Distance to zero your scope?

[stooxie]

Hello all,

At what distance do people zero their scopes here? I know 200 yards seems to be the standard but does anyone do 100?

The nice thing about 100 yards is that you get a nice flat trajectory between 40 and 150 yards with 30-06, 125 - 165 gr bullets. Even 180gr bullets don't stray much beyond an inch high or low in that range.

The nice thing about zeroing for 200 yards is that you pretty much just line up the cross hairs at anything within reasonable distance. 2 inches high or 3 inches low out to roughly 250 yards.

So, for a hunting beginner going for deer or boar which would serve me better? Should I just stick with 200 or do something less?

Thanks!
-Stooxie

[Indyarms]

I would say it will depend on what your AVERAGE range to target is going to be...

If you PLAN to need a shot out at 200+.... I would say zero at 200...

If you expect to only shoot out to 100... then zero there....

I would match your sighting in... to the approximate range you plan to be taking shots...

STILL... an inch high at 100, will most likely be close to dead on at 200... so...

you should be good to go zeroing anywhere from 100-200 ish....

just my $.02, though....

<_<

[Dorkface]

Sight in at the MAX distance you might shoot at. if you expect to shoot from 100 to 300 yrds sight in at 300 yards. because if something comes along at 350 to 400 your hold over wont get your target out of view as it would if you were sighted in at 1-200 yrds.

its much easyier to hold under at 200 yrds because you will still see your target. instead of aiming into the blue sky over a deer and hoping its still there you just need to aim at its front leg.

then you also have teh ablity to still hold over a little bit if something came along at 400 yrds.

[Tailgunner]

With a standard scope I set to +2.50" at 100, which puts me +3" at 145yd, gives me approxamitly a 250yd zero and puts me 3" low at 295yd. (above numbers are with my handloads, 150gr NBT at 2975fps). Different bullets, different zero ranges, as long as the bullet stays in the +/- 3" kill zone I'm happy.
Anything inside the -3" distance I simply hold in the center of the kill zone.
With my Shepherd scope, +1 at 100yd puts the aiming points right on out to 600yd (confirmed by actual firing). It may be "on" further out than that, but 600yd is the furthest I've verified.

[rutro]

Most folks can't shoot as good as their gun, especialy at distance. Won't make any difference where the gun is zeroed if you can't judge distance. In the field there are no yardage markers. If you have and know how to use a rangeing reticle or mildot scope you are up on the rest of us. For the rest of us there is a way to find your max range. Pick up some tomatoe stakes at the garden store and a package of nine inch paper plates. If you have a place where you can set up in the field the more the better but if not pick a day at the range when you can spred them out down range at 25 yd. incriments starting at 100yds. and go out to where possible shots may happen. Shoot from field positions. When you get to the distance that you can't keep three shots on the paper plate from a field position shooting fairly quick you've reached your limit. Whether it's a .223 or a 7mm Mag this is your personal max range for a confident kill shot. Try it you may supprise your self. ;)

[Jim Jordan]

There is a lot of hoopla in all the gun mags today about long range shooting. You should recognize that it is just HOOPLA and disregard it for all practical purposes. The advice all old time hunters gave to anyone asking about hunting game is simple: GET CLOSE!

If you do not have the skills necessary to do that, either learn them or take up golf. People who must take long range shots are poor hunters because they lack hunting skills. A good hunter can and does get close to his game.

People that take long shots are also poor sports because any long range shot is always subject to the vageries of all sorts of things that affect the bullet once it leaves the muzzle. And even if you can hit the game at long range doesn't mean your bullet still has enough energy to kill the game unless you use an adequate cartridge and heavy enough bullet to maintain energy. They risk wounding the game and have it die a lingering death unrecovered and wasted. No real sportsman will do it no matter how big the trophy might be. If you want to keep score, take up golf.

So zero your scope for reasonable distances and 200 yards is near maximum for a 30-06 unless you use 200 or 220 grain bullets and then about 275 becomes maximum. You can certainly hit game at ranges longer than that, but there is not enough energy to kill left on the bullet. That is especially true for any game larger than whitetail deer and may be true for them as well.

Yes. I KNOW all about those people who say they have killed at ranges longer, but they are described above. Do you REALLY want to hunt with them? If they will take a chance on shooting at game that far away, will they also take a chance and shoot something they THINK is a deer that might actually be you? I submit that if they will take the first chance, they will take the second as well because they are chance takers by definition.

