Called the Ballistic Mil-Dot, this reticle looks like a standard mil-dot reticle,
but with two exceptions: the dots are circles instead of ovals, and the lower
half of the vertical crosshair contains unequally spaced small hash marks
instead of dots. It seems I have written a lot lately about standard mil-dot
scope reticles, so I am not going rehash these here. Instead, let’s focus
on the ballistic compensation hash marks. These hash marks are spaced to
allow one to shoot with exactly the right amount of holdover at a given range,
much like a bowsight. With today’s laser rangefinders, getting the range
is quick and easy. That, combined with this scope, makes shooting, and
hitting, long range varmints faster and easier.
Just how does the ballistic mil-dot work? Well, the hash marks are spaced
in a manner that allows one to hold over at ranges from 200 to 700 yards.
Of course, such an arrangement is generally meant for one load combination such
as a 55-grain Sierra boattail at 3680 fps (3000 feet elevation, 59 degrees, and
29.53 inches of pressure). Other bullets work equally well “out of
the box” – with a Nosler 55 grain .224 bullet at 3720 fps, it is right on
at sea level. Table 1 shows the subtensions for the hash marks on the
Ballistic Mil-Dot reticle.
To use this reticle, simply zero the rifle dead on at 100 yards. If the
target is 200 yards away, place the hash mark directly below the crosshair
intersection and press the trigger. At 300 yards, use the second one; 400
yards use the third one, etc. At 700, when the bullet is dropping in
excess of four inches per ten yards of travel, you use the tip of the bottom of
the vertical post. One note: because the reticle itself changes
subtensions as the power ring changes (the reticle is behind the first focal
plane), Burris added a small dot to the power ring. This dot is spaced
just past 14 power, so be sure to line up this dot before shooting.
While this kind of shooting system sounds nifty, most seasoned shooters might be
reluctant to try such a scope because it is designed for one trajectory.
This is true, but a little ballistic detective work with RCBS.Load or similar
ballistics programs allows shooters to calculate the muzzle velocities required
with other bullets to achieve identical trajectories. I have already done
some of the work for you, and was very surprised to find that lots of bullet and
velocity combinations make the Burris Ballistic Mil-Dot scope worthy of a try.
Table 2 illustrates the trajectories of various ballistic coefficients and
muzzle velocities that are compatible with this scope. Choosing the right
bullet and velocity combination makes this scope very useful with a variety of
varmint loads, but as you can see, once the caliber exceeds .243, larger caliber
bullets begin to pull away from the lightweight .22 pills. But still, how
many guys are going to shoot at 500 yards, especially without using target knobs?
And think about how nice it would be to have a way to holdover that is fast and
accurate.
At this point, a shooter is likely to say, “Fine, but what if my .22-250 gets
better accuracy at 3500 fps instead of 3720?"
