How far can my scope be practical?

[Lucky Scott]

I am shooting a Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag. I reload. I currently have a scope like this......

http://swfa.com/SWFA-SS-10x42-Tactical-30mm-Riflescope-P499.aspx

I am shooting 200 yards and it works very good. I am very happy with my 200 yard results. But eventually I will need something with more power to shoot farther. My question is, how far can I expect to shoot with this power and quality of scope? My next step is to shoot 300 yards, and eventually farther. Should I try this scope at 300 yards?

I am not a competition, or hardcore bench rest shooter. Just a guy shooting from a bench trying to become a better shooter.

[Citadelgrad87]

You should be fine to 900 or so. If you run out of elevation, there are bases made with elevation built in.

Otherwise, on the cheap, use those mil dots as aiming points.

Edit, what I mean is, after you have cranked all the mechanical elevation you can, you can get a consistent holdover point by aiming using the mil dots below the intersection of the cross hairs instead of the point where the hairs cross.

[anonymous308]

I am shooting a Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag. I reload. I currently have a scope like this......

http://swfa.com/SWFA-SS-10x42-Tactical-30mm-Riflescope-P499.aspx

I am shooting 200 yards and it works very good. I am very happy with my 200 yard results. But eventually I will need something with more power to shoot farther. My question is, how far can I expect to shoot with this power and quality of scope? My next step is to shoot 300 yards, and eventually farther. Should I try this scope at 300 yards?

I am not a competition, or hardcore bench rest shooter. Just a guy shooting from a bench trying to become a better shooter.

Depends what you are trying to do at those further ranges but that scope is more than capable of getting you out much much further. There are guys that can hit steel at 1000 yards with that exact scope to give you an idea.

[jimmykan]

7mm Remington Magnum is a pretty flat shooting cartridge, capable of pushing a 180 grain Berger VLD projectile at 2800 fps.

I put those ballistics numbers into JBM just now, and it would take about 31 MOA of elevation to make it out to 1000 yards.

If you shoot high ballistic coefficient bullets such as the Berger VLDs and you get a 30 MOA canted scope base like this one (Badger Ordnance 1 Piece Scope Rail - Remington 700 Long Action - 30 MOA), your scope could be usable out to perhaps even 1000+ yards (maybe?).

Going from the reticle subtensions found through your provided link, the round dots on your particular scope's reticle subtends 0.22 mils, or approximately 8 inches at 1000 yards.

So an 18" wide silhouette steel target would still appear to be about twice as wide as one of those mil-dots from 1000 yards away.

Assuming you are dialed in for wind and bullet drop, I think any of the steel targets out to 600 yards at the Angeles Ranges are very hit-able with your setup.

[milotrain]

10x fixed is one of the best things ever made in the world of rifle optics. You don't always have to see your target, even if it's totally eclipsed by the crosshairs you can generally see the environment well enough to make a good shot.

[Lucky Scott]

My scope base is a 20 moa.

[Lucky Scott]

I am currently shooting 168 Sierra Match King bullets. I also have some 175 gr Speer that perform very well. When I start shooting further, I will load some bullets that are heavier.

[bsumoba]

A few weekends ago at a Palma match, we had such bad mirage that a lot of us resorted to relatively low magnification for F-Open shooting. I went all the way down to 18x and the target was still fuzzy. Hi magnification is not a pre-requisite for long range precision shooting.

That being said, 10x power, although it seems low, will still work well out to 1K. Clarity trumps magnification any day.

[ElvenSoul]

Basic rule of thumb 2x for 100yds add 1x for every additional 100yds

3x scope 300yds

4x scope 400yds

5x scope 500yds

So your 10x power scope should be good for 1000yds

[Wnick308]

I shoot that scope on my savage out to 1k at Sac Valley

[kcstott]

Before all this whizz bang ultra high magnification the military used fixed power scopes for years and from Viet Nam on up till the Mk4 variable was released they used a fixed 10X Redfield or Unertl scope.

[Lucky Scott]

Thank you for all the advice. I had no idea I could use this scope so far. Everytime I look at a rifle set up like mine it has a very high power scope. So I am pleased and surprised to hear all this. I will just keep shooting farther and farther and see how well it works.

[ar15barrels]

I will just keep shooting farther and farther and see how well it works.

This will answer your question far better than anyone else can...

[savagemann]

The swfa 10x has quite a bit of elevation left in the turrets on my savage .308 with 175gr zeroed at 100 yards.
I have about 190 clicks remaining in the turret.
Doing some ballistic calcs, i only need about 90 clicks to reach 1000 yards with a 175gr going 2670 fps.
This is with a 0moa base.
You should be fine to 1k

[vliberatore]

A few weekends ago at a Palma match, we had such bad mirage that a lot of us resorted to relatively low magnification for F-Open shooting. I went all the way down to 18x and the target was still fuzzy. Hi magnification is not a pre-requisite for long range precision shooting.

That being said, 10x power, although it seems low, will still work well out to 1K. Clarity trumps magnification any day.

Last F-Class match I shot I started the day at 12x and ending at 8x because the mirage was so bad.