• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

Turret "stickers"

Ledzep

Bullet Engineer
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Jun 9, 2009
    4,183
    4,995
    Hornady
    So tonight I was screwing around on MS paint and was screwing with the scaling tool and a hard core idea took over. You can edit the size of the "canvas" in pixels to be 850 x 1100 pixels (to scale with an 8.5x11" sheet of printer paper). Then each pixel is equal to .01".

    Next, measure the diameter of your turret where the numbers are. Multiply that by Pi. That will give you the circumference of your turret, we'll call it "W" for width.

    Measure the height of that area where it remains a perfect cylinder (no bulges, knurling, tapers etc.). Call that value "H" for height.

    Now make a box in MS paint, W x H.

    Go on JBM ballistics or whatever ballistics calculator you want and get the dope data for every 50yd (or meters) or whatever interval you want at whatever DA or pressure/temp you want.

    I set my 100yd "zero" at the far right and left edges of my HxW box (one half one one side, half on the other, a simple line and "0"). Now here's where you might need to use your noggin. You have to determine the distance 1 MOA or 1 Mil or .25 MOA etc. etc.. is on the circumference of your turret. For example, My turret was 0.840" in diameter, Circumference was 2.369". I have 40x, 1/4 MOA clicks per revolution (10 MOA total), so I divided 2.369 by 40 and got 0.066" per 1/4 MOA. Now determine how many clicks it is to each yard line. 200 was 7, 7x0.66= 0.462. Each pixel = .01" so I need to go left from my "0" mark 46 pixels (round down the .2 pixels). At that point, make a vertical line and a "2" or "200" or "catshit" whatever you want to mark it. Rinse/repeat for 300, 350, etc etc..

    I did the first-revolution values in white, 2nd in yellow, 3rd in red. If you have enough space, you can stack them (3rd rev above 2nd, 2nd above 1st..) Out to 700yd, every 50yd. My 50yd interval marks are just dots.

    Then print it out. Check your printer settings and get rid of all margins. For whatever reason I couldn't zero out all margins, so I set them all (L,R,U,D) to 0.5", then subtracted 100pixels from the canvas height and width. Make sure everything is still to scale in terms of pixels after you do this. with 1/2" margins all around and 750x1000 pixels, 1 pixel is still equal to .01".

    Cut that bastard out, put tape at both ends, and carefully wrap it around and secure it. When I printed mine out, it ended up being 2.366" long (.003" short, boo hoo). Pretty damn accurate for a $50 printer boys. :)

    I'm pretty certain you can buy "sticker" paper, too, and could make one of these for every 2000ft DA or whatever, and print a sheet out with 5x of each DA.... The possibilities are endless.
     
    That's pretty cool. You should post pics and test results later. You could have people send you measurements and you mail them a sheet of stickers for $15, then you could buy a better printer! Some folks might get lost in the math so your aptitude is marketable
     
    Last edited:
    • Like
    Reactions: Aftermath
    Here's a section of the first MS paint drawing. My 2.5-10x32's turret has a pretty short cylinder section so it can only be 18 pixels tall.
    65grendopeshow_zps357bf908.png


    And here is the trial run on the turret. I've made a new one that has 50yd marks because it's quite a ways between some of them.
    DSC_0008_zpsb64e9685.jpg


    I know my grandfather sends off a bunch of ballistic info to some company that custom engraves a replacement turret for his scopes with data similar to this. This ought to save him a few bucks in the future. I don't think I'm going to have the time to map this all out for anyone else for profit. Starting up college this month and I get the feeling it's going to take some of my free time away ;)
     
    Good Work! I enjoy finding practical applications for math Something my high school teachers failed to do Haha! i might have to give this a shot.
     
    From MS Paint to a easy to use web app, DIY turret labels have come a long way! Awesome app, so much cheaper than ordering custom dials from scope manufacturers like Leupold or Nikon. Thanks sharing the fruit of your efforts!
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Standardelg
    I know this is an old thread - and hope nobody will feel I'm hijacking it. I've hacked together a small tool to easily create turret labels: http://turretlabels.com
    Feedback and ideas are welcomed
    View attachment 6916012View attachment 6916013View attachment 6916012View attachment 6916013View attachment 6916015

    Awesome tool. Thank you!
    I made mine for 200 m DA and i add or subtract clicks depending on real DA for the shooting day.

    As suggestion will be nice if will be possible to chose color for "full unit line" also different width/color for half units like half MIL's (2.5 mil, 3.5 mil etc).
     
    Awesome tool. Thank you!
    I made mine for 200 m DA and i add or subtract clicks depending on real DA for the shooting day.

    As suggestion will be nice if will be possible to chose color for "full unit line" also different width/color for half units like half MIL's (2.5 mil, 3.5 mil etc).
    Thanks a lot!
    I think I can make the suggested options quite easily. Will find some time to do it in a day or two.
    I’m working on windage label creation also, so any suggestions on how they should work are appreciated as well.
     
    Thanks a lot!
    I think I can make the suggested options quite easily. Will find some time to do it in a day or two.
    I’m working on windage label creation also, so any suggestions on how they should work are appreciated as well.
    Maybe the most common mistake regarding wind turret is to dial in opposite way, and something like this is useful in this case specially for scopes with no left/right clear indicators.
    Drawing1.png


    If someone try to make something more complicated (depending also in the turret real estate) maybe something like this can help.
    Drawing2.png
    On the zero line you have 3,4,5,6 etc this correspond to hundreds of meters or yards, on the scale you have normal units but with L,R for direction, also coded by colors connection for specific wind velocity (in m/s or mph) at specific distance.
    For example at 400 meters (on the zero line,green circle with 4 inside) for 2m/s I have 0.4 MIL correction (yes I know this is my BC method constant).

