Guide
DOPE Cards That Survive the Range
DOPE — data on previous engagements — is the shooter's oldest app: a card that turns a solver's table into the two or three numbers you need while the clock or the animal is moving. Building a good one is an editing job.
What belongs on the card
- Come-ups in your turret's unit — mil or MOA, matching your scope, with click counts if you dial.
- One wind column — a full-value 10 mph is the standard reference; halve it mentally for 5.
- The conditions line — the temperature and altitude the card was computed at, printed on the card. A card without its conditions is a rumor (see the SD guide's rule: label what a number knows).
- Your trued velocity — if the card came from a box MV, it belongs to the factory's barrel, not yours.
What doesn't
- Ranges you will never shoot, in steps you can't use. A hunting card in 50-yard steps to 600 beats a 25-yard-step card to 1,200 you'll never read.
- Energy, TOF, and other interesting numbers. The card is for the shot, not the story.
- Anyone else's data. A card is a record of your rifle and your load.
The three formats
The full range card (generator) for the bench and the binder. The μCard (generator) for the stock pack — 50-yard steps, drop and wind, nothing else. The trajectory card (generator) when conditions move — a temperature × altitude matrix of come-ups, because a card true at 59 °F at sea level is a click or two off at 100 °F at 7,500 feet, and the matrix is the only honest way to carry that.
Print on the heaviest stock your printer takes, or print two and laminate one. Then confirm the card at the range — a card that hasn't been shot against is a prediction, and the footer of every card we generate says so.