sight in days before opener!

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well that was awkward! I sold my brother my old deer rifle at his offering price that wore a Nikon 3-9-40 and was talking to him about my new marlin and that I topped it with a leupold vx2 and how shooting last night at the range before dark it was night and day compared to my Nikon 2-7 on my 44 carbine and that ill never buy another Nikon again if I can afford a vx2 or higher. Man he gave me the most screwed up look and says why is that? Nikon junk? I said no that scope has held zero shooting magnum sabot slugs and 45-70 loads and never an issue. He then kind of quit talking to me. Idk what the heck his deal is but I sure hope this isn't going to cause issues.
 
I feel confident that if next year I could not make it to the range to check zero on any of my rifles I could pick any one of them , go deer hunting and kill deer.
 
I had to wait for a windless day, (rare here in Ks.) but did a cold barrel, one round, check on the rifles that I hope to use this season. The 270 is 3" high at 75 yards and the 32 Winchester Special is POA at 75 yards. That'll do... :thumbup:
 
well yesterday was the day before opening day and Saturday and Sunday the club was packed! I took my buddy up there so he could check zero as he cannot hunt until Saturday and we had to leave cause no open spots. I scouted a piece of property yesterday due to the river always being up and found some stands along the property line so I knew the neighbor was hunting and while I'm walking the fence line he is sighting in-probably 10-15 shots. went to the club last night just to shoot a little more and shots on all the surrounding farms. It just bothers me knowing some might have an issue and say screw it and wound a deer. I heard several 2-3 shot groups this morning so someone didn't sight in or has the jitters.
 
My friend's son-in-law argued with us that bore sighting is good enough. I saw him shoot an 8 inch group at 100 yds using a bipod. It was bad enough that I walked back to the shop. At the same time my trainee wanted to sight his new rifle in for deer season. He is a city kid. Who seldom shoots. I coached him a bit and he was shooting 1 1/4" groups off a bench.
 
Hangingrock said:
Its not my intent to insult or pick on individual respondents to this subject but sighting in thus sight in days just prior to hunting season but I must ask just where were you the rest of the year? I've witnessed this as an example in Pennsylvania while residing there the PA Game commission ranges and private membership range associations would be packed rear-end to eyeball just prior to deer season. North Carolina the same thing occurs. I'm a land share owner in one range association that has a membership in excess of 700 members. Its much the same as it was in PA for most individuals seldom if ever shoot the hunting firearm during the year.
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I know this isn't the case for everyone but I shoot at least twice a week throughout the year, but that's probably 50% handguns, 40% rifles, and 10% shotguns. Of the roughly 40% that is rifles about 50% is rim fire and the majority of the remaining is shooting one of my AR's. So basically I shoot a lot, just not my deer hunting rifles.
 
I often “sight in” or confirm zero after travel before hunting, sometimes only an hour or less from putting to use.

I know that swapping from glass optic to thermal and back doesn’t require me to do so but it only takes a minute and makes me feel better knowing.

This is how I do it, if there is any correction needed.

 
There is one and only one shot that counts for me, the first one. That is the cold bore shot and where it lands on the target.
IMHO that is the most important shot.
 
It would seem to me, that the closer to opening day you do your last "sight in" the more confident one would be, that their gun would still be "on" on opening day. It would also seem that those folks that don't handle their deer rifle on a regular basis would be more familiar with it if it had only been a mater of days since they used it as opposed to a matter of months. I grew up in a day when ammo was considered expensive and valuable. Sometimes in the case of an old military rifle, the ammo might be had to get. One didn't shoot their deer rifles for fun, not did they shoot them any more than necessary to make sure they were still "on". Most rifles never really go off. I acquired an old M1917 Eddystone back in the sixties and sighted it in twice. Once after sporterizing it and putting on new iron sights and once after mounting a scope on it. In 50 years it never lost it's zero on either. There were years due to time retraints and other things in life that I didn't even shoot it between seasons and it still did the job on the first shot. Many times I think that flurry at the range right before season does more for the shooter to get on target, than the gun.
 