    I hope it helps.
     
    Here's a section of the first MS paint drawing. My 2.5-10x32's turret has a pretty short cylinder section so it can only be 18 pixels tall.
    65grendopeshow_zps357bf908.png


    And here is the trial run on the turret. I've made a new one that has 50yd marks because it's quite a ways between some of them.
    DSC_0008_zpsb64e9685.jpg


    I know my grandfather sends off a bunch of ballistic info to some company that custom engraves a replacement turret for his scopes with data similar to this. This ought to save him a few bucks in the future. I don't think I'm going to have the time to map this all out for anyone else for profit. Starting up college this month and I get the feeling it's going to take some of my free time away ;)
    Ok, that's pretty damn cool
     
    Maybe the most common mistake regarding wind turret is to dial in opposite way, and something like this is useful in this case specially for scopes with no left/right clear indicators.
    View attachment 6930514

    If someone try to make something more complicated (depending also in the turret real estate) maybe something like this can help.
    View attachment 6930515 On the zero line you have 3,4,5,6 etc this correspond to hundreds of meters or yards, on the scale you have normal units but with L,R for direction, also coded by colors connection for specific wind velocity (in m/s or mph) at specific distance.
    For example at 400 meters (on the zero line,green circle with 4 inside) for 2m/s I have 0.4 MIL correction (yes I know this is my BC method constant).

    I hope it helps.
    I think I understand - I'm wondering if switching between wind speed and distances wouldn't be a better idea making room for more distances (have "columns" for different wind speeds, and various distances within those)?
    I've just implemented options for setting widths and colors for "partial unit lines", "half units" and "full units" - and think it's time to do some refactoring and UX work ;)
     
    I know this is an old thread - and hope nobody will feel I'm hijacking it. I've hacked together a small tool to easily create turret labels: http://turretlabels.com
    Feedback and ideas are welcomed
    View attachment 6916012View attachment 6916013View attachment 6916012View attachment 6916013View attachment 6916015
    Man, I LOVE the tool you created, but when I download, I get a PNG file and when I open it in Paint, the image is huge and I can't resize it. Am I doing something wrong?
     
    +1 for custom turret systems stuff.

    I have had them made up for all my scopes and loads. You get three copies of the sticker so you can swap them a little. Have hunted them in all kinds of weather and they have held up for years and are dead on right if you supply good info.
     
    Man, I LOVE the tool you created, but when I download, I get a PNG file and when I open it in Paint, the image is huge and I can't resize it. Am I doing something wrong?
    Thanks :)
    The png created is very high resolution and intended for printing in 600dpi, which will correspond to your turret measurements. Paint and most programs for Windows won”t respect the dpi settings. Untill I get the time to male some upgrades to the tool, a proven workaround is to open the image with the free program irfanview and save it as a pdf. Printing the pdf (printer settings should not scale pr fit to paper), should respect dimensions.
     
    Hi Guys,
    I have made some stickers with GIMP2 and printed them with a laser printer on sticking paper. Then I put one layer of cleas tape on top.
    It was a bit of a heck to scale it correctly on the printer.
    The uneven hight of the lines helps a lot in differenciating between them.
     

    Attachments

    • 20181222_220054.jpg
      20181222_220054.jpg
      198.3 KB · Views: 228
    Could also print these on white with just mils and some white space on top. Use clear tape and some wet erase markers and instead of an armboard or data card just mark on your turrets the stage targets. next stage wipe it clean and start over.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Standardelg
    • Like
    Reactions: Standardelg
    I love seeing clever solutions like this! Outstanding job! Have you found that the adhesive stays put over time or do you have to replace them often?
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Standardelg
    Thanks :)
    The png created is very high resolution and intended for printing in 600dpi, which will correspond to your turret measurements. Paint and most programs for Windows won”t respect the dpi settings. Untill I get the time to male some upgrades to the tool, a proven workaround is to open the image with the free program irfanview and save it as a pdf. Printing the pdf (printer settings should not scale pr fit to paper), should respect dimensions.
    Any idea on a workaround for Mac? Thanks!
     
    Thanks :)
    The png created is very high resolution and intended for printing in 600dpi, which will correspond to your turret measurements. Paint and most programs for Windows won”t respect the dpi settings. Untill I get the time to male some upgrades to the tool, a proven workaround is to open the image with the free program irfanview and save it as a pdf. Printing the pdf (printer settings should not scale pr fit to paper), should respect dimensions.
    Never mind! Got it figured out. Here is my first go attached to my Vortex AMG with my dope.
    C9D5E696-12A9-43E1-AEF0-A4152F92DED1.jpeg
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Standardelg
    I love seeing clever solutions like this! Outstanding job! Have you found that the adhesive stays put over time or do you have to replace them often?
    I've had a label on for a few months - normal paper with Scotch tape wrapped around it. I guess it depends on the weather, how often you adjust, how often you change loads, how often you play with some other color scheme you want to test ;)
     
    • Like
    Reactions: CriticallyStressed
    Awesome, and thank you!
    It shouldn't be too hard for me to add a 4th revolution band to the generator. I'll find some time to do it in the weekend.
    I've added option for fourth revolution band. Like with the third, its default height (ratio) is set to 0, so you need to adjust the ratios (sum = 1.00) to make it work properly.
     
    Last edited:
    UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1139.jpg
    UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1140.jpg
    MXBrDaifSZKLWGqQZxcp2g_thumb_1146.jpg


    Finally made some improvements to the builder - actually recoded all of it and added more builders and option to register as a user (when logged in, you can save those labels). Looks awesome when printed on vinyl btw :)