Sighting in. What range & why?

[sask boy]

I have always set up dead on @ 200yds starting this fall I am going to go out to 300yds. With my Leica range finder I am going to try further shots. I believe the 280AI will be more than capable :mrgreen:

Blessings,
Dan

 

[Rigbymauser]

My .270Wea is sighted in on the 300meter mark. That Will keep most range guessing out with in that range. Just have the cross on the heart area an push "play".
In the other end is my heavy double in 10bore caliber is sighted for 40meters only, because that gun is all about being up front where the action takes place :mrgreen:

 

[Oldtrader3]

No doubt what you said RM, on that 10 bore double, no doubt at all that it is upfront!

 

[big rifle man]

I don't know how thrilled I would be to be on either end of that 10 bore.

 

[Charlie-NY]

I have everything zeroed at 200 yds except the 45-70 which is 100 yd zero.

JD338

+1

 

[Razorbacker]

Plus 3" at 100 yds. Why? 'Cause back when dinosaurs walked the earth Maximum Point Blank Range was all the rage. IIRC in my .30 '06 that put me dead on at 25, 3 high at 100 and back on at 225, i think.
One thing I will add for clarification is, that it seems to me that most of you shoot to hunt, like me. So what we're talking about here is a deer/elk/bear/moose/antelope's kill zone. Or chest width on a standing broadside shot.
So, little high? High lung or spine hit. Dead bang flop. Little low? The heart or it's plumbing. In my experience the heart shot animal runs a little piece as fast as you've ever seen a deer, etc. run. They buck, kick those hind legs out and take off. But within a few yards they nose in like a 747 with a nose gear problem.
Most of you guys seem to me to be men of long experience and you do what you do because that has worked for you. Me too.
rare is the 300 yard shot either where and/or how I hunt. But the opportunity will occasionally present itself, so it's nice to just hold on hair and squeeze.
Whether it's my '06 or one of my magnums that +3 has always worked for me. I even have my wife use it for her 7mm 08

 

[BeeTee]

Pretty much all of my hunting rifles are sighted in at 3" high at 100 yards. That's the 35 Whelen to the 264 Win Mag. I use my ballistic ap in order to verify the zero range but with the Whelen and a 250 it's about 230 and the 264 is about 300 yards. With the 264, 270 and 7mms it allows no brain work out to 400. With the slower rifles, it's about 350. After that, I dial or use the ballistic reticle. Since most all of my shooting has been within 400, it works for me and maximizes the trajectory for deer/elk sized game and since I've been using it so long, I just naturally hold low unless it feels long. I have been doing this since I learned to shoot and started reading Bob Hagels books back as a younger lad.

This has been my philosphy since the fall of 1972. I missed a cow elk that fall by shooting high, and vowed it wouldn't happen again. Now, all rifles are sighted in 3" high at 100 during the hunting season. That makes it easier, in the heat of the moment. I force myself to never compensate for range unless the first shot misses. That's only happened once - at a cow elk that I later calculated to be 450 yards with the 7RM. It was far enough away that she stood there long enough for me to raise the crosshairs half the body height plus a couple inches (for insurance), and fire again (from a solid rest off the bipod). Was an insta kill... BT

 

[joelkdouglas]

Pretty much all of my hunting rifles are sighted in at 3" high at 100 yards. That's the 35 Whelen to the 264 Win Mag. I use my ballistic ap in order to verify the zero range but with the Whelen and a 250 it's about 230 and the 264 is about 300 yards. With the 264, 270 and 7mms it allows no brain work out to 400. With the slower rifles, it's about 350. After that, I dial or use the ballistic reticle. Since most all of my shooting has been within 400, it works for me and maximizes the trajectory for deer/elk sized game and since I've been using it so long, I just naturally hold low unless it feels long. I have been doing this since I learned to shoot and started reading Bob Hagels books back as a younger lad.

This has been my philosphy since the fall of 1972. I missed a cow elk that fall by shooting high, and vowed it wouldn't happen again. Now, all rifles are sighted in 3" high at 100 during the hunting season. That makes it easier, in the heat of the moment. I force myself to never compensate for range unless the first shot misses. That's only happened once - at a cow elk that I later calculated to be 450 yards with the 7RM. It was far enough away that she stood there long enough for me to raise the crosshairs half the body height plus a couple inches (for insurance), and fire again (from a solid rest off the bipod). Was an insta kill... BT

Same here also, except I zero at 25 yards for the 30-06. Puts the bullet MPBR out to about 260 or 270 yards, plus or minus 3 inches.

 

[Songdog]

Never higher than +1.5" above line of sight, meaning a 175-225 yard zero depending on cartridge..... 90% of the stuff I miss (or see get missed) is shot over. +3" at 100 means +5"-6" at 150-200.... that's out of the wheelhouse on a lot of the critters I hunt.

 

[Elkman]

Elk rifles at 300. All others at 2.5 or so. My history on elk shows most of my elk are either under 100 yards or overe 300. So a 300 yard zero makes sense for me.

 

[tjen]

My 35rem and 358win are sighted +1" at 100 yards. Because I can calulated hold over better than hold under. Where I use these 200 yards is extreme and 15-30 yards very common. The 358win was sighted in for 200 yards but not now.

Lost a buck last year a 15 yards shot enterted the shoulder blade and exited the far elbow. A one lunger after 35min wait I tracked it and no blood. A guy hunting 150 yards away watched it die with only my shot in it and loaded it up as I walk up to him. He said only your shot was in it but he found it and his three other friends agreed with him. If I saw a deer die or found one I would show the hunter where it was and shake his hand.