buck460XVR said:
It would seem to me, that the closer to opening day you do your last "sight in" the more confident one would be, that their gun would still be "on" on opening day. It would also seem that those folks that don't handle their deer rifle on a regular basis would be more familiar with it if it had only been a mater of days since they used it as opposed to a matter of months. I grew up in a day when ammo was considered expensive and valuable. Sometimes in the case of an old military rifle, the ammo might be had to get. One didn't shoot their deer rifles for fun, not did they shoot them any more than necessary to make sure they were still "on". Most rifles never really go off. I acquired an old M1917 Eddystone back in the sixties and sighted it in twice. Once after sporterizing it and putting on new iron sights and once after mounting a scope on it. In 50 years it never lost it's zero on either. There were years due to time retraints and other things in life that I didn't even shoot it between seasons and it still did the job on the first shot. Many times I think that flurry at the range right before season does more for the shooter to get on target, than the gun.
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Don’t troll! lol
 
buck460XVR said:
It would seem to me, that the closer to opening day you do your last "sight in" the more confident one would be, that their gun would still be "on" on opening day. It would also seem that those folks that don't handle their deer rifle on a regular basis would be more familiar with it if it had only been a mater of days since they used it as opposed to a matter of months. I grew up in a day when ammo was considered expensive and valuable. Sometimes in the case of an old military rifle, the ammo might be had to get. One didn't shoot their deer rifles for fun, not did they shoot them any more than necessary to make sure they were still "on". Most rifles never really go off. I acquired an old M1917 Eddystone back in the sixties and sighted it in twice. Once after sporterizing it and putting on new iron sights and once after mounting a scope on it. In 50 years it never lost it's zero on either. There were years due to time retraints and other things in life that I didn't even shoot it between seasons and it still did the job on the first shot. Many times I think that flurry at the range right before season does more for the shooter to get on target, than the gun.
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I will agree with you on that. My issue is what i see. guys with several boxes of shells and paper plates and put the plate at 100yards and start slinging lead until miraculously they hit the plate and then if round #2 hits the plate they are G2G. The worst one i remember was dicks sporting goods i will say Saturday before the opener i was in there for gloves or something and a guy was buying a new slug gun, shells, scope, etc and asks for a license and deer tag. I would bet $100 that gun either didn't get sighted in or it was done the next day. I agree they should be checked closer to the opener but that's checked not full blow sight in, haven't touched any gun all year. I shoot a lot of 223rem from spring-thanksgiving so i feel very confident with any rifle and due to buying a new deer rifle this year and having to wait a little to get it setup. Rifle in July, scope in September, dies in October and bullets by Halloween for a November 27th opener i put 70 rounds through that gun between factory, load workups and scope sight in. When i obtained the scope in September i had factory rounds from my old rifle and got the scope dialed in and then reloads dialed in by Halloween-1st week of November. Due to a scope failure on a prior slug gun and opening day firing at a deer only to hit in the guts and rear end and find the scope lens was cracked and not adjusting anymore I do check my stuff to make sure its still hitting where its supposed to the day before or two days before.

I went to my club just to shoot the 223rem and the deer rifle Sunday before opening day (because i like shooting the marlin) and there was 10 trucks there and paper plates, big pieces of cardboard and targets all over the backboard. Guys with auto loading 12ga slug guns bang, bang, bang at the paper plate and ooh i hit it and the gun goes into the case. I have a buddy who pulls that crap and it irritates me to death and he wonders why he's got about 10 wounded deer under his belt. Again, if practicing i have no issue but full on scope isn't adjusted or throw 10 shots and 4 hit the plate shouldn't fly.

We had a guy with an ithica deer slayer and a tasco scope shooting lead rifled slugs at a plate at 50yards and couldn't hit the plate after 10 shots. I say the scope was bad and his choice of lead slugs in a rifled barrel but he was bounded and determined to hit that plate. Ended up saying he would use an illegal rifle to hunt with but i wonder if he didn't just use the ithica. I feel we owe it to the animal sacrificing its life to make sure 110% we are spot on.
 
ohihunter2014 said:
I think the recoil and muzzle flip of the 45-70 keeps me from getting them tighter.
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Recoil and muzzle flip happen after the bullet has left the barrel, so it's not physically possible to have that happen. more likely, your subconscious preparation for said recoil and muzzle flip, whether a full on flinch, blinking, tensing your trigger hand, tensing your shoulder, etc are far more likely to be causing your dispersion.
 
