Upside Down – Bottom Side Up

After years and years of shooting at stuff and missing and shooting at stuff and hitting. And, after years of watching others do the same. I’ve concluded that scope reticles could be to blame for some of the missing that goes one.

Well, that’s not entirely true; the miss is always due to an operator headspace issue. However, a simiple equipment change might sometimes decreases the excessive headspace we sometimes can experiences.

If you talk to lots of outfitters as I have over the years – outfitters in North America, Europe, Africa and even New Zealand – you’ll find that the most common misses on animals are high and that the most common bad shots are gut shots (center mass shots.)

The shooting too high is primarily a problem caused by lack of practice at longer ranges and the inability to properly compensate. Gear can’t help with practice but it might be of some use with the compensation. Ballistic reticles are all the rage but most are thin and when the shooting occurs in low light or becomes wildly dynamic, these thin reticles can become lost in the mess.

A thicker reticle like a heavy duplex or post reticle can help but when you start trying to compensate for bullet drop with that thick reticle it hides the target you’re shooting at. After thinking about this for a bit I concluded that if I had a thick post reticle installed so that it came down from the top instead of up from the bottom, it would not cover the animal and it would be easier to see.

This post reticle makes sense in another way and can help eliminate the gut shot syndrome. You see, when we practice with a + type reticle we acclimate ourselves to quartering the available target with the +. Those available targets are usually squares and circles and quartering them with the + is easy.

When hunters who only practice on squares and circles get excited and try to force the shot, they place the + center mass and pull the trigger. The result is that bullet goes where the + was at and they end up with a gut shot animal. The post reticle eliminates the tendency to quarter the target and makes you point the post at the spot you want to hit.

I used a German Number 1 reticle for a while and liked what I saw. I ‘ve also used the Trijicon Accupoint with the post reticle extensively and consider it one of the best big game reticles available. A few years back the engineers at Khales put together a scope for me and they installed a post reticle with a crosswire upside down. I’ve experimented with this concept a good deal and have found it easy to see in most any light and very easy to use when trying to compensate for trajectory because it does not obscure the target. (Believe it or not, Charlie Sisk of Sisk Rifles and I have a patent on this thing.)

Understandably, the concept seems a bit unusual but after you try it you’ll see how much sense it makes. The heavy post is highly visible and since it is in the upper portion of your field of view it is generally in a place that is the brightest (the sky.) Our patented reticle actually has a small dot positioned below the tip of the post to allow for holdover. I’m still not sure if this is the best approach because I do not have a reticle like this to experiment with.

Now, all we need is for a major scope manufacture to start offering this upside down concept in a hunting type riflescope. Problem is, no one would buy it because they would all think it was stupid.

But, I’ll say this, its kind of like eating zebra; don’t knock it until you try it.