The Burris Veracity series riflescope delivers premium long-range accuracy the way serious big-game hunters like it…simple yet versatile
by the HuntDaily staff
The bull elk just entered the upper end of a fingerling park, following his herd of cows. He’s 350, maybe 400 yards out and will soon cross the open and be back in the thick timber. The gray of dusk has already smothered the mountain. No time to head him off at the next clearing. To make things more interesting, there’s a steady wind sweeping across the slope.
Time to do it or forget about it…and you didn’t work this hard to turn back now.
If you’ve been there, you know that when seconds count and filling that tag comes down to quick decisions and confidence in your equipment to perform under the most challenging conditions, simple is always better. When you barely have time to range your target, zoom in your scope, and fire, the last thing you want to do is fumble and squint and try to do math in your head as a 300+ elk is about to disappear forever. That might be OK when you’re on the range, but in the field when the pressure is on…not so much.
The problem with “simple” is that it often comes at the expense of something else. In the case of long-range riflescopes, that usually means accuracy or versatility, or both. So, imagine our delight when we got our hands on a Burris Veracity riflescope in the 3-15x50mm configuration. Here is an optic that seems to have been engineered specifically for serious big-game hunters who demand premium optic performance and appreciate the concepts of long-range precision shooting, yet want it all in an easy-to-use, don’t-have-to-think-about-it platform. In other words, a versatile riflescope that lets you take the difficult shots under stressful, real-world conditions with full point-of-impact confidence.
Our first impression of the Veracity was about what we expected from a premium-grade hunting scope. The solid, one-piece aluminum housing with 30mm body tube offers a clean and robust design that is waterproof and Nitrogen-filled to prevent fogging in all conditions. The glass is equally impressive.
We tested the Veracity in bright sunshine, at dusk, and during early morning fog with high UV light scatter and found the scope to exhibit excellent edge-to-edge acuity, brightness, and zero glare even with the sun shining directly onto the lenses. Much credit for this goes to the large 50mm objective and 30mm body tube combined with Burris’ Hi-Lume® multicoated lenses. The Veracity comes with a screw-in objective lens hood that adds an extra three inches to the scope’s 14-inch length, but we found it to be unnecessary thanks to the superb anti-glare properties of the glass.
We mentioned that versatility is a hallmark of a top-end hunting riflescope, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Veracity’s reticle design.
The Veracity 3-15x50mm incorporates a Front Focal Plan system with the Burris-exclusive Ballistic Plex E1 FFP reticle. This means the reticle sits in front of the erector (zoom) assembly, and thus the size of the reticle changes proportionally as the magnification power increases or decreases.
The advantage to this is that, with the E1 reticle, the bullet drop compensation hashmarks on the lower vertical crosshair remain accurate throughout the scope’s magnification range. Whether you are at 3x or 15x, the reticle’s drop compensation remains true. With traditional Second Focal Plane reticles, drop compensation is dead-on only at one specific magnification setting (most often at the highest magnification level).
So, what does this mean to the elk scenario we started with? It means that no matter what magnification we dial in to make that 400-yard shot, we’ll have complete confidence that the point-of-impact will be exactly where we expect it to be.
On the flip side, a FFP reticle traditionally comes with some unwanted baggage. Crosshairs that are just right for accurate aiming at 50-200 yards on low magnification can completely cover a target 400-600 yards away at high magnification; and a FFP reticle that allows for precise aiming at long range/high magnification can be practically invisible when shooting close-range with the magnification turned down.
And this is the beauty of the Burris E1’s Progressively Thick Crosshairs (PTC) design. This is a modified plex reticle (thin center/thick outer crosshairs) that allows the Veracity to offer precise sighting at all magnifications. At close range and low magnification, you can quickly acquire your target with the thick, tapered crosshairs. When you are zoomed in for the long-range shot, the fine, center crosshairs are all you’re working with. Thus, no matter if you’re zeroing in on that 400-yard elk, or he is coming in at 50 yards, the Veracity reticle is going to be just right regardless of the magnification.
Another feature we like about the Veracity is its side focus. Conveniently marked for known distances, the side focus knob is calibrated to adjust for parallax. This is a condition most noticeable at high magnification, which causes the reticle to appear to move in relation to the target if your eye is not perfectly in line with the scope’s centerline. At long ranges and when shooting under stress, this can significantly change your point-of-impact. Adjustment is, again, quite simple. Just set the dial to the known distance, or adjust until the target is in sharp focus.
As we mentioned earlier, the Ballistic E1 FFP is a compensation reticle designed to match the middleground ballistics of the more common hunting ammo. The lower crosshair hashmarks—calculated in MOA for 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 yards—are, therefore, close to dead-nuts for point-of-impact aiming. For the big-game hunter, this adds another layer of simplicity to the shooting process. Of course, fine-tuning to find the ammo that best matches your setup is required, but once done, your life in the field just got a whole lot easier.
An E1 reticle feature we’re all about is the integrated wind drift compensation. Cascading dots flank each hashmark, providing point-of-impact for a 10 mph crosswind (also measured in MOA). You can halve the distance between the dot and the vertical crosshair for a 5 mph breeze, or double it for a 20 mph wind.
On the bench, the Veracity reveals its sight-in friendly manners. The elevation and windage turrets are adjustable by hand (leave the multi-tool or coin in your pocket), with audible and tactile clicks (each representing 1/4 MOA). “UP” and “RIGHT” point-of-impact are clearly marked with directional arrows, so you don’t have to think about which direction or how many clicks to get in the zone. Our 3-15x50mm model came with “hunter” knobs that allow you to set the dial indicators to the “0” mark once the scope is zeroe’d in. Even thought the screw-on aluminum caps prevent any disturbance of the knobs, setting the dial to “0” provides a visual confirmation that all is as it should be.
Several long-range riflescopes on the market today can put a bullet where you want it as precisely as the Veracity. But when you’re hunting big-game in difficult and sometimes quick-changing conditions, easy, quick operation and minimal complexity are huge factors that can shift the balance between a successful hunt and frustration. Our evaluation revealed that the Veracity 3-15x50mm stands firmly in the gap between long-range precision and hunting versatility. And that’s exactly what we want when it’s time to pull the trigger on that 400-yard bull.
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Article copyright 2015 by HuntDaily.com; promoted by Burris Company
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