Burris Eliminator, gimmick or a great idea?

J

Jezz

New member
So is this scope a gimmick or is it worthwhile.


Heres my dilemma, I live in Australia and i shoot foxes for a few sheep farmers i know. (yep those little red things that eat sheep). So each year as it rolls into lambing season we spotlight a few times a week to get there numbers down as much as possible. We worked out that with current lamb prices every fox we miss is going to cost us in the region on $800-$1200 bucks in dead lambs ($150ish a head atm, foxes eat a fair few so, possibly could be more)
The farmers don’t have as much spare time as me and my mate so they pay us $50 for every fox we remove, we keep the skins if we wish etc.


At present we use my Tikka t3 in .223 rem. A fine round for foxes. And i have taken them out to 300m in the daylight with this set up (i have a leupold 4-12 vx1 as my current scope)


However at night range finding is somewhat difficult, and with many of the paddocks having steep inclines, taking longer shots at night can be hard, as adjusting hold over in low light is something i struggle with, especislly when all you see is gray shapes and those two range/gold eyes. And if you miss a fox once it wises up to the spotlight and getting another shot at it ever is slim. So we only take shots if we think we will make them. Normally this limits us to 150-200m at night.


I was thinking that this scope could be the answer to our problems, as it adjusts for holdover, and incline, and gives you the correct point of aim.


Im not worried about the weight or looks of my rifle with it on there, my .223 is my “work rifle” if it gets the job done then it will stay. And im not worried about people looking down on me for using a “computer gun” i know i can shoot reasonably well, im no precision marksman but im handy with a rifle.


So has any one used this gun? I know its sort of intended for the use of longer range big game hunting but i think it could just as easily serve on a long range varmint gun.
I don’t want to sink major funds into a sight thats doesn’t perform. But if it performs my range finding, and adjusts my hold overs , then its worth the cash i think.


So what do you think?
Thanks guys (apologies for my long windedness :) )
 
Read an article on one and the guy said it would have killed a coyote at all ranges tried out to 500 yards. Now foxes are quite a bit smaller so i suppose the percentage of a miss would increase somewhat. I have a nephew with the older model and it works well according to him. ED
 
Yes, they are the "real deal". The new scopes compute trajectory and give you the computed point of aim for that range (the first generation Burris/Nikon laser scopes didn't give a point of aim, they just gave the range). How close that is to your actual point of aim would have to be tested.

The new generation laser scopes also seem to be more rugged than the first generation scopes, with less "video lag" problems and better resolution. I would say yes to using them on a varminting rifle.
 
Two of my friends bought these scopes about 8 months ago. Both have since removed the scopes from their respective rifles. They said the scope operated too slowly for such a dynamic target like coyotes. Your mileage may vary.
 
Will the laser actually bounce back of something as small as a fox? My Leupold rangefinder has a hard time picking up an animal the size of pronghorn out to 300 yards, and they are good on a reflective target out to 1000 yards. That would be biggest doubt in the whole set up, plus I hate the way they look.

I would think you might be better off getting a rangefinder like the Leica 1200 which from my experience is far better than my Leupold. It will range much smaller targets at longer distances than mine. Then you can work out the dope for turret/holdover. However you'll have to invest in a better scope as well from your current one the VX-I just will not have repeatable adjustments.
 
My suggestion is to load a 50 gr bullet like a V-Max with ADI AR2206 to near 3400'ps or more. Sight the current rifle/scope at 1.2" high at 100 yards. At 300 yards the bullet drop will only be 6 1/2". You should be able to guess that close with the crosshair never leaving the top of the body of the fox.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys

Yeah i have to say my only concern is whether or not the laser will successfully range a something the size of a fox to 300 or more. If it could to a range to those distances id be very happy.
I don’t think the movement of the target is a big concern. We tend to find that the foxes don’t really move all that much when the light is on them. During the daytime say when fox whistling however they tend to move and stop a lot more.

And yes the other option we have discussed is buying a a rangefinder with those functions, we do have a basic leupold but it is extremely hard to make out the numbers on the screen at night making it next to useless. Possibly a better rangefinder coupled with a flatter shooting load, like Hornady Superformance or Remington Accutip could also work. Add a new adjustable scope and it would duplicate the Eliminator. But the downside is a new “quality” rangefinder and good adjustable scope will cost more than the eliminator package.

I might ask the distributer here if the scope is capable of ranging such small targets

Thanks again guys
 
Many scope manufacturers have bullet drop compensating reticles. They have marks that you can use to hold over accurately without adjusting the turret on your scope. Combine that with a good rangefinder that computes the angles for uphill and downhill shots and you have a winner, so long as it has illuminated readout.
 
Whether it will range or not depends on the conditions and how good of capability the rangefinder is IMO. My zeiss for instance will usually range cows out to 900, even fence post sometimes. I've also ranged a pivot motor at over 1100. Me and a friend go shooting one day we see a lone snow goose out in the wheat field, it's cloudy, and i never could pick the damn thing up. So we gustimated he put his Acog around the 6 hash mark and hit about a foot left, so i'm guessing it was around 600. I've ranged once at night and got grain bins at 600yds woods at 870 something. Never tried anything small.

On the other side of things i had a bushnell Range finder that would barely range a tractor at 600yds or more. Sent it back.
 
I have it, it works great I would buy again

I set the scope on my savage longe range hunter in 6.5 284 norma, before my hunt got my shooting sub moa out to 500 yards, it drops 43 inches at 500, it calculates near perfect. I can hit soda cans at the rage at the 100 thorugh 750. It will not range with a aiming dot past 780 but can give range up op to 880 it seams when I was looking at antelope. My dear this year 471 with a berger vld 140 grain. upper lung and removed the spine in a 4 inch section. Dead before it hit the ground
 
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