Burris Oracle X

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
These are new, but I think I'm going to try to put one on my Mission Sub-one lite and give it a try. I'll report back when I get my hands on one. I understand they could be available as early as May. I watched a couple videos and it looks promising. I guess I'll be a Guinee pig

Anyone have a competing product. How do you like it? Pros and Cons? I think Garmin makes a competing product.

Thanks,

Jack
 
These are new, but I think I'm going to try to put one on my Mission Sub-one lite and give it a try. I'll report back when I get my hands on one. I understand they could be available as early as May. I watched a couple videos and it looks promising. I guess I'll be a Guinee pig

Anyone have a competing product. How do you like it? Pros and Cons? I think Garmin makes a competing product.

Thanks,

Jack

Not on a crossbow but I have a xero on my bow and it is awesome. If it stopped working I would buy one tomorrow. Not having to range and then draw is a big advantage. One less thing to do and a precise aiming point not having to gap shoot is helpful as well.


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Not on a crossbow but I have a xero on my bow and it is awesome. If it stopped working I would buy one tomorrow. Not having to range and then draw is a big advantage. One less thing to do and a precise aiming point not having to gap shoot is helpful as well.


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Nice. They make a crossbow version, but it is not on their Hunter Ed Instructor discount list yet and it is pretty expensive.
 
Well, they kept delaying, but it looks like it has finally been released! My wife just texted me and said it arrived today. I won't be able to set it up until next week, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs!
 
I'm back from South Dakota. When I got home, I opened up the Burris Oracle X and took a look.

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The packaging was very well done. It came with a manual, battery, remote, cleaning cloth, cable ties (for the remote), and Torx wrenches.

The battery compartment top screws into place. It was a bit tight for my fat fingers, but not problematic. It comes with a permanently attached base that has controls for physical movement of the scope for adjusting impact point. The base attaches to a picatinny or weaver style rail. The attachment bracket uses T25 screws which are larger than typical scope ring screws which is nice. It is easy to torque them. It has a wide torque spec from 40 to 70. My torque wrench is at the farm, so I just tightened them with the wrench that came with them by hand. I'll check the torque later, but since there is no significant shock from my crossbow, certainly compared to a high power rifle, I doubt torque will be issue.

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IT was easy to mount on my Mission sub-one lite. You can see I mounted it quite far forward. This is because I've made modifications to the cross bow that lets me hold my eye further forward. I removed the butt from the stock and lengthened it with some metal mending bars and then cover them with foam and tape. This allows me to place the end on top of my shoulder rather than pulling it into my shoulder like a gun. Since the little kick a crossbow has is forward instead of rearward, there is no need to absorb he recoil with the butt braced against my shoulder. By placing the straight stock on top of my shoulder, I can use gravity with my right hand on the pistol grip pulling down rather than rearward. I find this makes for a much more stable shooting position, especially from an elevated treestand. The crossbow does not stand out as far in front of me when shooting with this method.

I plan to update this thread once I get a chance to shoot it at the range and sight it in. They advertise this laser range finding scope for 100 yard shooting, but that is far beyond any range I ever plan to shoot it while hunting. I typically limit myself to 20 yards or so with a compound bow and 30 or so with a crossbow. This won't change that. What it will do is to limit the amount of movement that is required for me to range deer. I normally range trees at the beginning of the hunt and then estimate deer distances based on those known ranges. However, in some situations, there are no trees where I want them. This should allow me to directly range deer without the additional movement required when using a hand held ranger. I plan to mount the remote so that I can reach it with my finger when I'm holding the pistol grip.

So far, the only negative thing I see is the weight. For hunting from a treestand or box blind, I don't think the weight is a problem, but if one planed to do run-n-gun style spring gobbler hunting with the crossbow, or spot and stalk hunting, it may be a consideration.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I spent about 4 hours today sighting in the Oracle X. I made one pass, quickly going through the process of sighting in without much precision just to familiarize myself with it. I then repeated it with care. Here is the process in general:

The scope has a crosshair reticle. The first step is to sight that reticle in at 20 yards. If you look at the picture of the integrated mount on the scope in the previous post, you will see a dial type knob on near the rear. This is the vertical adjustment. I was surprised how little adjustment was necessary to get on target at 20 yards. I only made a slight vertical adjustment. The horizontal adjustment is the screw head near the front of the integrated mount. There is a locking set screw on the front to lock the horizontal screw.

Once the crossbow is sighted in at 20 yards, you then begin to record points for a ballistic curve that is stored in the computer in the scope. It comes with a factory set curve that gets you in the ball park.

In order to do this, you go to your first set point distance. It can be whatever distance you want 30 yards or beyond. I'm a short distance hunter so I chose 30 yards. You then use an integrated menu in the scope to select the mode for sighting in and then select the first set point. With that set point active, when you hit the fire button, it ranges the target and illuminates a dot below the horizontal and on the vertical crosshair. This point is an estimate based on the distance it measured and the factory stored ballistic curve. I then fired 3 arrows from a bench using that dot as my aim point.

