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Contents

  • Leupold CDS Dial for Long Range Simplicity

About the Author

Steven L

Steve has never not known guns. Before motorcycles, money, or girls, they have always been part of his life. He was tenured as General Manager of one of the country's largest gun stores and ranges, a buyer in a big box outdoor sporting goods store, and is currently OpticsPlanet's Director of Product Intelligence. He was a US Navy nuclear gunners mate, a private investigator, and is an NRA certified instructor in ten categories, as well as an Illinois CCW instructor. He shoots competitively and has hunted from Alaska to Africa. He thoroughly loves life with his beloved wife, Shirley, and together they live with their three wildish dogs Tinker, TranRek, and Crash Almighty. He is a stubborn stage 4 cancer survivor and isn't ready to cash in his chips yet.

Continue following Steve's gun-laden lifestyle with never-ending firearm excursions and experiments with related products! Visit his blog page at Riflescopeblog.com.

Tags

  • rifle scopes
  • reticles
  • leupold cds

Leupold CDS Dial for Long Range Simplicity

In this era, almost all riflescope manufacturers have a ballistic reticle option, and some are so busy and complicated they can make you dizzy. You have different trajectory paths when swapping from gun to gun, requiring you to once again figure points of impact corresponding to your stadia lines.image

By far, the easiest way to be sure of hits at long distances is to use a Leupold scope with a CDS (Custom Dial System) dial. Many Leupold scopes offer this feature, or it can be installed from the Leupold Custom Shop. Simply find the factory load you want to shoot, and give Leupold the information and they'll make you a dial with yardage markers. Most start with a 200 yard zero and will go to 800 yards or farther, depending on the cartridge.

Leupold CDS Overhead

You can see in the pictures that I had specific ballistic information for them. I was using a factory load in this .270 Weatherby on my old Ruger 77. I knew at what temperature and elevation I would be using this at, and that gave Leupold even more information to make the dial even more precisely. The CDS dials also have a zero stop, so it's easy to spin the dial back to your original zero without looking.

I used the CDS dial on a VX3 4.5-14x40 without an adjustable objective for a pretty easy antelope hunt in warm weather. While testing the scope during a filming segment, I had first shot hits on liter water bottles at 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards. These dials really work perfectly. I shot my antelope at just under 400 yards. Range, set the dial, hold where you want to shoot, and squeeze. Nothing could be more simple and straightforward. And any time you need a new dial for a different factory load or hand load or environmental conditions, just give Leupold a call. It's three set screws to remove and install, and the wrench is included. Highly recommended!

Make sure to also check out this informative, short video by Leupold explaining the CDS system, and how to couple the system with their RX series of rangefinders.

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Last updated 2025-11-12 UTC.