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I was seeing how far others thought it might go and match a scope to that
Yes, with high BC jacketed you can go farther, cast, not so much. Your MV will be ~2400, cast BC for a 160-170 gr is probably .35 and drop gets big past 250. You can go farther but scope adjustment will be needed.
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So it’s sounding like 250-500yds is about it with cast. I’m using the Lee 309-180 R mold and powder coating them. I figured 200yds would probably be about it without a lot of adjusting.
The scope would be for j-words, right now I’m just duplicating military ball, but plan to get into better bullets soon.
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It's all about clarity and not about magnification. A good clear 10x will do better at range than a fuzzy 20x.
There's nothing more expensive when it comes to accurate extended range shooting than cheap optics.
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Sawin: I have no problem hitting Silhouette Rams at 500 meters (550 yds) with my Ruger Scout Rifle with a 16" barrel and a Leupold 1-5x VX3. I now have a Leupold 3-9x VX-R mounted on that gun and I have shot a 4 3/4" 3 shot group on a Pink Ram at the Piru Gun Range.
I get a consistent 2780 fps from 45 gr of IMR 4895 with a 147 gr M80 Ball pulled bullets. These are nearly identical to the 155 gr Palma bullets Sierra makes for the .308 for shooting at 1000 yards.
I just attended an "Intro to Precision Rifle" Class at Front Sight last weekend, and was reassured that the .308 was perfectly capable of making first round hits at 1200 yards.
You choice of a 4-12x Bushnell is a good one for your intended purpose. The higher magnification optics 6-18+ will cause problems with Mirage as temps increase. However the beauty of a variable power optic is that you can turn the magnification down.
As far as optics go the more serious you get about shooting long range the more your optics will cost you. Just about any rifle that is consistently 1MOA or less will be accurate enough to hit at long distances. The optics on the other hand will make or break that effort.
The biggest difference between inexpensive optics and the expensive stuff is the Glass the lenses are made from and the accuracy and repeatability of the internal mechinism.
The Glass is all about light transmission and distortion. The more expensive the optic the higher the light transmission and the less distortion there is to the image.
However, and this is a big "however," there is a thing called "diminishing returns." What this means is that the cost goes up exponentially the closer you get to so called perfect.
that Bushnell optic you are looking at probably passes 92% of the light it takes in. A Schmidt and Bender scope that costs nearly $3K will probably transmit 94-95 %. I doubt many can discern the difference between the two with the naked eye.
Also you must consider your intended use and decide how much you are willing to spend and how much use you will get from it. It is pointless to buy a $3000 scope, put it on a $500 rifle, and then put it in your safe. If you aren't going to get the use out of it, it is pointless to spend the money for the better optic.
If you are going to put a $100 scope on the gun and then put it in the safe, you aren't losing anything of substance. And if you do use it for shooting at 200-300 yards it will probably be better than you really need.
I look at "Value in Use" as one of my primary factors when buying equipment. In other words can I get my monies worth out of this product? It is a lot easier to get $100 worth of use out of a scope, than it is to get $3000 worth out of it.
That Bushnell scope is a perfect fit for your gun and your intended use and pretty much any other use you could put that gun to in the future.
Good Luck.
Randy