The next step is to adjust the set point to match the ballistics of your crossbow and arrow combination. In order to do this, you press a button (up or down depending on if you are high or low). Another dot on top of the existing dot begins to flash. The next time you press the up or down button, the dot moves up or down. By holding the original dot on your aim point, you move the new dot up or down to the center of your arrow group. You then save this new set point which is associated with the distance measured by the laser ranger in the scope. You then move the target back and continue to adjust set points. You can set up to 4 set points. This defines a new ballistic curve for your specific bow/arrow combination. You can save two different ballistic curves in case you want to shoot a heavier bolt for larger game. This lets you go back and forth between two different arrow configurations.

Although 30 yards is a long shot for me with a crossbow, I put set points as 30, 40, and 50 yards. I did not use the last one. I may tighten the curve later using all 4 set points by trying 30, 35, 40, and 45 yards. While these are longer ranges than I'll shoot, I think it may help the scope to calculate the ballistic curve more accurately at shorter distances.

After sighting in, you are ready to use the scope in normal mode. Next, I used the supplied cable ties to tie the remote to my crossbow:

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In order to use it, you point the crosshairs at the target and hit the button. The scope ranges the target and then lights a dot on the vertical crosshair according to your stored ballistic curve. You simply put that dot on your aim point and fire.

On my first pass through sighting in the bow, I noticed that at longer distances, horizontal error was more apparent. So, on my second pass, I adjusted the horizontal adjustment screw. Surprisingly this affected my vertical and I had to adjust the vertical again back at 20 yards.

I found the adjustments to be plenty fine enough for a crossbow. They are analog adjustments but with markings. A single mark change is about 1/4 inch at 20 yards for the horizontal. When creating your custom ballistic curve, the center dot moves very little with each click of the up or down buttons for fine vertical adjustment.

I need to use this more to get a real good feel for it, but so far, I really like it.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I did some more shooting today. I placed set points at 30,35,40, and 45. I'm really liking this scope so far...
 
I just wanted to clarify a couple points. I could not find the answers in the documentation so I checked with Burris customer support.

First, the order you use the set points (SP1, SP2, SP3, and SP4) does not matter. You can put any yardage (30 yards or more) into any set point. They order by the yardage when creating ballistic curve.

Second, they do measure and adjust for inclination/declination when they range. So, you can sight in on the ground and it will range fine from a treestand.

Thanks,

Jack
 
This is the first week of our archery season. So, I've had a few days to use the Oracle-X in the field. I have not yet have an opportunity to shoot but I've been close a few times. My one complaint so far is that the unit has an auto-shutoff to save battery and can not be reactivated by clicking the remote. You need to first touch any of the buttons on top of the eye piece to turn it back on before the remote will work. I'm guessing this has to do the the fact that it is wireless. I would prefer a wired remote if it means I could activate the unite with the remote. The whole point, from my perspective, is to reduce the amount of movement required to range an animal and then position yourself to shoot. Moving one hand to the eye piece is not much, but I'd sure prefer keeping my hand on the pistol grip.

All-in-all, it is a minor complaint, but I want to make sure folks understand the limitation. Otherwise, so far, everything seems to be working as advertised. Of course, it is not much of a test until I harvest a few animals with it.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Sounds like to me it would make a lot more sense to keep a hand full of batteries in your bow case.
 
Sounds like to me it would make a lot more sense to keep a hand full of batteries in your bow case.

I don't mind the auto-shutdown feature, but it needs to be smartly implemented. On my newer Leupold scopes, the dot goes out to conserve battery when the scope has not moved for a while. The minute you move the gun, it automatically turns back on with no intervention. With this Burris scope, it obviously has some computer chip to deal with the ballistic table and such. I don't know how much power the thing consumes as I've not yet seen the battery indicator go low.
 
How heavy is it?
 
On the heavy side for a scope. If I was run-n-gun style hunting for turkey, I may not want to lug it around. Same if I was hunting Elk in the mountains. For treestand hunting in the east, the weight is insignificant. They don't have a weight spec on it and I didn't weigh it. It is physically large but made of a light weight polymer. I did notice it was a bit heavier than the previous Hawke scope.
 
I also made one more modification the setup. The other day, I hunted a stand where I expected deer to be feeding in a field to my right. I had cover on that side in a few places but most was pretty open. I had another small field to my left. where it was possible for deer to feed but much less likely. I had very good cover on that side with just a few shooting lanes.

So, I decided to hunt left handed. I figured I could easily switch to right handed without getting the movement caught, but it would be much harder to switch from left to right without being detected.

Well, I found an issue. I could not reach the remote button with my left hand where I had positioned it on the bow. You can see that in one of the pictures above. So, today, I repositioned it below the trigger guard.


