1 nice choice. You mounted it on a new rifle 30-06 Springfield, on your favorite Rifle Manufacturer like Savage, Ruger, Remington, Winchester, Kimber, TC and many more.

For discussion sake say you have purchased over the counter Winchester ammo with Nosler 150 grain E-Tips for your hunt. A polymer tipped solid gilding copper bullet that flairs into a mushroom with petals.

Note: gilding copper leaves very little residue in the barrel unlike other soft copper bullets.

Lets go to the range and bore sight your rifle and scope at 25 yards. After that we want to shoot it at 100 yards to fine tune your shot placement and shoot for group.

And finally we want to determine your Maximum Point Blank Range (MPBR) with this Cartridge. If you are not familiar with this term let me explain. MPBR was developed so that the hunter can hit a kill zone of 6 inches from zero yards to a point where the bullet still falls in the six inch kill circle often well past past 200 yards.

But first things first lets get you sighted in.

(Muzzle velocity of the 150 grain E-Tip is 2900 fps is written right on the box. This combo is great for short or long range as the e-Tip will stay together as it flairs. It has an SD (Sectional Density) of .226 and is best for deer, black bear and elk according to many experts. It is great for large New England deer in the 200 lb plus class.)

Sighting in – Without spending a dime on bore sighting tools you can take the bolt out of your new rifle and do what is called bore sighting and you won’t have to use up your expensive ammo. If you like some aid in gadgets the Leupold Magnetic Bore Sighter is a great tool. Check it out on the web.

We will need a firm steady front and rear rest. Sand bag rests are great and cheap. My best front rest is a Caldwell for 39 bucks and a sand bag rear rest that cradles the stock.

Place your target that has a one inch grid pattern on it such as a Champion Redfield Sight in Target at a distance of 25 yards.

Place your rifle on sand bags that hold the rifle with out you touching it. You can use bench rest leather or fabric sand bags or purchase a rest like the Caldwell as I said.

Look down the bore where the bolt was, and place the bore in the bullseye of a target. keeping the rifle still adjust the scope left right up down so that the scope matches the bore image. You may have to get your rifle in focus by turning the rear focus ocular bell see your Leupold scope manual.

At 25 yards with a scope that has 1/4″ clicks for 100 yards, it will take 4 clicks to move your crosshair 1/4 inch at 25 yards and one click to move it 1/4 inch at 100 yards. If you are 2 inches left visually (no shooting yet) at 25 yards then you will need to move the scope right. How many 1/4 inches are there in 2 inches? There are 8 therefore multiply 8 x 4 = 32 clicks. It will take 32 clicks to get the scope on the target bull.

Now take a shot. The fore-stock should be in the front rest and not the barrel.

The shot is one inch high and one inch left. Make the same adjustments with the 25 yard formula which is what?

For the one inch high shot you will need to come down 4 x 4 =16 clicks. The same 16 clicks to come right. Yes that is alot of clicks but because you are shooting so close it takes that many to move the point of aim.

Take a shot. Chances are you are smack dab in the x-ring. and you only took 2 shots to get there.

Now place your target at 100 yards.

Take a shot with the scope adjusted to 9 power for better visibility of the bullseye.

Ok you are 3 inches high and one inch to the left. You are almost done. Lets bring the scope down so you are in the bullseye. How many clicks? 12 is correct. And to the right you move windage 4 clicks. Now before I shoot for groups, I will tap a scope lightly with my knuckles like knocking on a door or tap it with a small rubber mallet to set the windage and elevation adjustments firmly into position.

Load a round put the safety on and take it off safe when you are ready to shoot taking 3 shots.

Shoot so that the sand bags do all the work of holding the cross hairs on target so all you need to do is keep the rifle firmly into your shoulder (need a good recoil pad) take a breath and let it out half way. Hold your breath and squeeze the trigger. Wait 2 minutes or more between shots. Great Group! 3/4 inch at 100 yards! Nice shooting. Shoot another group and average them.

For the hunt you may want to know Maximum Point Blank Range for your 150 grain e-Tip traveling at 2900 fps. The 150 grain has drag Ballistic Coefficient of .469. This is a very good BC. Now go to the Hornady Ballistic Calculator in the header of this website and enter the speed of the bullet and the BC. Choose 550 yards for farthest shot at 50 yard increments. It is a hot day so I chose 80 degrees with a 10 mph wind. I zeroed the rifle at 200 yards.

