Shepherd Scopes

[FirstFreedom]

Anyone use one? They sound pretty good, what with the one-shot zero idea and all - nice ad in Shotgun News.

[hdm25]

They are nice but you have to think about what they are before using one and forming opinions.

ANY scope will do the one-shot zero, so that's not a "plus" to me...

Shepherds are generic for various calibers. You can't expect to use a Shepherd for rapid ranging and get pinpoint accuracy. The farther out you go, the less accurate they will be unless you happen to be shooting a load that exactly matches the bullet drop built into the Shepherd reticle.

BUT, with that said, for a scope to get you on-target fast and do something equivalent to a torso shot, you can't hardly beat a Shepherd. PERFECT for rapid ranging and reasonable accuracy.

I just wish they would make a few more variations.

[moredes]

I had a 6-18 mounted on a Rem 700. I was using FGM 168's, a standard .308 load. When I used it on silhouettes, it was okay out to about 400M, but it took all kinds of experimenting with the power setting to get it to work from 400 (out to 7 and 800 yards on bulleyes). The Burris Black Diamond with a BalMil is a much better scope; optics are sharper, and if one wants to shoot targets, the reticle is fine enough to twirl knobs and get results as good as can be gotten with the Leupolds (I think the BD has clearer optics than the Leupold LRT).

After removing the Shepherd from the Rem 700, I put it on an M1A. It was never able to hold zero for more than 3 rounds after that. I could see the cross-hairs had moved by every 3rd shot. I sent it in for warranty and sold it upon its' return. Warranty service was good and uneventful, but I didn't test the scope again, either. I took me almost 2 months to sell it on the forums at what I considered was the "market average" price.

The Shepherd is certainly no target scope, but then again it isn't advertised that way, either--the reticle is too thick for anything but hunting, in my opinion. I was all over the paper with this scope at the long ranges; at 800yd I was barely able to stay on the black. My best group at 100yd was 1 1/4". I sold the scope and moved to a Burris; the fine duplex reticle made a big difference--I was able to shoot regular 3/4" groups at 100yd with no other changes than the scope swap.