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Now the button is easy to reach with my trigger finger either left handed or right handed.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I hate to rain on your parade, but if you are restricting your shots to 30 yards with a Mission Sub 1, there's no need for a $900 range finding scope. You can put any crossbow scope on that thing, sight in at 20 yards, and kill anything out to 30 yards by centering the cross hairs on your aim point. The amount of bolt drop from 20 to 30 yards would be negligible. Does that lighted dot even move with a 10 yard distance change?

I would love to put one of those scopes on my deer rifle though.
 
I hate to rain on your parade, but if you are restricting your shots to 30 yards with a Mission Sub 1, there's no need for a $900 range finding scope. You can put any crossbow scope on that thing, sight in at 20 yards, and kill anything out to 30 yards by centering the cross hairs on your aim point. The amount of bolt drop from 20 to 30 yards would be negligible. Does that lighted dot even move with a 10 yard distance change?

I would love to put one of those scopes on my deer rifle though.

It is not for a rifle. It is designed for a crossbow. My experience with the sub-one lite is quite different. Under very unique circumstances I do hope to shoot out to 35 yards or so, but that would be very unusual for me. I practice out to 50 yards. A lot depends on your tolerance for wounding game. Mine is very low. It is much more than the intrinsic accuracy of the bow. Deer move from the time my brain says to squeeze the trigger and when the arrow arrives. Speed is not nearly as important as quietness for deer hunting. Deer can jump the string and drop 16" or more by the time the fastest crossbow arrow can travel 20 yards. They are amazing creatures. So far, I have not had any deer jump the string with the sub-one lite. There is a difference between 20 and 30 yard impact with my bow. Yardage is not the only factor. Elevation compensation is also a factor when hunting from different elevations.

Can you kill a deer using one aim point for 20 and 30 yards with the sub-one lite? Absolutely! But lots of factors come in to play in a real world situation and every inch counts. It can be the difference between 1 lung or 2 or the top of the lungs and no-mans-land between the lungs and the spine.

For my deer rifles, I really like the Leupold CDS. If a deer is far enough away to use it, there is no issue with them picking you up using a handheld range finder or adjusting the CDS.
 
Well, I finally released an arrow from this setup. About 15 minutes after I get into my stand, when things start to settle down, I like to make a few soft turkey feeding calls. I think it tends to relax any deer in the area that were impacted slightly by my entry. About 1650, I heard a couple soft calls from the hardwoods , just to the right of the box blind I was in. I knew the birds would pop out in the field any minute. I picked up the crossbow and got into position. I heard them in the leaves but they were too close to the blind to see, about 5 yards. Eventually, they turned feeding away from my blind. It was a family flock of 9. They young birds were big enough I could not distinguish them from the adult hens. I had easy 15 yard shots, but I did not want to burn a tag on a hen.

So, I just sat back and enjoyed watching them feed. Every now and then, I would make a few soft calls. I've been able to hold birds in the field by doing this before. I think having turkey in the field makes deer feel safe as well. Well, about 15 minutes or so later, 4 longbeards entered the field at about 30 yards in a line. Moving the remote, took me a minute to adjust to, so ranging them took a few seconds. I was on one at 28 yards, but I didn't like the shot as it was too close to a small tree. I just waited until it passed and was more in the open. I ranged it again and it was exactly 30 yards. The Oracle-X did its job and placed a red dot below the crosshairs.

The bow was rock solid with the my modified butt sitting on top of my shoulder and the weight of my arm pulling it down into the top of my shoulder by the pistol grip. The front was sitting on the window shelf. I slowly squeezed the trigger. The arrow impacted exactly where I had aimed. The lighted nok made they clear. The gobbler putted and started running. All the other birds looked up and putted as they watch him for cues as to the source of danger. He fell within 10 yards of the impact site with the arrow still in him. When the other gobblers realized he was not joining them, they walked into the woods. The hens, on the other hand, stayed frozen in the field for a few more minutes and the slowly walked to the other end of the field and then into the woods.

I verified the amazingly accurate shot placement when I cleaned the bird. On the down side, I cut myself with my knife when cleaning the bird. Not enough damage for stitches, but ugly and painful anyway. It took a while, but eventually, I got the bleeding stopped.

Acorns are few and far between this year at the farm, so the bird was light. 16 lbs 9 oz. He had an 11" beard and 1" spur. Yes, spur. The other spur had broken off some time ago. I could see the scar where it had been.

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Thanks,

Jack
 
Just thought I'd provide a quick update. I picked up the crossbow today to verify everything before our season. With the winds we were having this morning, I setup to shoot through the barn. At least the first 20 yards of the arrow flight would be wind free. I pushed the fire button on the Oracle X and nothing happened. I was surprised. I figured those cr123 batteries would last more than a year with the unit sitting idle, but no luck. I ran out and bought a couple batteries for it. Once I installed the new battery, it fired right up. None of my settings were lost. It was spot on out to 45 yards which is well beyond my hunting range.

I think I'm ready to go, but the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate...
 
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