Swarovski Z3 Plex Reticle

[JohnyRingo]

Does anyone use their standard Plex reticle as a BDC reticle, meaning do you use the post above the main crosshair for one yardage (100 yards), the main crosshair for the zero yardage (200 yards) and the post below the main crosshair for a third yardage (300 yards)? The reason I ask is I bought a Swarovski Z3 Plex Scope without ever looking through one in person. When I got the scope, I noticed the plex reticle isn't a very wide reticle (ie. the cross hairs become thick very sudden) and I also found out that this model (3.5-10x42 mm) doesn’t have the capability of putting a BDC turret on it. My only BDC turret option is a Micrometer Style Turret Knob, which is a custom turret label made by Highpoweroptics.com. This system involves unscrewing the turret cover each time I want to adjust the yardage. This is why I am asking about using the Plex reticle for different yardages, when I don’t have time to unscrew the turret cap before the shot.

 

[Tim McCoy]

You can often find reticle subtensions in the scope manual or online. With a second focal plane scope, it's just a matter of knowing them for the power you hunt with. I seem to recall some scopes Leupold made, possibly others, where they advertised a range finding feature, spin the power and when the game of a certain size was bracketed in certain parts of the reticle, you had a range of sorts. That said, I just use holdovers to 400, and would not use the reticle subtension method unless I had my own DOPE.

 

[Work2hunt]

I haven't as my scopes are all a bdc reticle but i dont see why you couldn't. It might take a little target practice to figure out the yardages for each point. And remember with that scope different powers of magnification will mean different yardages for those points.

 

[JohnyRingo]

Tim-

This is good info. I didn't know anything about scope subtentions. I went to the Swaro website and found that the distance from the crosshair center to the posts are 3.1" per 100 yards. My rifle ballistcs show that if my rifle is zeroed at 300 yards, then it will shoot 3.7" high at 100 yards. That's basically where the upper post begins (within 0.6"). At 200 yards, my rifle shoots 4.4" high. At 200 yards, the post is 6.2" high, so that's really cose. At 400 yards, my rifle shoots 10.4" low and the lower post would be 12.4", so that is within 2". In a pinch when I don't have time to unscrew the dust cap and use the BDC turret, I can use the Plex Reticle and its posts to accurately shoot out to 400 yards.

 

[Tim McCoy]

Glad it helped. Best to verify it on targets and know what power setting is needed. Generally the power setting matters.

 

[JohnyRingo]

Yep. The Swaro website said that data was for 10x and that is the power I will usually shoot.