Leatherwood Hi-Lux

One term you’ll hear thrown around quite often is BC. BC is the Ballistic Coefficient, a rather important number in the world of bullet flight efficiency. A higher BC means a bullet will retain velocity better - have less negative acceleration, less drag from the air resistance - in similar conditions to a low BC bullet.

Most bullets are made almost entirely of lead. Lead has been the top choice in bullets for hundreds of years now, and it’s all due to a few simple reasons - it’s very dense, it’s easy to cast, and it’s fairly malleable. 

The bullet is the chunk of metal that actually exits the rifle’s muzzle, provided everything works the way it should. Ideally, it’ll be going at a tremendous speed with a good amount of spin. Think of the bullet as a high-speed football. 

The rim protrudes around the circumference of the head of the case, and is not technically a separate component of the case. I list it separately here because of the unique functions it provides. It is where the rifle’s extractor grabs the spent case to pull it from the chamber.

Cases come in many sizes, but only two general shapes: bottlenecked and straight walled.

The case is the part of the cartridge that holds all the other components together. Before we talk about all the things that will be stuffed into it, it’s a good idea to know where the stuffing happens! The case is also known as the brass.

The science of ballistics is a multidisciplinary field that combines physics, engineering, and metallurgy to understand the behavior of bullets and their interactions with external phenomena.

To put a bullet through the target at the spot the crosshairs are covering, you'll need to zero your scope. At farther and farther distances, any small errors will compound until you're not even on paper anymore. Before we try to reach out that far for a zero, let's make sure the bullet is on the right path.

To find out the easy way to zero - the 25 Yard Zero - we’re going to have to take a look at some numbers. And some pictures. Then we'll shoot some rounds, of course.

The quickest way to get on paper - 1. Unload your rifle, 2. Remove the bolt, 3. Look down the barrel, line up with target, 4. Dial scope to line up with target, 5. Replace bolt and fire.

You may not always have a wind meter on you, and it may not always have batteries. Or you may want to judge the wind speed between you and your target, far away from your wind meter. Check here for visual cues for wind speed based on grass, trees, water, smoke, mirage, and others. Included is also a video of plants in the SoCal desert with a live view of the wind speed.

 

A handy set of questions for you to consider before you go picking a scope:

• What is the size of your expected target?
• What is the expected maximum distance?
• What sort of environment and lighting conditions will you be shooting in?
• Do you find metric or imperial measurements easier?
• Do you want more information in the reticle, or do you prefer a cleaner view?
• Is the scope’s weight or size an important factor?