Congratulations on the purchase. Either an AR or an AK is mandatory for the well balanced personal arsenal. Make mine an AR (although some day I'll pick up a commie gun just for perestroika's sake...DocRhino wrote:I was zeroing the scope for 25 yards since it was a fun day and I had nephews that wanted to be involved. We were on the Tac Range at Elm Fork so I haven't grouped it at 100 yards.
)Couple of comments on zeroing....
Zeroing Distance for Iron Sights:
- The 25 yard zero you got at Elm Fork is a suitable "battle zero," and it has been long recognized for that reason. With both the 55 and 62 grain mil-spec FMJs, you'll have pretty much identical trajectories. The top of the trajectory will be roughly 9" above the point of aim (POA) at about 225 yards, and it will intersect the POA line at both 25 yards and 350 yards, and be about 4" low at about 382 yards. What this means is that if your are aiming at a man at center of mass, your POI (point of impact) will never be more than 9" high or 4" low relative to POA all the way out to 382 yards. This translates to a possibly fatal hit, cross-winds and other factors aside, simply by pointing and shooting at center of mass.
However, this zero has two limitations. 1) For most shooters, 382 yards is a long ways away, and at that range you begin to run up against the limits of the cartridge's lethality, particularly for hunting use; and 2) a 13" vertical spread can easily translate to a miss too. You may not be able to tell at a glance, without using a range finder, whether your target is at 200 yards or 300 yards, and your bullet could easily travel over your target. Your new AR is a perfectly legitimate hunting rifle, and particularly if you're shooting at smaller white tail deer, 9" off is easily the difference between a clean kill and a wounding shot with a followup necessary.....which can easily become the wounded animal that got away. In my book, a 13" variation leaves to much to chance and is not practical.
Fortunately, there is a far more practical battle zero for the AR carbine that has a much smaller vertical spread, and that is the Santos Improved 50 Yard Battle Zero: http://aesirtraining.com/home/rifle-zero/.
If you zero your carbine at 50 yards instead of 25, your bullet's POI will never be more than 2" above or 2" below POA all the way out to 250 yards. That truly is a point and shoot zero with only a 4" variation across that distance. 250 yards is far more likely to be within the capability of the average shooter, and it is also well within the ballistic sweet spot of the cartridge.
At the opposite end of the range at Elm Fork, over by the office building, they have a 50 yard range. It's set up just like the Tactical Bay, but it goes to 50 yards instead of 25. (They also have some dedicated 25 yard lanes on that range too.) If I were you, I would take my carbine over there, dismount the scope, and re-zero your AR at 50 yards with the flip up sights. Then you can remount the scope and either zero it there for 50 yards, or take it over to the 100 yard line (no FMJ permitted and a minimum 3X power required) and zero your scope at 100 yards.
- For one thing, don't cheap out. Whether you are buying a fixed power reflex sight, or a variable power hunting or tactical scope, any time you have a choice between a cheap scope and a good scope (I use the descriptives "cheap/good" deliberately because "cheap" more often than not ≠ "good"), go with the good scope if you can afford it. You will be much happier over the long run. A cheap, poorly designed and built scope with inferior glass will just be a source of frustration in the long run.
There is a whole range of scopes that are not that expensive that fall into the "affordable" price range (again, "affordable" ≠ "cheap" and would include scopes that fall in the $300-$600 range. You don't have to pop $1000 for an ACOG.....unless that's what you want to do. And, many of these affordable scopes have reticles that are specifically designed for the AR carbine's ballistics with 55 and 62 mil-spec ammo. Manufacturers with reticles intended for the AR15 include Leupold, Burris, Nikon, and others. On my own carbine, I have a Burris 536 (http://burrisoptics.com/ar536.html), but that is not necessarily the be all, end all. I've been impressed with the Leupold VX-R Patrol line of scopes. Nikon has the M-223 line. There are others, and only you can decide which is best for your needs, but the point is that companies like Barska sell their scopes for so cheap for a reason—they are mostly junk. A $79 Bushnell red dot sight is NOT the equal of a $500 AimPoint or EOTech. Check out SWFA.com. Their house brand (http://swfa.com/SWFA-SS-Scopes-C1719.aspx) of scopes are EXCELLENT, and they are more affordable than their counterparts in quality from other brands. I own a SWFA SS 5-20x50mm MRAD scope for my AR10. It was $1,500 and it compared very favorably to Leupold and IOR Valdata scopes costing several hundred dollars more.
With scopes, you generally do get what you pay for. There's nothing wrong with a $1,000 ACOG if that's what you want. Personally, I'd like to have one. Trijicon's glass quality is hard to beat, and a combination of tritium and fiber-optics will give you a battery free illuminated reticle for a long time. They are definitely worth the price if you can afford one. But, you don't HAVE to spend $1,000 to have something that is almost as good. My Burris 536 was $399 at Cabelas, and it has an illuminated bullet drop compensating reticle. The illumination can be either red or green with 5 levels of brightness for either color, and if your battery dies, you still have the reticle in black. Other manufactures offer products in a similar price range with similar features.
But the main point is, don't cheap out and buy junk. Generally speaking, optics manufacturers earn their reputations, and there is a reason why they can command the prices they do. If companies like Barska could command higher prices, they would. They can't. That speaks volumes. Don't go there if you don't have to.