AH ! another Zonie, welcome as you can tell I'm a Zonie also, for anyone who interested the name Zonie is what California folks sometimes call us when invading their local Southern California costal areas to get out of the heat or in my case getting out of the White Mtn winter cold, although I've lived in the Valley (Valley of the Sun) and on the Colorado river during my life time. Anyway to get on the subject 257 fine caliber my son and I both have Weatherby Nation Members Rifles. I have a 6.5x20 Vortex Viper mil-dot on mine tall Turrets (enclosed) I prefer enclosed turrets turrets for a couple reasons more on that later. My son had a 4x16 on his took a nice tumble when he touched off a shot in a steep rocky hill side in unit 27 Coues deer ( Cows the correct way to pronounce ) hunting and bent the scope so we went to Springerville and he bought a Vortex Diamond back 4 x 12 which is still on the rifle. Them little Couse deer as well as Javelina can be pretty far out there at times , when we hunt the border it's almost all cross canyon and glassing long ranges. The reason for not liking exposed turrets and we had this happen to my son's friend last year while Bull Elk hunting in our Mogollon Rim area as he slung his rifle it rubbed on the turrets while he was hiking in, and you already know what happened @ 500 yds he missed the elk. Double checked rifle and it was totally off, his dad my friend had just got his Bull and let his son use his older Sako in 7MM STW, 496 yds and he got his Bull. I'm not totally against exposed turrets so long as they lock down otherwise on our longer range scopes I'll look for a taller turret that has a cap, some will argue but you will lose a cap, maybe but I can also go buy a new one after the hunt and not miss an elk. My newer play toy a little Vanguard 6.5 Creedmoor I just installed a Nikon 30mm 4x16 with capped taller turrets with duplex type, the reason why is clicking up is more accurate so I don't have to worry about being slightly off or a better way to put it in-between hash marks while using a bdc type reticle which I have several and I'm pretty good with them within reason. Leupold CDS type custom turrets are not a bad way to go as long as you don't change loads and understand there can be slight differences in your drops when altitude changes from where your CDS Type turret was made for such as going from 1000 ft elevations in the desert to 10,000 plus ft elevations in where we sometimes hunt. I'm not too keen on very busy reticles, mil-dots for instance great for prairie dog shooting when your buddy has another mil-dot scope and with him watching he can walk you in where you are hitting since you both have moa mil-dot reticles. Other than that I don't see a big need for mil-dots because we all pretty much use Electronic rangefinder anyway. Mil-rad reticles same thing if you like them it's fine. Nikon makes a little bdc type reticle with little holes instead of hash marks and if you get on Nikons spot on website you can expand these little circles and get more in-between ranges and with shooting practice you can get pretty good @ whatever yardage my wife was shooting 600 yds plus with 5 " groups with this type of reticle. One new scope I have is 30mm Nikon 4x16 with 20 moa Talley Picatinny base off the top of my head I think it has 55 to 60 moa clicking up capability in elevation and that's like way more than I should be shooting, I can't even see that far. I really think 6.5 x 20 is too much scope for most hunting, stay on the lower settings something like 3x12, 4x12 , 4.5x14 , 4x16, if you can't hit it on 9 power 16 power ain't going to help, and you will almost always hunt on the lower 3x, 4x powers for better field of view and less scope reticle movement, and better eye relief on lower powers. There are times you may need a little more power than 9x, i.e. small animals at great ranges. If it were me I would probably look at Leupold Vx3 or better 30mm 4.5 x 14 or similar quality scope, and get a CDS dial made ONLY after you find the correct load the rifle likes, make sure if you go this way find out if the scope maker has custom turrets available or Kenton industries makes one they don't make one for everything. Duplex or boone & crocket reticle (Nothing busy). Buy a good range finder and be done with it. I sometimes buy the less expensive Wby 100 grain norma and they shoot pretty darn well, but I buy them for the brass because of cost then re-load them with 110 grain Nosler Accubond only because I can use them on Elk If I needed and I have. The Barnes ttsx 100 grainers tend to shoot well re-loads as does Swift Scirocco 100 grainers shoot extremely well in our rifles, about as light as I would want to go on bull elk and only a broadside shot. I did get drawn for AZ Antelope this year after 26 bonus points and I'll either use the 257 wby or 6.5 Creedmoor I'm expecting ranges from 50 yds to way farther than I'm going to shoot , but you got to be prepared for these ranges and that means practicing. The CDS or custom Kenton dial turret systems make it slightly faster to just turn the dial to the range engraved on the turrets vs counting clicks or looking at MOA or MIL-Rad markings on the turret, either way will work as does Nikons expanded bdc spot on program that you can download and keep a copy under your butt stock shell holder so it doesn't get lost (basically a range card). keep a laminated copy on you in case you do lose one. IMO most people don't need to be shooting super long ranges on animals too much room for error although there are people out there fully capable of doing it. 0-300 I consider shorter ranges, 300 to 500/600 middle ranges, 500/700 longer ranges, 700 to whatever yards is really long ranges, this is just my way of looking at it. Anyway welcome and if you need a question on AZ hunting maybe I can point you in the right direction if I can.
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