FIT TO HIT Reticle Best Hunting Scope?

Holland’s FIT-TO-HIT reticle is the fast, simple way to range game out to 400 yards and engage it with a precise aiming point. No batteries. No smartphone apps. No laser rangefinders. No complicated computations. Just range, aim, and roll up your sleeves ‘cause you’ve got dinner on the ground.

Image shows a Leupold VX-3i 4.5-14x40mm scope atop a High Plains Stalker rifle. a FIT-TO-HIT reticle is inside.

The Leupold VX-3i 4.5-14x40mm scope atop this High Plains Stalker rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor looks like any other VX-3i, but inside it sports a FIT-TO-HIT reticle that makes ranging and hitting game to 400 yards fast and easy. The knife is a Darrell Holland Custom as well designed and built as that rifle and reticle. And yes, that's a Proof carbon barrel on a Borden action.

The Evolution to FIT-TO-HIT Reticle

Unless you’ve been plodding along with your grandpa's old Weaver or Leupold 4X, you’ve probably noticed that riflescope reticles have evolved from thin, crossed wires to crowded “Christmas tree” displays with nearly as many sub-reticles, MIL dots, MOA lines, and windage marks as needles on a real fir tree.

Some reticles, like this excellent, precision Kahles AMR, can be confusing to the uninitiated.

Such reticles look confusing, but once you understand them, they do work. And quite well. But none better, faster, or easier for hunters than Holland’s FIT-TO-HIT reticle. The FIT-TO-HIT is so easy that all you need do is bracket your target between two bars, select the matching number on the MOA scale as your aiming point, and shoot. From muzzle to 400 yards. I don’t know about you, but that covers most of the game shooting I’ve done in the last 50 years.

FIT-TO-HIT Reticle Covers 90% of Hunting

Serious long range shooters might turn their noses up at this simplistic “bracket ranging” system because it’s reliable only about as far as 400 yards. Experienced hunters, however, will appreciate its speed and simplicity. Really, the only faster systems are “point-blank-range” and expensive range-finding scopes like the Swarovski dS or Sig Sauer BDX which are fantastic but require batteries and no small outlay of cash. FIT-TO-HIT bracketing can handle 90% or more of most hunters’ ranging and targeting needs. And if it doesn’t, use a laser rangefinder and a trajectory drop chart to identify which of the 21 MOA markings on the lower FIT-TO-HIT reticle you need for reaching 700 yards, perhaps even 800 yards. And if that is still insufficient to reach your steel targets, combine the MOA marks with a dialing turret to hit 1,250 yards.

The FIT-TO-HIT reticle also looks complicated, but it's quick and easy once you've learned to use it.

Most of us have used or at least seen ballistic reticles that provide lots of dots, hash marks, and sub-reticle lines laid out to subtend distances in Minutes of Angle (1.047” span at 100 yards) or Milliradians (3.6-inch span at 100 yards.) If you know the precise distance to your target (laser rangefinder reading,) the size of your target, and the drop/drift trajectory of your bullet, you can shoot precisely to crazy distances… IF you have the time and presence of mind…

Alas, when a buck or bull carrying what looks like the Vatican’s collection of Christmas candelabra steps into my life, I neither have the time nor presence of mind. With Holland’s FIT-TO-HIT scope 2nd focal plane reticle I need neither because the rangefinder is built-in and no math is required.

Big whitetail buck walking across an open autumn field.

Is it just me or do you, too, have trouble with advanced calculus when a buck like this walks through your life?

FIT-TO-HIT Reticle is a Bracket, Not a Racket

The FIT-TO-HIT system works via bracketing (subtending) and a convenient system of corresponding, numbered sub-reticles that provide your aiming point. On the top half of the vertical reticle are three lines representing the brisket-to-withers dimensions of a pronghorn (15 inches,) a mule deer/whitetail (18-inches,) and an elk (24-inches.) Moose isn’t represented because if you can’t get close enough to hit the 36-inch chest of a moose you should be hunting the night sky for new galaxies, not planet Earth for quadrupeds.

To use this bracketing rangefinder, turn the scope power dial to maximum (2nd focal plane reticle position requires this.) Next place the appropriate base line on your subject’s brisket. Then note which top line (numbers 6, 5, 4, and 3) touches the top of its withers. The number of that line represents the MOA number on the lower vertical reticle line you should use as your aiming point. Bang. As inventor Darrell Holland says, break out your skinning knife.

