Calibrating The Bushnell Riflescopes

[VictoriaHuntress]

I've been working on establishing the reticle scales for the Bushnell Elite Tactical 3.5-21x FFP scope and the Bushnell Engage 4-16x SFP scope, so that we can convert angular measurements to true MRADS or MOA, and actual linear target size values.

These scopes have reticles capable of quantitative measurements, and so lend themselves well to this sort of calibration.

You can visit Bushnell's Web Site to view the user manuals for the Elite Tactical scope, and although there is no Engage 4-16x listed, it uses the same reticle as the real Engage 3-9x scope.
The Bushnell 3-9x40 SFP scope in-game is really the R3 3-9x40 SFP MultiX reticle model IRL

https://www.bushnell.com/elite-tactical/elite-tactical-3.5-21x50-dmr3-riflescope-g4p-reticle/BU-ETDMR3G4.html

https://www.bushnell.com/scopes/shop-all-scopes/engage-3-9x40-riflescope/BU-REN3940DW.html


I think this will be useful when hunting without Hunter Sense aiming information, especially if a player wants to create their own range tables using an online ballistics calculator, such as

Federal's
https://www.federalpremium.com/ballistics-calculator

or Hornady's

https://www.hornady.com/team-hornady/ballistic-calculators/#!/standard

It is essential to know how the Aiming System interprets a scope's reticle hash marks to place the HunterSense aiming circle on the reticle.

There are two independent methods to establish this scale:

1. Direct Measurement

This one is delightfully simple. It involves using tracking markers placed on targets at the Nex Perce Valley Shooting Range to 'measure' the diameters of the target circles, and even the size of the target cutout., in game-world coordinates and length scales.

Knowing these actual linear dimensions, one can aim at the center of the target circles from a known distance (Hunter Sense on - use the displayed range), and measure the angular diameters of the circles in 'Scope Units', and convert this to diameters in actual length units.


2. Indirectly, by measuring the energy and elevation holdovers for a particular rifle/cartridge (at target distances from 0-1000m, and zero settings from 50-1000m) and comparing with predicted trajectories using one (or both) of the above calculators. I won't discuss that method here, except to say that there is a statistical and scientific method that makes this comparison meaningful and useful, even without exact knowledge of the in-game ballistics calculator's ammunition parameters. It is now known that the game does not always use the same parameters as the manufacturers's specifications for every cartridge/bullet type, so this method accounts for that.

Both methods produce the same (estimated) results for the reticle scales


Without additional comments for now, here are the results:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3320944403

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3320942954

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3320934473

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3320424767

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319717093


None of the other riflescopes in the game are of any real utility for calibration and measurements. Furthermore, the usable area of the reticle area is confined to more or less the central region of the scope. I think this is why the game re-scales the trajectory windage and elevation angular values when displaying the Hunter Sense POA circles - to fit into that limited space. When the the two new Bushnell scopes were introduced, it also re-scales the angular trajectory values down to fit into the central area. IMO this is unnecessary and for all practical purposes reduces their utility as reliable measurement tools. Just display the HunterSense location in the true MILS or MOA values produced by the ballistics calculator.

[VictoriaHuntress]

It occurs to me that this has consequences for how the Hunter Sense POI circles are displayed on the scope reticle. I think they are displaying the circles without scaling the size down by a factor of 4 to account for the in-game scale factors of each scope.

This is especially noticeable for the Remington rifles.

For example, the Remington 700 LR w/Bushness Elite Tactical scope has the following measured diameters:

         Inner Diameter = 0.500 SU  -> 2.0 MILS in game world coordinates
        Outer Diameter = 1.000 SU  -> 4.0 MILS in game world coordinates

Well 2.0 MILS is equivalent to 6.875 MOA, and 4 MILS is equivalent to 13.75 MOA.
Would the game have us believe the Remington 700 shoots, on average, 7 MOA groups???
IRL that rifle is certainly capable of 1 MOA group spreads or less. It may not be as good as the Steyr SM12, which is rated at 0.5 MOA.

I think the sight picture should look like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3321825238

instead of this

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3321816951

This does not change the actual shot dispersion at all, since it is just a matter of an incorrect display scale

[6Taylor4]

EPIC!
Fascinating data - how often is data fascinating? - for me, it's a bit difficult to follow because of my lack of technical knowledge, but very well written and organized and compelling information, and a lot to absorb. Thank you for this impressive presentation, and I'll stay tuned for sure.