Tuning the Leupold VXIII Long Range/Hollands reticle

I recently extended my range to where I can get 265 yards from the deck railing to the 4×4 ft target.

Problem was even tho my Leupold has 106 minutes of elevation in it, sighted at 50 yards, I only had 45 MOA left in adjustment. That meant I was only good to 185 yards, adding another 24 MOA from the hold over marks on the Hollands reticle that would get me out to 220 yards by maxing out the elevation adjustments and the reticle hold over.

So I considered buying the insert rings from Burris, but with the bases your knocking the heck out of 100 bucks with shipping.

I tried another avenue. I removed the scope, added .040 of shims to the bottom of the rear ring, then made up a sanding rod that was 29.5 MM and sanded down the bottom of the front ring with a slope towards the muzzle to minimize scope ring marks and give more front ring contact to the slanting scope tube.

That gave me an additional 31 minutes at 100 yards for a total adjustment of 76 minutes from a 50 yard zero, or 63 from a 100 yard zero.

That means I can adjust point of aim or direct fire to 225 yards and with the 24 minutes of reticle can hold on to 265 yards, That was of course due to my precise math and measurements that I got that right on, yeah right, I lucked out.

I have two levels on the rifle/scope combination. one on the flat of the scope rail and one on the turrent cap without a level it is really difficult to hit at these ranges, at least for me.

I do plan on sending both of my Leupolds back to the factory, which is also driving distance for me, to get elevation Taget turrents knobs and get the 3×9 VXII on the Ranger 45 reparalaxed adjusted for 75 yards, so when that gets done I will have to put a bubble vials on the taller elevation caps and then time the scope and reciever to level, then take the turrent caps off and put it in a drawer never to be used again as I have in the past with other Leupolds I have done this to.

For practical accuracy at 265 yards, I expect the Royale/Hollands combination to shoot one shot groups of around .22 outside to outside spread.

Yeah you read that right.

But at least I can put up a gong in the middle of my target board with a 24 inch piece of butcher paper for a background and blaze away from the comfort of the deck.

View from the deck, you can just make out the target board at 265 yards, to the right of the tree, the bright spot is actually a bird box, the target just touches it and is a small pale blur in the picture

View of the target at 150 yards

View of the house at 265 yards from the target, the large Douglas fir tree is right in the middle of the house

Regards,

Roachcreek