All the hype in today’s hunting and shooting world revolves around long range shooting. I’m all for it if you practice on a regular basis and have the right equipment. Night Force has many different rifle scopes available today and I had the pleasure of putting one to the test on a late season Colorado deer hunt.
I mounted the Velocity 1000 on my trusty Christensen Arms 300 Ultramag several weeks prior to the hunt. Since I already spend a lot of time shooting and practicing at long range with this gun, it was just a matter of getting the setup dialed in. The one piece Picatinny rail and mount setup is extremely solid and gives you an automatic 20 minutes of angle (M.O.A) due to the increase in height. The Velocity system has really simplified what it takes to shoot long range. The reticle has a series of crosshairs from 200 all the way out to 1000 yards with 25 yard increment hash marks. By using the online calculator at www.nightforceoptics.com, I was able to put my complete ballistic data into the computer system which gives me the appropriate sight for my specific gun and load. By sighting in my current setup at 210 yards, each and every one of the crosshairs out to 1000 yards would put me in the kill zone of any deer. Most of the crosshairs were within .20 MOA and the farthest off was the 1000 yard range which was .70 MOA. Seven inches low at 1000 yards still put me in the kill zone and one click of elevation would put me right on the money.
After bore sighting the gun, it was off to the range. Within 5 shots, I was ready to put the long range shooting to the test. At 450 yards a 12 inch white steel plate hung still in the light breeze. I slowly squeezed the trigger and could see the plate swinging prior to hearing that distinct smack of a bullet hitting steel. Six twenty five was the next stop with the exact same results and the same out to 750. The 920 yard plate is 14 inches and has a little more wind to deal with. The scope is setup with windage markers for 5, 10, and 15 MPH winds. I held slightly between the 5 and 10 and let her fly, but I had missed just slightly right. My next round downrange hit its’ mark. With less than a dozen shots, I was hitting deer sized kill zones at over 900 yards.
The trip to Colorado was another solid test for the scope with extreme cold temperatures and 9 days of field torture. I wanted that mossy horned muley that haunts my dreams and I wanted a whack at him at around 500 yards to test my skills, but that didn’t happen. On the last day, I took a good 5 year old buck and when I settled the crosshairs on him at 375 yards, he crumbled. The field testing was a major success.
The best part about this scope is that they have taken what used to be an extremely complicated process and made it extremely simple and with it attached to the right weapon anyone should be able to connect at long range with sufficient practice. More details and specifications on this scope and the full NightForce line can be found at www.nightforceoptics.com.
Check out the full line of riflescopes at Sportsman’s Warehouse.
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