Leatherwood M-1000 ART II!

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ginnz

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100 miles north 100 miles south, manitoba
Hi guys.

Well i finally got my Leatherwood ART II M-1000! I got a great deal off a member here on the forums.

I bought it specially for hunting coyote's with my .308..... Where i hunt them, they are more than often "on the spook" and don't settle down till they are around 600+ yards away, so i will be cooking up a load and doing a massive amount of range time, perfecting my 600-900 yard shots. I will be starting with the sierra 155 gn Palma bullet, as my main round. Round development will be starting right away, as i picked up all the reloading stuff i needed for this last week.

The first thing i noticed after mounting the scope is how good the glass is in this thing! For the price, its very, very good IMO. I have a Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44PA and at first look, seems to be easilly on par with it! I find the range cam to be hard to turn, but am hoping it'll break in after a while, the previous owner stated its got almost no use.

I will do a review on this scope, as i go along, based on my experiences, as i didnt find much on it before i bought it. Hopefully i will be able to clear some questions up that some others may have.

So besides checking the glass out, and first impressions being very good, I also notice it seems to be built very well. The mount is very solid, and using just the thumb screws to hold it in my .308's rail, its solid. It has two mounting points that fit into a picatinny rail, or scope bases that insure its mounted in the same place everytime. It sits a bit high, due to it's ART system, but it's not too bad, and i don't think it'll be an issue, I may be adding a cheek piece to my stock, but i'll wait and see, as i'm getting a boyd's thumbhole for the rifle next. Initially my only negative thought is due to the rear scope cap, it's garbage.... I'll be replacing that. The front cap is fine.

More to follow, I'll let you know how my cam setup and sighting goes. I think its gonna be alot of fun!

Thanks to POMLT3-08 for the awesome deal! I'd buy from you again any day!

Ginnz!
 
I read the review on SniperCentral.com and must admit that it is a neat concept, however the quality makes me a bit leary.

I look forward to hearing how you make out and your opinion on it after spending some more time with it.

Good Luck!
 
-JD- said:
I read the review on SniperCentral.com and must admit that it is a neat concept, however the quality makes me a bit leary.

I look forward to hearing how you make out and your opinion on it after spending some more time with it.

Good Luck!
Click to expand...

The quality is very good, IMO! The glass is awesome! I took it out to the range for an initial test fire, albiet at only 100 and 170 yards, just to see how it worked out, and to test a .308 palma load im working on, and there was a guy there who was interested in it, the first thing he remarked on was how clear it was, and the nice reticle....(I like thinner reticle's as well). But the glass is very good. One thing i didnt do was check all the set screws on the Cam, range ring, and power ring.... and sure enough, the previous guy didnt have them all snugged up. No big deal, its not anything that could harm anything... I just didnt do that. Now once I have everything set up properly, and zero'd at 250m, ill blue locktite that stuff up.

Oh, and the turrents are awesome! nice click to them, and smooth. over all, first/second impressions are very good..... I made up 50 more rounds tonight, .308, 45 gn varget, 155 gn sierra palma, and 45.5 gn loads.... they should be around the 2900 fps according to load info off the net. If they do good at 250 meters, ill set up some 5-600m targets and try it out. ai prolly will have to tweak the cam setting to get it to hit dead on at all ranges (up to an optimistic 900m) :)

more to follow.....
 
not yet!

I just made it into the city tuesday to get powder/bullets, made a wack of rounds yesterday.... and then it rained! today its snowing! DAMN! hopefully this weekend we'll have a relatively calm day, If so, ill see if i can't get it sighted in properly at the suggested 250 meters, and then start trying to dial it into my loads.... I'm still on the fence wether ill be using 155 gr Hornady A-Max (palma), or A-Max 168 gr as my primary round. Theres no point in starting to set the cam setting up until i develop a round for the 250 meter zero first. That will take me some time.... So far i made 4 dozen rounds. 45 gr Varget/45.5 gr Varget, 12 of each, its a place to start.
 
Well, i made it out to the range yesterday, and got it all zero'd in, at least at 100 meters. I have to wait till it dries up a bit more, then i'll get the real 250, 300, 350,400,500,600,700,800 meter 18" targets out, and spend a day out there tuning it. I know i'm gonna have to fiddle with the cam setting to get it right, as i'm using hand loads and there is no "factory" setting for my load.....

After making 155 gr A-Max, and 178 gr. A-Max loads, It looks like i'll be setting things up for the 155 gr, as they grouped the best, SUB MOA..... I'm not sure if they will continue in that manner out to the further ranges, maybe the 178's will , i'll still have to see about that.