My 270win and whelen are sight in at 200 yards. Where I use them I expect 150-300 shots

 

[Rigbymauser]

Here this summer I will try my .378wea at 300 meters to see how well it will group. If I can get within a tea cop , I will most likely set my scope dead-on on that range. Like the .270 and .240Wea the .378 has a fairly flat trajectory. Even if it print 6" high at any range before dropping to zero it will still get any game from 50ibs and up, when aiming at heart area.
I am not a longrangehunter in general, but I do want my battery to have the capability if needed(which has been needed a few times).

 

[baltz526]

I'm in the point blank range group for my main hunting rifles. Elk it is 5" plus/minus for predators and deer it is 3" plus/minus. Give or take.

 

[ElmerThud]

Here in the UK this same zeroing question comes up on the forums with some regularity. By and large the zero used always reflects the use to which the rifle/scope is to be put.

I'm a hunter, not a target shooter and use a Zeiss 8x56 on my .25-06. Hunting in a mixed landscape of woodland and open hill, I zero at 200yds. I know my hold-over at 300yds will be 3-4" & at 100yds I'll hold 2" low. That's close enough for me to ensure a 'kill' with a 110gn AB at around 3200fps MV.

Judging distance on open hill is always hard....there are no cars or telegraph poles or phone booths to 'scale' things. The sight picture in the scope is an aid and the 200yd zero works well...pretty much always.

Mostly on the hill my quarry will be taken at around 200yds with an occasional need to shoot 300+
Quarry (red deer) taken out to max 100yds will usually be neck shot.
Cheers, ATB ET

 

[Guest]

Like Baltz, I'm in the point blank range camp. I use a 5" target circle for white-tails, though, and I'd likely use 8" for elk or things in that size class. For me, this method offers simplicity and a good bit of foolproofing. It means I don't have to think much when I see game in the woods.

For the uninitiated, it works like this:
Using a target circle of a given diameter (say, 5" as I use for white-tails) you can set up your rifle to be within that circle out to a known "maximum point blank range" and know that within that range, you simply hold your crosshairs dead-on, as you would for your normal zero range. In this case, because we're using a target circle of 5", I know my bullet will never be more than 2.5" above or below the point of aim, out to my MPBR. Keeping in mind that white-tails have a vital zone of about 8-10", using a 5" circle allows for some variation in group size while remaining inside the vitals on the deer. I take this method out one step further, adding two additional drop points beyond MPBR for my rifles. The first is ~5" of drop and the second is ~10". I chose these two numbers because white-tails are generally about 18" from breast plate to top of back, and the center of the vitals is just below halfway up the body, around 8" above the breast plate. So, for my 5" drop, I hold halfway between the vitals and the deer's back, and for my 10" drop, I hold even with the top of the deer's back. These are easy aimpoints, and keep to my "no more thinking in the field than absolutely necessary" mentality when it comes to hunting.

To give you a rundown using one of my rifles, let's consider my 30-06. MPBR for that rifle, using a 168gr Nosler BT at 2950fps, is 275yds, and I should initially adjust my rifle to impact ~2.25" high at 100yds. Once I set that up, I can shoot out my range card to verify, which I do with all my rifles. Now, I shoot out beyond the MPBR, as well, to know drops out to the limit I place on myself and the rifle. For this -06, my two additional drops are at roughly 310yds and 350yds. This means that in the field, I know I can shoot deer out to 275yds holding dead-on. At 310, I hold halfway between dead-on and top of back. At 350, hold even with top of back. Almost no thinking whatsoever. And the best part is, for ranges in between, I can easily interpolate the hold point on the fly, because the drops are close enough to linear in those short chunks of range, to adjust on the fly. I keep three numbers for each rifle - MPBR, 5, and 10, as I call them. Easy to remember and I just jot them on a card to carry with me. Spend a little time afield with a rifle, and you remember them without the card. For reference, my 270Wby is 320 (MPBR), 365 (5), and 410 (10). Easy to remember and easy to use in the field. Now, for some rifles all this isn't required. I know, for instance, that my 30-30WCF carries 1000lbs of energy to 200yds, with my 150gr Speer Hot-Cor handloads. I also know that, sighted 2.5" high at 100, that rifle has a MPBR of ~210yds, so I know I can hold dead-on out to the limits of the rifle for white-tails. No reason to need to know more than that.

 

[Guy Miner]

Good stuff guys. Thanks for the good explanations of where you zero, and why.

Guy

 

[Oldtrader3]

I normally use a 4 inch circle but to each his own!

 

[Oldtrader3]

With my 9.3x74R I am considering a 100 yard zero as being practical reality for zero. Between the Heavy #4 reticle, the 5x magnification and -3 inches drop at 150 yards, this is a practical limit.

 

[Guest]

Charlie, I started out with my little Rem673 350RemMag zeroed a couple inches high at 100yds. With the load I'm using, that got me a 190yd zero, and an MPBR of about 225yds. I've since backed down to right at 1" high at 100, which is a verified 150yd zero for that rifle. That one is a special case, in that I keep it open sighted, so I limit myself to shots on game that I am confident I can make with open sights. Funny thing is, when I looked at the capability of that little 220gr Flat Point I'm shooting, it could be arranged to have a 235yd MPBR, and my two additional holdovers would get me out to about 300-310, give or take. That's more reach than I thought a little, fat flat-point would have. More than I need, too, so I'm sticking with open sights and 1" at 100.

 

[SJB358]

That little 350 is alot of horsepower in that little package. I know the Whelen really opened my eyes once I learned it. Nothing brush cartridge about it when it's zeroed properly with a good load.