Rifle Scopes Nightforce NP-1 Reticle Holds 75gr 223

[ASH556]

I recently got a very good deal on a Nightforce 2.5-10x24 from a member here. It has the NP-1 reticle and right now, I'm just not all about sinking another $300 into this scope for a reticle change (it wouldn't be a very good deal anymore if I did that). I plan to shoot the NP-1 for awhile and see how I like it.

As I understand the reticle detail chart below, the thin crosshair substends 5MOA in each direction @ 10X magnification:

I've got two trajectory charts generated by the Android Shooter APP for a 75gr Black Hills OTM .223 match round fired from my 16" DD CHF barrel.

100yd ZERO:

200yd ZERO:

As I'm looking at this, I'm trying to generate some roughly useful hold points to work with this reticle. It looks to me like the following should work:

Zero the upper tip of the vertical crosshair for 200yds.
The intersection (center) of the crosshairs is my 350yd hold.
Where the vertical crosshair meets the thicker bar is my 500yd hold.

I realize that these aren't super precise. If that's required, I'll dial, but it seems that using these 3 points of reference, I should be able to get "hits" on a 12" target out to 500yds pretty quickly. Again, after that I'll have to dial.

I definitely intent to check all of this at range to confirm, but wanted to see if I'm thinking correctly before I start flinging bullets into oblivion.

I don't see a way to make a 100yd zero as effective, but please advise if you do.

Thanks!

 

[ASH556]

Re: Nightforce NP-1 Reticle Holds 75gr 223

Someone has to have some input?

 

[badshot338]

Re: Nightforce NP-1 Reticle Holds 75gr 223

Fist things first. If you want to use an MOA based reticle for hold over you need to not look at your bullet drop in inches. Its just extra thinking and extra math. Instead of saying "I have X" of drop and Z yards", think "I have X MOA drop at said distance". It will be far less confusing. Too many shooters see that their round hit 12" low at a given distance and try to convert that 12" into how many clicks they need to adjust based on the distance. Instead use the known values of your reticle to measure the bullet drop in angular measurement of MIL's or Minutes (in the case of your reticle, minutes) Then hold over or crank your MIL or MOA turrets accordingly.

So after researching your reticle values in comparison to your drop charts, it should be easy to find what point to hold on the reticle based on what your drop is for general quick reaction shooting. For examply, you know that at 10x your MOA value for the distance between the center-plex and where the reticle thickens is 5 MOA. The closest point in your trajectory to 5 MOA of drop is approximately 300 yards. So this would be the hold over point for 300 yards. (nitice I never mentioned your drop in inch values)

I'm not a fan of holding over for anything over a few hundred yards. The position if the shooters eye behind the optic in relation to where he/she is looking in the field of view can adverly effect your parallax and cause you to maim something. Im not saying Im a genious but I do know enough about optics to know that all this reticle hold over crap is a bad idea. Its not hard to reach up and turn a turret and it's much more precise. Just my little disclaimer...

I hope this helps.