You should not become one of those. Get close and do it right.

[dakota kid]

I always do mine at 3' inch at 100 yards, i only have shot white tails and woodchucks with it

[Coyote]

I always do mine at 3' inch at 100 yards, i only have shot white tails and woodchucks with it

I agree with this although I sight mine in at 1.5" high at 100 yards - with my weapon it seem to be pretty close at 200 yards. That is my limit for large game. Beyond 200 yards - I feel like there is too great of a chance to loose a wounded animal. There is a point where you need to know your abilities. 1.5 at 100 yards and keeping it within a 1/2" moa is my ability. ALWAYS test the weapon for your max distance and make sure your groups are withing the moa that you choose. I do not advocating the shooting of animals at super long ranges. I have seen many animals walk away wounded because of the shooter not being able to place the bullet into a critical killing area. My idea - is to get as close to the game as you possible can - hunting of any critter is to make a clean, quick kill. I do not agree with the suffering of anything - and would not call anyone a sportsman that does.

[Bushw@cker]

Originally posted by Indyarms@Feb 23 2005, 08:41 PM
I would say it will depend on what your AVERAGE range to target is going to be...

If you PLAN to need a shot out at 200+.... I would say zero at 200...

If you expect to only shoot out to 100... then zero there....

I would match your sighting in... to the approximate range you plan to be taking shots...

STILL... an inch high at 100, will most likely be close to dead on at 200... so...

you should be good to go zeroing anywhere from 100-200 ish....

just my $.02, though....

<_<
+1

[Tailgunner]

Mr Jordan
Different conditions, different solutions. I hunt crop damage over open fields, where the deer often don't enter until the last 10 minutes of legal shooting. Now perhaps you can cross 300 yd of open "lawn like cover" in 4-7 minutes in order to "get close enough", but I can't. Same thing is true with antalope hunting and cross canyon elk hunting, where you can see them but there is no way to get near them, due to terrain and dense brush, in the time available (unless your into poaching).
No one that I know is advocating the "flinging lead" methiod that you seem to be thinking of, we all use the "practice practice practice" methiod and pass on any game shot we have less than a 98% confidance level in making clean. True long range hunters will burn out a barrel in 1-2 years, due to the amount of field practice they do at long ranges. Notice that I stated that I've only verified my rig to 600yd, as a result I won't attempt anything over 500yd (my personal limit at this time).
As far as your statement that the -06 is a 200-250 yard cartridge, me thinks your showing your lack of experance (the old 30-30 will do the job out to 200yd on a deer, and still has a +/- 3" trajectory to that range).

Edit because I mis-spelled the gentlemans name

[farmerjohn]

i have my 30-06 scoped in at 3 inches high at 100 yards just like dakota kid, ive killed big white tails for the area under 25 yards with it though, i had one walk right under my stand. wether you zero for 100 or 200 yards, the difference is inches. inches isn't going to matter, unless you're hunting praire dogs or really small game. oh yea, try using 165 grain '06 bullets, 180 won't mushroom unless its a thick skinned bony animal.


farmerjohn

[tinman]

Maybe this chart can be of some help.

[tinman]

Sorry boys, not a good picture. Dont own a scanner so I do my best with a digital camera.

[stooxie]

Originally posted by tinman@Apr 16 2005, 09:45 AM
Sorry boys, not a good picture. Dont own a scanner so I do my best with a digital camera.
Tinman,

Wow, brings me back to geometry class. That's a nice piece of penmanship.

I downloaded Remington Shoot (free version) off their website and it does all those calculations. Graphs and compares them, too. It's got all the Remington loads built in so you don't have to enter everything in by hand.

-Stooxie

[tinman]

Good point stooxie. On snowy or rainy days when I feel like Im incarcerated, its either draw diagrahms or watch Jerry Springer. Somehow yelling Jerry Jerry Jerry dont do a whole lot for me.

