Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
On scopes with turrets that have good distinct clicks you can just count clicks. But that works better with someone using a MOA or MIL turret and not this CDS horsepucky.
Leupold CDS
- Thread starter Mortenson
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Yes, but that requires the memorization that the CDS addresses. As I'm getting older, it is harder and harder to keep ballistic characteristics of each gun in my head. With CDS, I can just range, dial, hold on target, and shoot.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Makes sense. A better solution is a rangefinder with built in ballistic calculator that tells you the angular correction when you range but understand that is more $ for people that already have a scope. Its a more versatile and accurate solution than CDS because it takes atmospherics into account too and is easy to change with your ammo.
I understand CDS works for a lot of people and if one isn't shooting very far the error in the system is probably negligible. I'm just a grinch about CDS in general because:
1. People who don't understand ballistics or the variables involved, don't practice at longer range, etc think they can buy a scope and a dial and all of a sudden shoot at animals at extended range because the # on their dial says so. Obviously this isn't everyone but it is prevalent from my observations.
2. There is so many things that impact the drop of a bullet. Atmosphere and velocity are two of the big ones. People dont know that 100 FPS variance between lots of factory ammo is not uncommon or that a new to broken in barrel could speed up over 100 FPS.
3. If you change ammo your dial is no longer accurate
4. Leupold VX series scopes don't have a great track record of tracking correctly over time
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I used a Labradar and had an ES of under 20 fps with my new smokeless muzzleloader. There are many ways to skin a cat. I've had very good success with the Leupold VZX series. Smokeless are notorious scope eaters and I went with Leupold. I have them on most of my firearms and have never had any one of them fail.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
The electronics came in the mail today. Here they are:
Nothing more than a battery holder, switch, and 1 mm red LED. The LED is way too bright and non directional. The next step is to figure out how to connect it to the scope. I'm thinking of inserting the LED into a black straw and putting electrical tape on it, or maybe just a small piece of shrink tube or something and mounting it somehow directly behind the turret so the turret blocks most of the forward light but is illuminated.
I'll probably just use Velcro or even a rubber band to attach it to the scope. If it works out, I'll put one on all my CDS scopes.
Thanks,
Jack
I found some time to work on this little project. I tried several things to dim the LED. I did not want to jump through the hoops to do it electronically. I tried putting colored plastic on it. I considered painting it, but I didn't have any latex paint laying around. I tried using a sharpie but and it was somewhat effective. My next approach was to direct the light. I considered a number options and settled on a pies of UF wire insulation.
I cut the insulation to length and then cut and re-spliced the wires on the slight to shorten them. I used heat-shrink to cover the splices. I cut a split in the insulation long enough that I could insert the switch with the button exposed. I then used Velcro to attach the whole thing to the scope. Here is the result:
Here is how it illuminates the dial:
Ignore the glare, that is a function of the camera. You see very little in reality. Here it is in a dark room:
Again, ignore the glare. So, how does it look from a deer's perspective?
The camera was at the end of the barrel looking back at the scope. I don't think deer will see much! I think I'll make them for my other CDS scopes!
Thanks,
Jack