Varminterror said:
Recoil and muzzle flip happen after the bullet has left the barrel, so it's not physically possible to have that happen. more likely, your subconscious preparation for said recoil and muzzle flip, whether a full on flinch, blinking, tensing your trigger hand, tensing your shoulder, etc are far more likely to be causing your dispersion.
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thanks for the info. :)

I am done gun hunting this year so spring/summer ill be able to play with some different loads and bullets. I'm thinking 408gr bullet with a little lower velocity.
 
I'll support a dissenting opinion to the tone of this thread.

I shoot throughout the year, usually every week, I dry fire practice (recently outfit with a laser trainer & simulator, it's F'ing great!) typically 4-5 days a week. Hunting isn't a high precision game, the rest of my shooting typically IS high precision. I do a TON of positional shooting. For me to call out a rifle randomly the night before season, run out and take a couple shots under spotlight to confirm zero and field it the next day, which is absolutely unnecessary, but common opinion like that shared in this thread is programmed into my mind. For most of my loads and firearms, I have well established data books, and I'm never far enough away from a rifle to let my fundamentals slip.

I might change my mind any given day of season and field something else. I took my 44mag SBH opening day, a buddy has his 6.5 Grendel here for some work, so I took it out a few days later. I decided to take one of my .45-70 Guide Guns out Monday this week (6th day of season). I decided to enter a match on the 17th, so I'm working on DOPE for my new 73 ELD load in one of my gas guns, shooting it over lunch hours at 600-1000yrds, and hunting with a known 60grn Partition load morning and evening...

Sure, if I'm going to field my 357/44 at 200yrds, or planning a set where I'm wanting to take a 600yrd shot, I'll be sure I'm much better practiced and prepared, but for the simple task of hunting deer at 0-200yrds with a rifle, I'm not sweating the fact I might not have shot said rifle more than a couple rounds in the last year or more.

This year's been banner for hunters bashing hunters and kicking around popular stereotypes just for the sake of having something about which to bitch. I've largely lost my interest in it.
 
Varminterror said:
I'll support a dissenting opinion to the tone of this thread.

I shoot throughout the year, usually every week, I dry fire practice (recently outfit with a laser trainer & simulator, it's F'ing great!) typically 4-5 days a week. Hunting isn't a high precision game, the rest of my shooting typically IS high precision. I do a TON of positional shooting. For me to call out a rifle randomly the night before season, run out and take a couple shots under spotlight to confirm zero and field it the next day, which is absolutely unnecessary, but common opinion like that shared in this thread is programmed into my mind. For most of my loads and firearms, I have well established data books, and I'm never far enough away from a rifle to let my fundamentals slip.

I might change my mind any given day of season and field something else. I took my 44mag SBH opening day, a buddy has his 6.5 Grendel here for some work, so I took it out a few days later. I decided to take one of my .45-70 Guide Guns out Monday this week (6th day of season). I decided to enter a match on the 17th, so I'm working on DOPE for my new 73 ELD load in one of my gas guns, shooting it over lunch hours at 600-1000yrds, and hunting with a known 60grn Partition load morning and evening...

Sure, if I'm going to field my 357/44 at 200yrds, or planning a set where I'm wanting to take a 600yrd shot, I'll be sure I'm much better practiced and prepared, but for the simple task of hunting deer at 0-200yrds with a rifle, I'm not sweating the fact I might not have shot said rifle more than a couple rounds in the last year or more.

This year's been banner for hunters bashing hunters and kicking around popular stereotypes just for the sake of having something about which to bitch. I've largely lost my interest in it.
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But you do shoot regularly. Most don't touch the gun all season until opening day or night before. I've had them tell me this to my face.
 
ohihunter2014 said:
But you do shoot regularly. Most don't touch the gun all season until opening day or night before. I've had them tell me this to my face.
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I touch A gun regularly. Usually not THE gun.

