Guns 2011-02.pdf - Jeffersonian

• J A C O B G O T T F R E D S O N •
Burris Eliminator
This 4X-12X scope ranges and
tells you where to shoot!
came across the most innovative and revolutionary
I solution for hunters I have seen in many years—maybe
ever seen—maybe ever will see. It was something scope
manufacturers have been trying to accomplish for years.
Burris has done it.
Walking the halls of 2010’s SHOT
Show, I was amazed at the new
riflescopes, binoculars and spotting
scopes, representing myriad price
ranges, from those for the budgetminded
buyer to the best of glass
with class.
Then, quite by accident, I stumbled
on it.
I was visiting with Pat Beckett, an
old friend, at the Burris booth. We
talked for a moment and he steered
me to a display near the corner of his
area and handed it to me.
But let me back up a moment.
Let’s review the past 50 years for a
bit. In my youth I began hunting
with a 4X Weaver. It had a very fine
crosshair and a dot at the intersection
of the crosshairs. The wire was so fine
I often could not see it. It worked
OK, and I took a lot of game with
it. My next acquisition was a Plex
reticle with somewhat thicker wires
and it was a little more useful. In
the military I was introduced to the
Mil-Dot reticle, which was even more
useful.
About 15 years ago, a man named
Tom Smith approached me with a
new reticle incorporating holdover
bars below the main horizontal
crosshair, designed to take advantage
of the ballistic flight of bullets with
a factor designation. Quite ingenious,
it was used in both Swarovski and
Kahles scopes for several years and
has since been emulated by more than
one manufacturer.
The chase to design holdover bars
of various configurations was on.
While they greatly improved the ability
of hunters to put game on the ground
out to 600 yards and more, there were
The Burris Eliminator Laserscope is shown
here on one of Rock River’s ARs. The standard
mounting system that comes with the scope
required a high mount on the AR platform.
still drawbacks. The typical scenario
went thus: The hunter sees his target,
ranges it with some rangefinder or his
stadia bars. He then looks at a table
taped to his rifle or residing in his pack
or pocket… or maybe he was gifted
with a memory to remember it all, even
in 10 of his different rifles and calibers.
Once he decides on the appropriate
holdover bar, he reengages the target
and fires away.
While this capability is far and
above that of my old Weaver with the
fine wire and dot, and also the plex,
it still presents some problems: First,
you have to put your rifle down and
use the rangefinder. Next, you have to
look at a table or ballistic software on
your iPod. Finally, you take the rifle
and begin aiming, using the holdover
bar the table designates for that
range. During this time, the animal
might have moved out of the range
taken or disappeared altogether. And
it all took valuable time.
About three years ago, maybe
longer, Zeiss, Burris, Nikon and
Bushnell introduced rangefinding
riflescopes that allowed the hunter
to range the target while still holding
it in the scope’s image. They went a
step further and included holdover
bars on the horizontal crosshair. The
speed with which a hunter could take
the shot was greatly improved. But
one step remained unsolved: The
hunter still had to take his eyes from
the target to find out which holdover
bar to use. Granted, the Zeiss has
numbers on the holdover bars, but
they vary according to conditions, so
a card with an appropriate holdover
chart was still needed. Wouldn’t it be
great if….
So, back to the Burris booth. Pat
handed me a rangefinding riflescope
and stepped back. I looked through
it. It ranged alright, but that was not
new. Then I saw a small yellow/red
dot appear below the main vertical
crosshair. Was this what I thought it
was?
In the evolution of riflescopes
several things remain to be solved.
First, after ranging, a red or yellow
dot or some other easily readable
color would appear, representing the
holdover required. Burris had done
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