Okay.... I'm looking up this DOPE thing. See. This is why I post these threads.
If you're starting this journey a word of advice
Learn mils (milradians) not MOA
Dont use a 50 yard zero because the trajectory of the bullet will cross line of sight TWICE for pretty much every cartridge from 223/5.56 up.
Picture is worth thousand words
If you use a 50 yard zero you will be on target for 50 yards and approx 200 (depending on ballistics of the cartridge) but you'll need to come DOWN for everything BETWEEN 50 and 200 and up for everything past 200.....unnecessarily complicated especially when you're under stress of making a shot.
A 100 yard zero is simpler. Yes you will need to accommodate sight height over bore for very close shots but its stupid easy consistent for holdovers (elevation dope) past your zero.
Calculates the ballistic trajectory of a bullet fired from a rifle, handgun or other firearm. Produces a ballistic trajectory chart and table that shows the drop, velocity, kinetic energy, windage, and trajectory of a bullet.
shooterscalculator.com
Just using 308 win as example for illustrative purposes.
You can hold your zero at 100
You could hold 1 mil at 200 yard target all the way out to 300 yard target and the vertical spread would fall well within center of mass.....assuming you do your part.
Based on the above if you held 1 mil at 200 you would be about 1" high.....at 225 you would be dead on.....at 300 you would be 4" low.....at 350 you would STILL be center of mass with a 1 mil holdover.
If you're shooting a cartridge with better ballistics like a 6.5 creedmore then you can push the efficacy of a 1 mil holdover out further
I'm not trying to discourage you from learning what your dope is at different ranges.....I'm just trying to point out that inside of 400 yards you dont have to work hard to get center of mass hits if you do your part.
If you want to learn about wind here's some good references/discussion...it might give you a brain spasm at first but its actually pretty easy and once you figure out the MPH of your gun/projectile and learn to read wind (no value/half value/full value) it becomes easy to calculate holdover values/dope for wind......inside of 300 yards you really dont need to calculate wind unless you're shooting in 20+ mph winds and even then.....
At a recent match, many on my squad were describing their wind calls in terms of mph, by saying eg: I used a 5mph wind( rather than describing it in terms of mils). These were good shooters doing this. (I just got on their squad by accident). Where can I learn about this technique, and...
www.snipershide.com