A $4,000 scope on a $230 rifle (or, can ice cubes be good reactive targets?)

It's all in the name of science.

Ok, it's difficult to justify putting a $3,800 (add tax and you're right at $4k) scope on a plinking rifle, but it's really a lot of fun. In this case I needed a platform onto which I could mount the ATN ThOR 4 640 2.5-25x thermal imaging scope. The ThOR 4 records at 1280x960 @ 60 fps and we need that for the... experiment. Not only is the Savage 93 a good physical mount for the ThOR 4, it's fun to shoot.

Zeroing the scope to the rifle is very straightforward; the One Shot Zero feature allows you to put crosshairs on your POI and POA at same time! The scope does the correction for you.

Once you're zeroed, it's time to see how it shoots. This video shows five shots on five ice cubes at fifty yards. Ammo is 40gr CCI Std. Velocity (1070fps on a 20" barrel). At 90°F, the speed of sound (c) is 1149+ fps, so the 40gr CCI is effectively subsonic on this 16" bolt-action rifle.

Here's the little video.