As you can see the bullet drops to 2.8 inches below center at 250 yards. Close enough to 3 inches low to call this your MPBR. In other words you are in the kill zone of a big game animal out to 250 yards by holding the cross-hairs dead on in the heart lung area. Wow! Just be aware that the bullet drifted 4 inches at 250 yards with the 10 mph wind so you should compensate or limit your shot to no farther than 200 yards. The wind was the limiting factor here.

Now practice without a bench rest from standing, kneeling, using a tree to brace your rifle, a backpack as a brace and you will learn your best killing distance. Learn to shoot with a bolt rifle by working the bolt between shots. Get back on target and shoot again. Practice that a lot so you can just do it at will. You will know when you are getting good! Good Hunting! ©

600 Yards at Nashua F&G with the Savage 10/110 Predator in .243 Winchester

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Ed Hale

The 600 yard Rifle Range at Nashua Fish and Game was the place to be yesterday. The day began bright and sunny with little wind and the temperature was in the 60’s, ideal for long range shooting.

While setting up the Savage 10/110 Predator in .243 Winchester , I photographed some of the custom target shooting rifles (Below) that were too heavy to handle. Note the white strip above the barrel is a heat diffuser to reduce scope distortion. This rifle is likely shooting 6mm (.243) or .308 ammo. The Scope is set up for ultra long range beyond 25x. I think the shooter said this scope can crank to 50x if he wanted it.

The camo rifle below had no scope just a sophisticated peep and front site.

Back to my story, I had just proven some loads a few days before for the Nosler 90 grain e-tips using an accurate starting load of IMR 4350 using CCI Benchrest Primers.

The new Savage 10/110 .243 Winchester shot sub-moa groups of around 3/4 inch with a trigger pull of 2lbs 2 oz. I could likely do better if I fussed with the powder or seat depth of the bullet but this was satisfactory at the get-go. Below is the Savage 10/110 Predator.

I switched out the Nikon Coyote Special scope with circle reticles to the Leupold VX-1 I was testing. The Leupold had the crosshairs I needed for such a long distance. So in the rainy downpour yesterday I got the scope and rifle to bullseye the Nosler’s at 100 yards.

Being such a stickler for details, I did not want to go the 600 yard range and guess at how many clicks up on the Leupold to get me to 600 yards so I calculated it. Here is how I did it. Using the Hornady Ballistic Calculator in my web header above, I entered the caliber, speed of the bullet from the Nosler loading book and the ballistic coefficient for that bullet, in this case I chose the G1 drag function is for a standard bullet shape. I could have chosen the G7 Drag Function for a Long range boat tail but didn’t know enough about these functions to mess around. I chose the range to 600 yards in the Calculator and hit the Calculate button. Reading the resulting upclicks for 600 yards it read 14.9 MOA (Minute of Angle). To calculate the upclicks multiply that number times 4 for a scope with 1/4 inch MOA per click at 100 yards, the answer was 55 clicks up. I knew it was not perfect because I was not able to Chronograph the bullet speed but the data in the Nosler manual was good enough to get me on paper and in the black. I shot the first one at about 15 inches high and adjusted the scope down 5 clicks after 5 shots and that put me in the 10 ring where I was happy to just shoot for group. I watched the flags for when to shoot between small gusts of wind and was pleased to place all but one in the 10 ring and 2 in the x-ring. The group of 7 shots is estimated to be less than 6 inches vertically. That is excellent making the group sub- Minute of Angle. Note: A five mph wind can blow the bullet sideways 10 inches at 600 yards. The combination of the Savage Rifle , Leupold Scope, bullet, powder was a good match RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX.

After the shoot, I went back to my club range and cranked the Leupold dial back down 50 clicks and shot a 3/4 inch group in the 100 yard bullseye. The Leupold VX-1 is a fine scope indeed for a hunting scope and proved itself today. The LR Long Range Reticle is explained below (it is a bit pixelated sorry) but at 600 yard they were too short for my use and would have to be proven in with each load. I believe you need access to a range that allows you to experiment with loads to get the Reticle to work properly at long distances. My club rifle range is only 150 yards.

This rifle is a top long distance rifle. I would take this out west for antelope at 300 yards with the load I was shooting or 400 yards (1000 ft lbs) with the Nosler Custom Factory Loads for the 90 grain e-tip that drive the bullet to 3200 fps. Expansion on game is ideal!!

Good Hunting and Good Shooting! ©

TC Dimension in .243 Winchester Review – Out of the Box

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Ed Hale

Out of the Box, this TC Dimension is a cool looking rifle.