Maybe a parallel would be drawn better this way (not a race fan, so maybe he's not driving any more, don't care): Dale Earnhardt Jr. regularly drives his "stock" car, and regularly drives his commuter. But last Tuesday, he decided to pull some random Camaro out of storage to run down to get groceries. Can he safely drive and reach his destination? He knows the Camaro ran last time, nothing has happened to it while in storage. Does he need to run a few laps up and down the drive way, or spend a week driving it around his block back and forth before he drives a couple miles to the store?

Nobody should be hunting if they haven't touched ANY rifle all year, but it's really not asking so much to pick up a different rifle and be able to deliver sufficient precision to be able to ethically hunt deer at 0-200yrds.
 
Varminterror said:
I touch A gun regularly. Usually not THE gun.

Maybe a parallel would be drawn better this way (not a race fan, so maybe he's not driving any more, don't care): Dale Earnhardt Jr. regularly drives his "stock" car, and regularly drives his commuter. But last Tuesday, he decided to pull some random Camaro out of storage to run down to get groceries. Can he safely drive and reach his destination? He knows the Camaro ran last time, nothing has happened to it while in storage. Does he need to run a few laps up and down the drive way, or spend a week driving it around his block back and forth before he drives a couple miles to the store?

Nobody should be hunting if they haven't touched ANY rifle all year, but it's really not asking so much to pick up a different rifle and be able to deliver sufficient precision to be able to ethically hunt deer at 0-200yrds.
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Agree.

I feel very passionate about not wounding animals and making absolutely sure you are doing what's right to end their life as fast as possible. I feel a rifle should at minimum be checked for zero before any hunt because a lot can happen. I had a Muzzleloader that shot pretty well and then took a dump and the base came loose on me. Had i grabbed it out of the safe and headed afield something would have been wounded. I am very involved in my club with attending meetings, work parties and shooting a lot and seldom see any of these guys until the weekend before opener and its sight in weekend. One that boggled me this year was a guy who i shot with last year before gun week who was doing a full blow sight in bragged about hitting a deer with his ML out to 200yards or so while sitting in a hang on stand one month later when i was checking the ML for ML week. Saturday before opening day he is at the range with the same rifle and has to shoot at 25yards to confirm he is on paper and then move back to 50yards and so on. I'm glad he was there sighting in but wonder what happened in the last year to make that gun be so far off you have to shoot at 25yards.

Imo a hunting gun gets the snot beat out of it and should at min be checked before taking afield. I have a backup rifle ready to roll as well as the muzzleloader incase something happens to the other rifle. If i drop the gun, bang the scope, etc i use the other rifle until i can get to the range to verify its still on.

The same guys who show up to the range the day before opener are most likely the same ones who are in line at Wal-Mart the night before for a tag and license. I like to talk with guys about hunting and guns and most admit they haven't shot a gun until sight in before the opener. Oh im just a deer gun hunter. don't hunt small game, don't target shoot, etc just grab a gun a few days before and put up the paper plates and hope for the best.
 
Varminterror said:
I touch A gun regularly. Usually not THE gun.

Maybe a parallel would be drawn better this way (not a race fan, so maybe he's not driving any more, don't care): Dale Earnhardt Jr. regularly drives his "stock" car, and regularly drives his commuter. But last Tuesday, he decided to pull some random Camaro out of storage to run down to get groceries. Can he safely drive and reach his destination? He knows the Camaro ran last time, nothing has happened to it while in storage. Does he need to run a few laps up and down the drive way, or spend a week driving it around his block back and forth before he drives a couple miles to the store?

Nobody should be hunting if they haven't touched ANY rifle all year, but it's really not asking so much to pick up a different rifle and be able to deliver sufficient precision to be able to ethically hunt deer at 0-200yrds.
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I would give up....there really is no use in trying to get him to understand that people live different lives than he does. Circumstances vary from person to person and yet he doesn’t see that these people are still at the range BEFORE season opener trying to get squared away. Yet when he shoots during season it’s magically ok and doesn’t carry the same weight.
 