Oh, im using a Savage Model 12 BSEV heavy fluted 26" stainless BBL. I ordered a Boyds' varmint thumbhole stock for it..... ;-)
 
Hey guys, just a bit of an update....

I took it out today, after sorting out my ejector issues. I had loaded up 40 rounds of .308 with 155 gr. A-Max/45 gr. Varget. I zero'd it at 250m. and got a decent group. The only issue is the wind. When i started it was fine, about a 5 kph breeze, side wind. As i continued it picked up to 25-30 kph gusts..... Damn.

Anyways. I shot 5 shots at 250 meters, and had to make a small elevation change. 3 clicks up brought me to where i needed to be. Then, I moved back to 400m, set the scope for 400, locked the cam, and went to manual zoom mode at 10x. I took 5 shots and checked it out. Vertically it was almost right on, maybe 1.5" high, but 8" to the left, i accredited that to the wind. I took 5 more shots using the first mil dot for windage and it was right in there!

I then moved back to 500m, set the cam for 500, locked it and went to manual mode again (10x), took 5 shots and they were about 5" high, and of course the wind did its thing, but they were all on the paper and acceptable. I followed this up by going out to 600m and shooting my last three rounds. Excellent! a bit higher , but workable. All i need to do is tune my cam setting in, which I just did. It was set at a value of 340, and I went up to 360. This should bring my long range shots down. I will load a bunch more up, and wait for the wind to drop. Then I want to tune it right in.

All in all, this setup is a winner! I can see already how its gonna be a great value in long range coyote shooting, as doing an elevation change is a two second deal, and you can ain dead on with the cross hairs, no hold over.... of course, one has to dope for wind, but thats always gonna be there. Practice will make perfect in that regard.

The ONLY thing i wish it had was more zoom! I just may source out a good used M-1200, just for the extra zoom. Anyone have one they would want to part with? ;-)

I'll be back with an update soon! Oh, and i can't say enough about the glass in this thing. It is good! It is by far every bit as good as my Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44, and may even be a bit brighter. For the money, it can't be beat....... I've read alot of reviews by guys who say its not good at all, and compare everything to Leupold, and their claims are simply unfounded. They seem to think if it's not 1000.00 plus, it can't be any good. Don't let them fool you, give it a chance!

ginnz.
 
ginnz said:
Hey guys, just a bit of an update....

I took it out today, after sorting out my ejector issues. I had loaded up 40 rounds of .308 with 155 gr. A-Max/45 gr. Varget. I zero'd it at 250m. and got a decent group. The only issue is the wind. When i started it was fine, about a 5 kph breeze, side wind. As i continued it picked up to 25-30 kph gusts..... Damn.

Anyways. I shot 5 shots at 250 meters, and had to make a small elevation change. 3 clicks up brought me to where i needed to be. Then, I moved back to 400m, set the scope for 400, locked the cam, and went to manual zoom mode at 10x. I took 5 shots and checked it out. Vertically it was almost right on, maybe 1.5" high, but 8" to the left, i accredited that to the wind. I took 5 more shots using the first mil dot for windage and it was right in there!

I then moved back to 500m, set the cam for 500, locked it and went to manual mode again (10x), took 5 shots and they were about 5" high, and of course the wind did its thing, but they were all on the paper and acceptable. I followed this up by going out to 600m and shooting my last three rounds. Excellent! a bit higher , but workable. All i need to do is tune my cam setting in, which I just did. It was set at a value of 340, and I went up to 360. This should bring my long range shots down. I will load a bunch more up, and wait for the wind to drop. Then I want to tune it right in.

All in all, this setup is a winner! I can see already how its gonna be a great value in long range coyote shooting, as doing an elevation change is a two second deal, and you can ain dead on with the cross hairs, no hold over.... of course, one has to dope for wind, but thats always gonna be there. Practice will make perfect in that regard.

The ONLY thing i wish it had was more zoom! I just may source out a good used M-1200, just for the extra zoom. Anyone have one they would want to part with? ;-)

I'll be back with an update soon! Oh, and i can't say enough about the glass in this thing. It is good! It is by far every bit as good as my Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44, and may even be a bit brighter. For the money, it can't be beat....... I've read alot of reviews by guys who say its not good at all, and compare everything to Leupold, and their claims are simply unfounded. They seem to think if it's not 1000.00 plus, it can't be any good. Don't let them fool you, give it a chance!

ginnz.
Click to expand...

Awesome! I can't wait to get one! What do you figure is the minimum rail length needed to mount one of these? I want to be sure to get a scope mount for my M14s that will accomodate it nicely.
 
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