The TC Dimension uses a system of LOC™, Locking Optimized Components, that allows the interchange of four caliber families. Innovative engineering genius? You Bet! The barrel, bolt and magazine are all marked with an LOC™ letter.

Dimension Caliber Families:
A – .204 Ruger, .223 Rem
B – .22-250 Rem*, .243 Win, 7mm-08 Rem, .308 Win
C – .270 Win, .30-06 Sprg
D – 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag
LOC stocks, receivers, bridge scope mounts and hand tools can be
used with any Series A, B, C and D components

Specifications:

Weight 7 lbs

Stock Composite

Barrel 22 inches Floating

Twist Rate 1-10 inches

Pull Length 12.5 – 13.5 inches

Mag Cap 3 rounds

OAL 41 3/4 inches

Check out TC’s Video Introduction: http://dimensionrifle.tcarms.com/all-dimension-rifle-videos/#skating-down-the-mississippi-river-red-bull-mississippi-grind-2

As I said earlier in a post that you can switch barrels easily from .204 Ruger all the way up to 300 Win Mag. In putting the bolt in the rifle it is not as easy as it looks because the high cheek of the stock interferes with the bolt installation. In fact there is a small cavity in the stock to allow the bolt to move into it. But once the bolt is in, all is well. The bolt lift to open the chamber is very short making it fast for a follow-up shot. The .243 barrel looks to be so small that it floats high above the stock. I did find the stock comb shape to aid in my view through the Leupold VX-1 scope which mounted easily to the provided Weaver Base. The adjustable trigger measured 4 lbs 5 oz pull weight out of the box.

Online research revealed that the .243 barrel with a 1-10 twist rate tends to shoot lighter bullets well and that heavy bullets such as the 90 grain and heavier to (I don’t consider 90 grains heavy) can become unstable as they are not spinning fast enough. I handloaded 55 grain Nosler Ballistic tip below that came out of the TC .243 barrel screaming at around 3700 fps and shot a sub-moa group at 100 yards out of the box. Nosler bullets are simply the best in class! http://www.nosler.com/Bullets/Ballistic-Tip-Varmint.aspx

The Leupold Scope was set at 9x and adjusted for focal point at 100 yards. It was a terrific companion for the TC Dimension Rifle. The Leupold VX- 1 Scope retails for around $220 dollars and is worth every penny.

From the website below: There’s much to tell about our new VX®-1, but here’s how the story ends: No other scope in its class comes even close the the quality, performance, and value of VX-1. With our revolutionary Quantum Optical System, with lead-free glass and Multicoat 4 lens coatings, the result is up to 92% total light transmission, and a sight picture that is incredibly bright, clear and razor sharp. Better have one atop your favorite rifle.

http://www.leupold.com/hunting-shooting/scopes/vx-1-riflescopes/

My TC Dimension test rifle is a B designation which allows me to change barrels to 22-250, 243, 7mm-08 and 308 at any time without the need to change the bolt or other parts. If I want to change to a C designation for the .270 and 30-06 then the bolt,magazine and barrel must be changed/purchased. Retail cost of the Dimension is less than $600 dollars. Barrels are $200 each. If you want to move out of your LOC letter then you must buy the new bolt for $140 and magazine for around $27 dollars as long as they are in stock.

SUMMARY:

In summary the rifle flexibility as a shooting platform and accuracy is fantastic when joined with Nosler and Leupold Products. I did find that shooting heavier bullets reduced the accuracy thus I would say that this 243 barrel with 1-10 twist rates is not a great all around barrel for deer but great for coyotes and varmints. The 308 and 7mm-08 barrel for $200 each adds serious flexibility to the rifle and is better with heavier bullets. The 7mm-08 is perhaps more ideal for all around varmint/deer use than perhaps the .308 or the .243 Winchester and can use lighter bullets for use by recoil sensitive folks such as children and first time hunters. 243 calibers with twist rates below 1-10 such as 1-9.25 provide increased stability for bullets in the 90 to 105 grain and work well on deer and mid-size game. My rating 1-10 is a 9. A real buy for those who want flexibility and accuracy all the time every time. A 9 out of 10 is terrific in my book. ©

February 2026

Category Archives: Rifle Tests

A New Rifle and Scope?

600 Yards at Nashua F&G with the Savage 10/110 Predator in .243 Winchester

TC Dimension in .243 Winchester Review – Out of the Box