Elk hunt invite

Will my point of impact be the same ? Going from Pennsylvania to Colorado.
 
After 55 years of hunting elk I find that I’ve shot 90% of my elk between 3 and 6 power. Even this years bull with several minutes to evaluate the shot and wait for the cows to clear I shot him at 6 power at 400 yards. Keep it on 4 unless you have lots of time at longer range then you can crank it up. 28 Nosler/160 AB is a great elk combination. If you were to buy a scope for all around elk hunting/500 yards and in 2.5x8 would be just about perfect.
 
Know that when you end up at the higher elevations your trajectory will change, if you're planning on shooting long range. You can put put your info into Hornady's calculator, or others, to get an idea.
 
jezzolo said:
Will my point of impact be the same ? Going from Pennsylvania to Colorado.
Click to expand...
Can't help but add $.02 on this. I have lived in Colorado and hunted at elevation for 30 years. Now living in North Carolina and not at "elevation" as of this past October. I live in Western NC and hunting was at 4300' this year.

First year with a "dial" scope, so zeroed the VX3HD 3.5-10 at 100 yds (at a friends property, 1600' elevation) and clicked from there. Found a nice open saddle where shots were possible out to 230 yds. Short range per se, compared to Colorado, but still a chance to click up the scope a small amount to hit where I was aiming vs using MPBR or holding a tad high.

I was curious how it would be if I was at 2000'. Ran the numbers for my 35 Whelen AI and 200 TTSX (.369 BC, 2940 fps) comparing 2000' to 9000' elevation. I was looking for more of a difference honestly. At 300 yds the velocity difference is 151 fps in favor of elevation, however with a 100 yd zero, drop was less than one inch difference, in favor of elevation. At 400 yds, almost 200 fps difference yet just 2.4" difference in drop.

On elk size animals where bullet drop difference is negligible, the difference we should pay attention to is impact velocity.

That has everything to do with proper bullet expansion. At 400 yards, velocity is a bit above 2000 fps at 2000' and just over 2200 fps at 9000'. Where we are going to see that difference make a difference is bullet expansion threshold, despite not seeing tremendous trajectory differences. Despite Barnes saying 1800 fps is the low end threshold for the TTSX, I am more comfortable with 2000 fps to have some margin in there, thus why I picked that number.

It's always a good idea to check zero after traveling long distance, but you won't be hurting if you can't as trajectory differences will be minimal in your favor as will expansion velocity.
 
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I think it was Scotty who told me to sight in here on the right coast at 100yds and adjust the scope to hit 3" high with a center hold and then hold on hair out to 400yds in Montana.
After I got there, I shot on the outfitters range and hit all targets at 100,200,300, and 400yds with no adjustments.
I was shooting my 35AI, 7mm Rem Mag and my 338 Win Mag with the scopes all adjusted the same and the scopes were all 3-10X. On higher power you will tend to loose the animal in dark woods since the higher power scopes don't pick up the light like a lower power scope will. My scopes are all Euro glass and pick up the light very well looking into dark areas.
 
truck driver, I think what you are saying is to "zero" for 3" high at 100 yds with respect to Western hunting? That's how I've done it for 30 years, and it's a highly underused method.

This year, having a scope that could dial was a by-product of upgrading from a VX-2 3-9x on the Whelen AI to the VX3HD 3.5-10, so figured give it a try.
 
Jack O'Conner wrote that he sighted his 270 Win 3 ins high at 100yds this allowed aiming dead on to 300yds keeping his shots in an 8 in kill zone using a 130gr bullet. Several years ago, I read about shooting the duplex (pre-dialing) For standard calibers like 270, 30-06 and such sight in 2ins high at 100yds. this will put you about dead on at 200 yds. At 300yds hold on top of the back in the hair. At 350yds put the top of the bottom post on the shoulder this will land the hit in the lung-heart area. I and my son have done this many times and it's a proven tactic. Dan.
 
Somewhere there’s a MPBR calculator. You plug in all the variables: velocity, diameter, weight, BC, vital size, and it calculates how you should set your zero.
 
I use the Federal ballistics calculator. Play with the zero range until you get the mid range high point (for instance +3", +4") then zero however high it tells you at 100 yds. Find the low point on the far side of the MPBR that matches the mid range high point and that's your MPBR for a 6" or 8" zone.
 
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