DOPE Card Generator
Generate a printable range card for your exact load and zero: drop in inches, MOA, and MRAD, turret dial values rounded to your click value, 10 mph wind holds, velocity, and energy at every increment. Print it to a 4x6 card or export CSV.
DOPE Card Generator
Configure your load and zero, generate a compact range card with turret dial values rounded to your clicks, then print it at 4x6 or export CSV.
Ammunition
BC: 0.243 (G1)
Velocity: 3240 fps
Weight: 55 gr
Zero
Card Settings
Environment (Optional)
Wind column is a fixed 10 mph full-value reference. Halve it for a quartering wind, scale it for other speeds.
Building a Range Card That Earns Its Spot on the Stock
A good DOPE card wins on two inputs: real muzzle velocity and a confirmed zero. Factory box velocity comes from a test barrel that is rarely your barrel length, so use the per-barrel presets here or chronograph your rifle and enter the number in custom mode. Zero drives every downrange row; confirm yours on paper first with the printable targets and click math in our optic zeroing guide. If you want to explore the full trajectory before committing it to a card, with charts, point blank range, and wind direction control, run the same load through the ballistics calculator first; both tools share the same G1/G7 point-mass solver, so the numbers agree.
The dial column is what separates a range card from a raw drop table. A 4.3 MOA correction is useless at the turret if your scope moves in quarters; this card rounds every value to your actual click so you dial 4.25 and hold the rest. The cartridge theory behind the drop numbers, including why 77gr loads beat 55gr past 400 yards, is covered in the ballistics guide, and the MOA calculator handles one-off conversions between MOA, MRAD, and inches when you are working a correction the card does not list.
Match the card to the glass. If you are still choosing turrets, our long range scope guide ranks FFP options in both MOA and MRAD from $400 up. And every trajectory here assumes a gyroscopically stable bullet; check your barrel twist against the bullet with the twist rate calculator before trusting long-range rows. Building the rifle itself? Spec the whole precision setup in the rifle builder.
Print discipline: one card per load, per rifle, per zero. Write the date and conditions on it, shoot the distances, and correct the card with real impacts. Rows flagged past the transonic boundary are estimates by definition; the math degrades once the bullet slows through the sound barrier, so confirm those ranges on steel before you trust them cold.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a DOPE card?
DOPE stands for Data On Previous Engagements: a compact reference card that lists your rifle's elevation and wind corrections at set distances for one specific load and zero. A typical card shows drop in inches, the dial correction in MOA or MRAD, a reference wind hold, and remaining velocity at each range. Shooters tape it to the stock, keep it in a scope-cap holder, or laminate it for the range bag so they can dial a correction without pulling out a phone.
How do I make a DOPE card for my rifle?
Start with three numbers: your load's ballistic coefficient and muzzle velocity (chronographed if possible), your sight height over bore, and your confirmed zero distance. Enter those into the generator, pick your turret click value (1/4 MOA, 1/2 MOA, or 0.1 MRAD) and distance increments, and print the card. Then true it at the range: shoot the actual distances, note where predicted dope and real impacts disagree, and pencil the corrections onto the card. A calculated card gets you on paper; confirmed impacts make it trustworthy.
What distance increments should a range card use?
Use 50-yard increments for most rifle cards; they keep a 500 to 600 yard card readable at arm's length while staying fine enough to interpolate between rows. Run 25-yard increments for short, precise work like a 300 BLK subsonic card or rimfire NRL-style stages where drop changes fast, and 100-yard increments for a quick-reference carbine card out to 500. The right answer is the coarsest spacing where the dial change between adjacent rows stays small enough to split by eye.
Should my DOPE card be in MOA or MRAD?
Match the card to your turrets, not to a preference. If your scope adjusts in 1/4 MOA clicks, an MRAD card forces a mental conversion on the clock; if it adjusts in 0.1 MRAD, an MOA card does the same. This generator rounds every dial value to your actual click value, so a 4.3 MOA correction prints as 4.25 on a quarter-MOA card and a 1.27 MRAD correction prints as 1.3 on a 0.1 MRAD card. The raw MOA and MRAD columns are both on the card for cross-checking against a spotter running different units.
What does the transonic marker on the card mean?
Rows marked with an asterisk are past the range where your bullet slows below the speed of sound, roughly 1,120 fps at standard conditions. In the transonic zone the shockwave transition disturbs bullet stability, group sizes open up, and BC-based drop predictions drift from reality. A 55gr 5.56 load goes transonic around 650 to 700 yards; a 175gr .308 holds supersonic to roughly 900 to 1,000 yards. Treat marked rows as estimates that need confirmation with real impacts, not dial-and-forget data.
How do I use the wind column on a range card?
The wind column shows drift for a 10 mph wind blowing directly across the line of fire, which is the standard bracketing reference. Scale it linearly for your actual condition: a 5 mph full-value wind is half the printed hold, a 20 mph wind is double. For angled winds, take the full-value number and multiply by the wind's crosswind component, roughly half value for a wind quartering at 30 degrees, full value at 90 degrees. Printing one honest reference number beats printing a wind table too small to read.
How accurate is a printed ballistic chart?
Accurate enough for first-round hits on torso-sized targets through your load's supersonic range, if the inputs are honest. The card is built on the same point-mass solver and standard G1/G7 drag tables as our full ballistics calculator, which is the method most commercial solvers use. The dominant error is muzzle velocity: factory box numbers come from test barrels that rarely match yours, so use the barrel-length presets or chronograph your rifle. Print a card for the conditions you shoot in, since a card built at sea level reads about a minute off at 6,000 feet by 600 yards.
Building a Rifle Around a Cartridge?
Use the Configurator to pick a platform and components matched to your intended range envelope, from CQB carbines to 1,000-yard precision builds.
Launch Configurator