[texagun]

I just read an old article (1947) by Jack O'Connor in which he recommends sighting in intially at 25 yds. With a zero at 25 yds, you will be within 2-3" up to about 300 yds. with most calibers. He does recommend that you RE-ZERO at the intended hunting distance. Below is a chart with what you can expect at different ranges for different cartridges.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y46/w5lx/SightinginTable-3.jpg

[twodum]

Let's say you are shooting a 30/06 with a 150 grain bullet at 2900 feet per second. You are hunting whitetail with a kill zone of 6 inches in diameter (heart-lungs). If you sight in at 100 yards, at 200 yards your bullet will be 3.4 inches low and at 300, 12.7 inches low. If you put the crosshairs in the middle of the kill zone at 200 yards, you will be almost a half inch out of the kill zone. If you sight in at 200 yards, at 100 with a center of kill zone hold you will be 1.7 inches high but still in the zone. At 200 you will be right on. At 300 yards you will be 7.5 inches low. You will be able to hold on the kill zone out to 250 yards and still hit it. With a 100 yard zero you will be out of the kill zone by 200 yards. If you sight in about 2.5 inches high at 100 yards, you will be able to hit the kill zone out to about 300 yards with no hold over or under. This is farther than most of us have any business shooting at big game. It takes much of the range estimation out of the equation and if you think the game is 300 yards but it is 350 instead, you will miss completely.

[adaman04]

I have always sighted in at 100. If it's a little high at 100, so be it.

[Zen900]

I just read an old article (1947) by Jack O'Connor in which he recommends sighting in intially at 25 yds. With a zero at 25 yds, you will be within 2-3" up to about 300 yds. with most calibers. He does recommend that you RE-ZERO at the intended hunting distance. Below is a chart with what you can expect at different ranges for different cartridges.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y46/w5lx/SightinginTable-3.jpg

Nice post Tex. Can you link that page?

[texasrick]

Good to see someone else using the 25 yard zero method.......was very common 25 years ago but seems to have been lost in recent generations of hunter / shooters.

The 25 zero comes pretty close to being "Maximum Point Blank Range" for most rifles throwing bullets at 2500 fps or more. For slower, woods rounds (.30-30, .35 Rem, .44 Mag, .45-70, ect) a zero at 20 yards is often more useful.

Of course, the zero should be confirmed by firing at 100 yards (or more if possible) but the short range zero will at least get you on the paper and often be just the setting you are looking for.

Check out a computer program called "Load From a Disk" for a really useful balistics program and reloading guide.

[uncle jerky]

I always have my rifles boresighted,then zero them at 50 yds and rarely go to 100 yds after that. This has always worked for me at shots of 100-200 yds on deer and hogs,when I aim just behind their shoulders.

[Mike 56]

I always bore sight and zero at 50yds all so because it is the shortest high power range i have to shoot. After sighting at 50yds with factory ammo with a 30/06 class rifle i am about 1 to 2 inches high at 100yds and pretty close to zero at 200yds.

Mike

[fire for effect]

My Bolt action Rifle is a Tactical Rifle I built on a Swedish Mauser. It is chambered in .308, and I have it zeroed at one hundred yards. Both windage and Elevation turrets are zeroed at this range, and I have booked each setting for distances out to 1000 yards in 100 yard incriminates. Now, on my Stg 58, I have an Aimpoint red dot sight, which is sighted in for 500 yards. I use the old Marine notion, that you sight dead on at 500, aim at the crotch for a chest hit at 300, and at the head for a chest hit at 600.

[Der Verge]

Wow, what a loaded question. First of all, take no shot you are not sure you can make, be it 10 feet, or 1000 yards. You can all laugh at the 10 foot thing, but yesterday at the range there was a guy with an AR that could barely hit paper at 10 yards. I am sure it was him, but none the less.

Where you zero you rifle completely depends on what you use it for, and the conditions it is used in. Example, I use my Mini for deer in mostly thicker, wooded areas. I have it zeroed at 100 yards, and when hunting where I do with it, will RARELY get a shot that far. Between 30-100 yards the bullet changes very little in altitude, so I do not have to worry about it.

My 30-30 on the other hand, is in at 200 yards. That Leverevolution ammo is the POOP! Enough punch up to and a bit beyond 300 yards now. I use it for open fields of grass or knocked down corn. Long shots.

My 10-22 is in at 50 yards. The bullet crosses my line of sight at 24.7 yards and again at 50. Now, I squirrel hunt with it, so guessing altitude is a little tricky at 25 feet, but I prefer a little more challenge than a shot the distance of which I could us my shoe as a weapon for.:lol:

Like I said, It depends.