SoonerMedic said:
I would give up....there really is no use in trying to get him to understand that people live different lives than he does. Circumstances vary from person to person and yet he doesn’t see that these people are still at the range BEFORE season opener trying to get squared away. Yet when he shoots during season it’s magically ok and doesn’t carry the same weight.
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Do you not read the other posts agreeing they see the same thing or are you butt hurt that someone checked you in a previous thread so now your going to see how much trouble you can stir?

If you read what i said about shooting during the season was i had free time, went to the range and shot my guns. 3 deer guns sighted in weeks and months before and i practiced with them regularly! I shot the 44, 45-70, 223, 22lr because i had 9 days off and felt like shooting some guns. As i said in the previous post things happen like dropping, banging while lowering from the tree and it doesn't hurt to make sure they are still hitting that tiny little red dot at 100yards. What i have an issue with is the guys making scope adjustments, etc the afternoon before so now if they have an issue its most likely oh well and leads to a wounded deer. Make sure your craps good a week before because us hunters owe it to the animals for a clean kill and sighted in gun. Try reading my poorly written posts and see what i'm trying to say instead of stirring the pot kid! I even agreed with Varminterror and he "somewhat" agreed with me on guys shouldn't be hunting if they haven't touched a gun all year.
 
Yep, i cringe when folks come to the range with a rifle or shotgun and proceed to blow away a large quantity of ammunition just before or during deer season.

The very best hunter i know brings his nice .50 caliber Knight muzzleloader to the range a week or so before deer season. He usually fires a few rounds to confirm zero. Every year that man kills several white tail and mule deer, an elk or two, and an antelope. He has his own meat processing facility. Being a superb hunter counts for something.

This season shooting deer and hogs with my .50 caliber Encore muzzleloader got boring. i decided to hunt with the .54 caliber TC Fire Hawk muzzleloader. i fired one round at the range to confirm zero. The bullet went into the center of the 2" bulls eye at 78 yards. Took that gun and killed two more deer. This is one of them:

hZK4Nax.jpg
 
ohihunter2014 said:
Do you not read the other posts agreeing they see the same thing or are you butt hurt that someone checked you in a previous thread so now your going to see how much trouble you can stir?

If you read what i said about shooting during the season was i had free time, went to the range and shot my guns. 3 deer guns sighted in weeks and months before and i practiced with them regularly! I shot the 44, 45-70, 223, 22lr because i had 9 days off and felt like shooting some guns. As i said in the previous post things happen like dropping, banging while lowering from the tree and it doesn't hurt to make sure they are still hitting that tiny little red dot at 100yards. What i have an issue with is the guys making scope adjustments, etc the afternoon before so now if they have an issue its most likely oh well and leads to a wounded deer. Make sure your craps good a week before because us hunters owe it to the animals for a clean kill and sighted in gun. Try reading my poorly written posts and see what i'm trying to say instead of stirring the pot kid! I even agreed with Varminterror and he "somewhat" agreed with me on guys shouldn't be hunting if they haven't touched a gun all year.
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I’m not stirring the pot little boy. I don’t know why you assume that I think taking unethical shots is ok. I don’t. Not one bit. I just don’t understand your frustration with people going to the range a day before season opener to shoot. Hell, at least they’re there making an effort to be dialed in close enough to take shots at the ranges they’re shooting. You just put it out there like it’s a mortal sin and I don’t understand why. So, obviously I’m going to disagree with you and when I do you get butthurt over it.
 
I was just about to ask what was improper about the purchase of a license the day beforehand, as I know it is nessasary to have one. I think I'll just keep it to myself, and head back to the handloading section instead.


A humans capacity for freedom directly correlates to their tolerance of others doing that which they don't approve.
 
Demi-human said:
I was just about to ask what was improper about the purchase of a license the day beforehand, as I know it is nessasary to have one. I think I'll just keep it to myself, and head back to the handloading section instead.


A humans capacity for freedom directly correlates to their tolerance of others doing that which they don't approve.
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You’re more than welcome around here just the same as ohihunter and everybody else. I don’t hold any begrudging feelings toward him despite what he may or may not think. I just don’t see eye to eye with him is all.
 
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