Some of you might be interested in the type of scope I have on my rifle.  It’s a Redfield that I bought way back in the mid 1970’s and at the time it was considered a pretty good scope, I suppose today it is still a pretty good scope and for me it’s the only scope I have on this rifle, so it better be pretty good.

I don’t know scopes but back then I did do some looking and asking around about the different ones that were available and in a store called “Wolfes” in downtown Ogden they convinced me that this Redfield was THE scope with the most bells and whistles for the least amount of money there was to be had.  We didn’t have the internet back then and so it took a lot of traveling around and asking or reading magazines like Outdoor Life and Field and Stream to get the skinny on equipment.  I think the scope cost me about $200 back then, which was a BUNCH of money for me at the time.

So what is with this super duper scope?  It’s called the “Redfield Accu-track Widefield”  and it looks cool on the outside and it’s cool too on the inside.  The outside has this big lens you look through on the shooters eye side, not some dinky little hole to look through and on the other end it has a roundish oval kind of lens and I suppose that is the one that lets you see a whole lot of area out in front of the gun.  I don’t know the field of view, but it’s pretty big.  I’m sure you would be able to see all the “Ladies of the ward” at one time through it.

On the inside, there is the standard cross hairs, and above the cross hairs are two additional horizontal lines the run parallel to to each other and are spaced what I’d say are 1/16th of an inch apart.  These are called “Stadia lines”.  They precisely placed these lines inside so that you can “bracket” a deer between them from any distance up to 600 yards by zooming in/out until the deers back and brisket are placed between the lines.  The deer has to cooperate or you won’t be able to do this and it’s best if it is standing broadside to you (another part of his cooperation).

So, once you have the deer bracketed, you can look down in the lower right of the view and read a number on a scale.  The number closest to going out of the view is how far the deer is away from you, say 300 yards.  It is graduated in 100 yard increments and so for something between even number you will have to best guess if it’s closer to the next biggest or not.  So let’s say it reads 325 in this case.

Now, you put the gun down and go to the adjustment knob on top of the scope and turn it until the pointer is pointing at 325 (in this case).  Now remount the rifle to your shoulder and put the cross hairs right where you want to hit the animal.  Pull the trigger and go get your prize.

All the bracketing and adjusting takes time and normally a hunter is not going to have all the time it takes, but “sometimes”, just “sometimes” you might and that is when this little jewel really pays off.  Believe me or not, I was hunting with Tracker one time shortly after getting this scope put on the rifle.  I had a doe tag and Sherry and I really needed the meat.  Bar tending college kids don’t have a lot of money or time.  We were hunting above Mantua, Utah on the last day of the hunt and it was beginning to get late in the day.  I was running out of options.  Way up on the hillside I could see a doe feeding on a bush.  I went through all the gyrations of setting up for the shot and if memory serves correctly she was about 500 yards up the hill.  I used a cedar tree as a rest and took the most careful shot I think I have ever taken.  The gun roared to life and it took a very long time for her to drop, but she did, almost right in her tracks.  She had no clue I was anywhere in the county.  I thanked God for the meat after I hiked the hour and a half down off the hill I was on and back up the opposite hill to where she laid.

So this accu-track stuff really does work.

I don’t know if Redfield still makes this model, but they do have one that does the same thing and they call it the “Revenge”.  They have mixed up the stadia lines and the numbers showing the range, but basically the scope does the same thing as my old scope.  And in an ad where I saw the Revenge being touted, the price is the same as what I paid for my super duper guy back in my day.

Bears Butt

August 16, 2013