just set up swaro TDS reticle

Roedinator

Distinguished Member
hi chaps
just thought id share my experiences of setting up my swaro 2.5 x 10 x 56 with tds reticle
A good friend of mine ben c off here had invited me over to do a bit of zeroing at his as
he has some good safe areas to get some distance and he also wanted to try some custom
loads through his 6,5 x 55 with a nightforce scope on which he would be dialling in .
I understood by reading up when i bought my scope that you could set up a 300 yard sure shot
by zeroing at say around the 100 mark plus or minus to correspond with one of the three lines
beneath the cross hairs which would tally up at the 300 mark depending on ammo weight of bullet
etc .
so we set up a pallet with some good size cardboard on it at 300 and also a shorter one at 100 to check
zero .
I started off with my blaser 30 .06 with 165 grain federal fusion with one centre of bull
I then tried two ppu 168 grain that went two inches low but through the same hole
ben got a nice group with his so we moved back to 300 to try our luck
I had drawn around a roll of insulation tape but not made it stand out enough and was struggling to make
it out properly but managed to get a couple of shots off that revealed that the drop was 13 inches
back up to the board and made it stand out alot more ben suggested that i put a circle around the low shots
so when we got back to 300 I could cover it with one of the lines and see where the cross hairs fell on the
top ring
this was a bullet saver as when we got back the middle line was exactly through the bottom ring where the
two low shots had gone and the cross hairs were through the top ring origanil aimpoint
so now to see if it all worked as it should in theory
three more shots using the middle line produced a three shot group bang on height of the top bull of two and
a half inches with a blustery headwind also really chuffed with the result
to say im over the moon with the rifle , scope , mod , bullets fusions , and minimal damage on the roe ive shot
would be an understatement .

sorry if this was a bit long winded or a bit old fashioned way of doing things but too much technologhy does me
I like to keep things simple and this has worked for me so happy days

regards pete
 
sounds like you had fun buddy, those fusions get amazingly tight groups through that blaser of yours. its almost as if the darkside had something to do with it.....
 
with groups like that mate you no reason to ever use anything else......you got a good price for your soul haha
 
Hi Pete

I found some 2 1/2'x 2' inch square flip board sheets which would be ideal for this type if zeroing. 40 sheets for £6 . Where it will come in handy is if you roughly know the drop at say 300 and want to check how many inches you are off.
 
Most shooters would be surprised how well they can shoot at range,for serious groups u need good conditions,I've shot 1.5 inch groups at 400 yds with 85gr nos ball tips in my 25-06
 
....for serious groups u need good conditions..

Agreed - plus a good base / setting to shoot from? But off the sticks, snow up my nose, frozen hands, in failing light and a howling gale at a moving target the Swaro TDS-4 is great.

If I can kill what I aim at under those circumstances my groups in ideal conditions don't matter 'cos (as Prof B Cox said) "Things can only get better"?
 
swarovski
totally agree with what your saying when we first set the pallet up and went back to 300 yds I thought s..t
but when you start putting a group toghether you can really surprise yourself
thats a cracking group 1 .5 inches at 400 you must have been chuffed
we put the leicas on a nice spot from a woodland track to a field on a far bank and it came back 600 yds
so were going to have a play at that next time more for bens nightforce really
I expect i would struggle for elevation at that distance on the swaro .

regards pete .
 
Agreed - plus a good base / setting to shoot from? But off the sticks, snow up my nose, frozen hands, in failing light and a howling gale at a moving target the Swaro TDS-4 is great.

If I can kill what I aim at under those circumstances my groups in ideal conditions don't matter 'cos (as Prof B Cox said) "Things can only get better"?

eyefor we were a bit spoilt for a base really sat in the back of bens double cab on his dog box perfect height
for the rifles on the roof .
with assortment of 8 different shooting bags and rests
Im really pleased as you say with the tds had it about a year and not used it to now
I like to keep it simple regards pete .
 
As has been said, it's surprising what you can do and it just goes to show that you get what you pay for with the gear you use, often it will do a lot more than you use in your day to day stalking but it's nice to have a play with it and see how far you can push yourself, roll on 600 yards... Really enjoyed it and wouldn't have thought of doing it had pete not suggested it, I was only wanting to check my zero before a trip to some of my ground away from home but it's good to have the dial ups for a loopy calibre like the 6.5, takes all the guesswork out of it in normal stalking ranges.
 
Hi Pete,
Lovely scope. I bought mine with the BR reticle.
Hi Benc,
Hand load your 6.5 with 120g bullets at close to 3000 ft/sec or 129g at close to 2900 or 140g at close to 2800 and transform your "loopy" rifle:).
 
Hi Pete,
Lovely scope. I bought mine with the BR reticle.
Hi Benc,
Hand load your 6.5 with 120g bullets at close to 3000 ft/sec or 129g at close to 2900 or 140g at close to 2800 and transform your "loopy" rifle:).

hi andy
how you keeping mate wayne keeping you busy I bet .
if you ever find the time the pair of you are due a visit down here again
glad you like your scope when you say BR reticle does that mean
built in slope dope :D regards pete .
 
Hi Pete,Lovely scope. I bought mine with the BR reticle.Hi Benc,Hand load your 6.5 with 120g bullets at close to 3000 ft/sec or 129g at close to 2900 or 140g at close to 2800 and transform your "loopy" rifle:).
Hi Andy,I'm running it handloads with 140g winchester protected soft points at just shy of 2800 but still find it a bit loopy! 1.6 inches high at 100, dead on at 200 and 7.9 low at 300 although it's only 3.1 low at 250. I wouldn't change it though, it's very accurate indeed and you can't argue with the knockdown power but still minimal carcass damage. This dialling in business is a bit of an eyeopener though, I've always just learnt my drops and held over but this is taking any guesswork out of it altogether.Regards,Ben
 
Hi Pete,
Sorry for the late reply. Unfortunately the BR reticle doesnt do "slope dope" :). If it did i would strongly recommend that you get one :D.
Hi Benc,
I see where you are coming from with the trajectory of your 6.5 using 140g bullets. However those numbers are better than many rifles I have shot and some of them were "flat shooting" calibres. My 6.5 x 55 is doing 2800 ft/sec with 140g Sierra Gamekings and zerod at 200 yds is 7.5" low at 300 yds so marginally flatter shooting than your load. I prefer 120g - 129g bullets which are approx 6.5" low at 300 yrds but the 140s start to catch up at greater ranges due to the very high ballistic coefficient. I do agree with your comment about hitting power and accuracy My Sako shoots pretty much everything I feed it.
All the best.
 
Hi Andy

This a really informative thread, thanks for starting it! I had no idea about the process you described as I am a novice, but you explained it in a really simple way fro a numpty like me to understand so a big thumbs up.

This is one thread that has been cut and pasted into a document and saved for the future.

Regards

Matthew
 
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