In this NSSF video, Ryan Cleckner explains that not all scopes track identically and offers a drill you can use to find out if your scope over or under tracks in both windage and elevation.
Cleckner is an instructor on a series of National Shooting Sports Foundation videos, which feature a lot of tips that take the mystery out of long-range shooting and general rifle use.
According to his Wikipedia entry, Cleckner is a former Army Ranger sniper and instructor with the 1st Ranger Battalion of the U.S. Army. He is currently a law student, and has served as the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) government relations manager. He is also a competitive shooter in various disciplines.
Cleckner served two tours in Afghanistan. After returning to his hometown of Arizona, Cleckner studied at the Arizona State University obtaining a degree in political science. He then enrolled at Quinnipiac University School of Law.
While studying, Cleckner joined another student, Brian Gregorio, and founded Veteran’s Advocacy Group, a student organization dedicated to educating students about civilian-military relations, military careers and veterans’ issues. In 2010, Cleckner also founded New Battlefront Foundation, a non-profit organization that aid veterans in their transition from military to civilian life.
In 2011, Cleckner appeared as a trainer in the second season of History Channel’s marksmen competition show, Top Shot. In a 2012 video filmed at Colby Donaldson’s ranch, Cleckner shot a Barrett M82 50-caliber rifle while standing up and hit a target 1,000 yards away on his first shot.
What drills do you use to improve your shooting while dialing in your scope? Share them with us in the comment section.
I usually view such videos, just to ensure both accuracy and new observations I’m not currently aware of.
Tonight, I received zero video.
I suspect it’s my guest network I’m on, as it’s a “goobernet”.
Annoyingly, at work, the network is biased against video for performance reasons. As the network supports commercial government security, I’ll not object. Mission first, second and third, further considerations need consider the first three.
More annoying is, I’ve qualified expert with a new class of M16, without ever firing the bloody thing and never zeroing it (duh, never fired it).
I Kentucky windaged the living hell out of reality and qualified expert.
Once I had two point of trajectory, specific ones from the A1 crowd, I had my landing points.
Wasn’t X ring, but it was enough to knock down enough to qualify expert.
Then again, shooting the box is rather old news. I was honestly looking for new information.
I have a question. I have an AR15 MP 5.56 and my scope is a Nikon P-223 3-9×40 with the BDC 600 Reticle. At 100 yards 1 click moves 1/4 “.
In the video he said move the windage and elevation 3 minutes each. The question I have is what or how much is three minutes ?
Roy, the 3 minutes refers to “minutes of angle” which, at 100 yards, is so dang close to 3 inches to be considered the same. As distance increases the difference between MOA and inches increases but not enough for the average hunter or recreational shooter to worry about. If you are a competitive shooter at distances of 600-1,000 yards the difference is meaningful.
This is an excellent drill to confirm the accuracy of your scope/rifle/ammo combination. Every rifle hunter should do this before taking to the field.