Photo shows mock up of how the FIT-TO-HIT reticle is used to range a mule deer.

This illustrates how to use the bracketing rangefinder in the FIT-TO-HIT reticle to measure the distance to the average mule deer with a chest height of 18 inches. You place the #18 bar on its brisket, then note which line is nearest the withers.

After noting which numbered MOA bar crosses the buck's withers, choose that MOA bar on the lower reticle as your aiming point.

Determine Scope Zero With Data Card Software

As you might imagine, you have to calibrate your scope to the muzzle velocity and ballistic coefficient of your bullet, but this is easily done with the Holland's Ultimate Data Card ballistic software shipped with each scope. You enter parameters such as bullet B.C., muzzle velocity, sight height, zero range, elevation, temperature, shooting angle, and wind speed. The ballistic computer builds a range card with all the usual drop and drift data. You then readjust the zero range until the 400-yard Minute of Angle correction reads 6 MOA. Then all the other numbers line up and you physically zero your rifle to the data card’s zero range.

FIT-TO-HIT reticle range card as generated by included software program.

Holland's Ultimate Data Card Software calculated this trajectory chart for a 260 Remington load pushing a 130-grain Accubond 2,900 fps. Zeroing this load at 100 yards resulted in a 6 MOA drop correction (third column from left beside the 400-yard range.) Numbers in the last four columns are for angled shooting corrections of 10, 20, 30, and 40-degrees.

It’s all more easily done than explained. Once finished, you’re ready to bracket and shoot. At the risk of redundancy, here’s how that works when targeting an elk...

How to "Range" an Elk on the Range

With the scope on its top power setting, place the 24” line on the elk’s brisket. Note the top line that touches the bull’s back. The number of that line corresponds to the MOA line below the center reticle junction. Hold that aiming point on the spot you wish to hit and fire. There’s no need to remember drop numbers. And no need for mathematical computations. It’s really that easy.

Photo illustrates how the Fit-to-hit reticle is used to measure distance to an elk.

Your first step is ranging distance to target. Place the 24" line below the bull's brisket, then note which top line (here #4) touches its withers. Then go to step two below...

Phot illustrates how to use the MOA line in a Fit-to-Hit reticle to target a bull elk at 300 yards.

Your second step is to place the #4 MOA reticle line on the part of the elk you want to hit and pull the trigger.

Combine Fit-To-Hit With Laser

Should you wish to get a bit more deeply involved in long range targeting with a FIT-TO-HIT reticle, you can use a laser rangefinder and the reticle’s MOA lines. Just reference the drop table printed on the Data Card you generated. You should be able to put bullets on target to roughly 800 yards, 1,000 yards with some fast, high B.C. bullets. Get a scope with a dialing turret, combine that with the MOA lines, and you could reach 1,250 yards. This will make your hunting rifle a fine weekend target rig.

Photo shows a numbered dialing turret atop a scope.

Combine a FIT-TO-HIT reticle with a dialing turret and you should be able to shoot targets out to 1,250 yards. This is a Holland Custom Long Range Hunter on a Leupold VX6- HD 3-18x44mm platform.

Advanced Ranging

Another option is to bracket a known target size between the horizontal crosswire and the MOA bars on the lower reticle line. Divide that known target size by the MOA bar to determine range in yards to the target. For example, if our 24-inch elk chest fits between the horizontal reticle line and #2 MOA bar, divide 24 by 2, then add two 0s to the answer. Your elk is 1,200 yards away. Might I suggest you stalk closer? When he fits in the 6 MOA bar, 6 goes into 24 four (4) times, so he's 400 yards away. Much more reasonable.

Holland offers his FIT-TO-HIT reticle in a number of 2nd focal plane scopes including Leupold VX-6 HD 3-18x44 and 3-19x50; Leupold VX-3i 4.5-14x40; Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 Klassik Illuminated, and his own Game Getter 3-15x50.

WARNING: hollandguns.com website has been a mess. It's not even working with Safari browsers. This is supposed to be fixed soon, but don’t be surprised if you land on a red, white, and blue site that appears incomplete, cluttered, and difficult to navigate. I believe Mr. Holland directs his considerable talents into running a lathe and milling machine. His precision scopes and meticulously crafted rifles are diametrically opposite to his website. If the website gives you FITS (pun intended) just phone 541-439-5155 and Darrell will help you personally.

Mr. Spomer has been known to forget 2x8=16 when under the influence of a 6x6 bull elk and a legal tag in his pocket.

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