How To: What Nikon BDC Reticle is Right for me?

Overview

The Bullet Drop Compensation (BDC) reticle does the work for you – it is specifically designed to compensate for trajectory that all bullets face coming out of the barrel of your riflescope. This technology offers shooters accuracy at long distances. Each circle of the reticle offers distances designed for different loads and rifles.

There are many different types of BDC reticles however this article will give you the information to confidently choose the right one for your and your firearm. Another great tool and source of information is the Nikon Ballistics Match Technology which can be found here. 

Standard BDC

The standard BDC is great for most centrefire cartridges with typical weight and load up to 2,800 feet per second. After you sight in your scope at 100 yards, the scope provides bullet drop compensation for 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards.

BDC 150

The BDC 150 was designed for today’s .22 LR rimfire cartridges and provide the same bullet drop compensation as seen in other Nikon BDC scopes.

BDC 200

This model was developed for those of us who love shooting slugs out of shotguns. With a 5” relief, this reticle will give you confidence at 200 yards.

BDC 250

The BDC 250 is built for .50 calibre muzzleloaders that allows shooters to take the guess work out and shoot at distance up to 250 yards.

BDC 600

This reticle was specifically built for the AR platform rifle in the .223 using a 55 grain polymer tipped bullet with a velocity of 3,240 feet per second.

Final Advice

There are more BDC reticles than what has been shown above however I wanted to provide you with a general guideline when choosing the right compensator for you. I must say, for any standard hunting rifle, you can’t go wrong with the Standard BDC from Nikon.