Tried to zero my rifle at 50 feet and this was the result

Not near close enough for 50 feet.

At 50 yards you will miss the target completely. Go ahead an make those adjustments and fire another shot. Keep adjusting until you are dead center.

I would get it much closer than that before taking a chance of making a bad hit on an animal. Is there somewhere you can shoot it at your hunting area?

I just re-sighted my deer rifle to get bulls-eye at 50 and 100 yrds. I don't want any sighting errors to add up to a bad shot on the day.

Can't you find a 100 yard range near where you live? You should have that '06 sighted in to shoot about 2" high at 100 yards and directly above the bullseye. Shoot it sand bagged in off a bench to leave "You" out of the picture. That Savage should be able to put all rounds in a cluster around 1" for sure.

It is not good practice to rest the muzzle on any hard surface, it will cause the barrel to jump and lift. When zeroing the rifle it will print a group in spot A and then when hunting out of hand will print in spot B. I suggest you get your hand or bean bag or the likes under the forearm of the rifle and zero the rifle.

The point of zeroing a rifle is to get it shooting exactly where you want. Doing the exercise at less than 50 yards in my opinion is a waste, you really would like to be at 100 yards. 50 ft simply does not tell you enough. You also need to decide at what maximum range you will be shooting and then use that to guide you on the zero point. If you take gunner69's advice to be 2" high at 100 yds then at 200 yds you will be spot on. This means that for all shots into the boiler room that you will not need to compensate with any holdover out to 200m

I would also hate to dissapoint you but that is not a tight group. If you were to extropolate out to 100 yards that group which you say is 1.5" at 50 ft would amount to 7.5" at 100 yards. Conversely at 50 ft your group should be 0.25" to equate to 1.5" at 100yds. Your rifle should be capable of shooting a group of around 1.5" at 100 yds.

Good luck

Agreed with Andrew. Support the rifle under the forend, not at the muzzle. That's also not nearly close to being sighted in. Rough estimate on just the windage, you're looking at being over a FOOT off center. And goodness knows where your elevation is, considering height of scope over bore trigs out the angle between bore alignment and scope alignment, which then has to be adjusted to account for bullet drop. I'm almost willing to bet you've got another six to eight inches of correction to make there, too.

I did read your post correctly that you shot at 50 feet, not 50 yards, right? Honestly, with any halfway decent rifle, any ammo but combloc surplus and a scope that isn't broken, I'd expect one jagged hole at 50 feet.

Hate to rain on your parade, but you'd be farr better off finding a real range where you can sight that rifle in for a useable distance. gunner69 isn't far off when he suggests one to two inches high at 100 yards.

Any errors at 50 feet will be magnified as the distance increases. Considering you are already considerably off, theres no way you can humanely hunt deer with gun that you aren't sure as to where its shooting. Not the answer you want, but 50 ft....even 100 ft....isnt enough to adequately sight in a rifle for hunting.

At 50 feet your shots need to be 1-1.5" LOW to be anywhere near the bullseye at around 100 yards. Hitting that high at only 50 ' will probably mean you are more than a foot high at 100 yards, and maybe a foot to the right.

Use a good sandbag rest under the forend and zero at 25 yards. Assuming 1.5 inches between bore and scope centerlines, that will establish a useful maximum point-blank range zero from breath-sniffin' distance out to about 275 yards or maybe a bit further, depending on bullet weight, velocity, and ballistic coefficient.

With this, the bullet will intersect the line of sight twice...once at 25 yards and again at 250...and the bullet won't impact more than 3 inches or so above or below the line of sight out to the MPBR with a center hold.

Windage presents a different problem unless your scope and bore are mechanically zeroed...where the bore axis and the scope axis are in agreement.

If the scope requires more than a half-minute adjustment to achieve windage zero, there is an angle of departure that will multiply as the distance goes beyond the zero range. Scope mounts with a rear mechanical windage adjustment allow you to correct for this. Solid mounts...like the Ruger direct ring mounting system...don't.

50 feet is a sixth of 100 yards. So it would be at least six times worse at 100 yards. So you will be a foot off.
Add in some margin of error in shooting with adrenaline and it will be even worse.

Prefer my sight in 2.25" high at 100, dead zerio at 250, near PBR of 274 yards IIRC. But, that's just me. Bring it down and left.

Find your self a bore sighter and use it. It will get you closer that what your doing. Once it on then shoot at the distance you are going to be shooting at. But at 50' it should be one ragged hole below the POA. But you must use the forearm for support as previously said.

I sight in center fire rifles 1" or 2" high at 100 yds. Then I shoot at 50 yds to check where I'm hitting, and 150 or 200 yds if that particular distance is available. Pretty much know what to expect at those ranges, but it helps me remember. I would not be comfortable at all taking a center fire rifle hunting that was sighted in at 50 FEET. I wouldn't even feel confident with a handgun for hunting unless I shot it at least 50 YARDS.

I will admit that I have shot a deer at 30 feet. But I did it from the hip. That is something I practiced a lot with 22 rifles for the fun of it years ago. I don't recommend that one for everyone.

I find that when I'm 2.25" high at 100, I'm just below the bull at 25 yards. I don't bother with bore sighters, just pull the bolt snd look through the barrel to bore sight, shoot and coarse sight in at 25, then fine sight in at 100 and I'm done.

Never, EVER, use the barrel on the rest. Those clamp on the barrel bipods are hilarious.

50 FEET is a little less than 17 yards. To be accurate enough for deer you need at least an error of 3 moa (minutes of angle) or less. If you do the math, you'll find that 100 YARDS is almost six (6) times farther. Measure the distance of your group from the aiming point and multiply by 6 and that will give you your answer.
If you wanted to kill me at 100 yards, I'd be as safe as if I were home in bed.

No the gun isn't close enough to hunt with and by asking it would seem that your understanding of external ballistics and trajectory should be worked on too, long before you take off after deer.

BehindTheIronCurtain said:

Will head to the 100 foot range on Monday for sure and take my rest with me. Again, this is 100 FEET. hope that will be enough, there aren't many options here in ny.

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There are literally hundreds of gun clubs in NY. What county are you in? Maybe someone can suggest a club you can join or would be willing to take you as their guest.

I'm in Syracuse. If you're close, I'm a member at 2 different clubs and could take you out and get it dialed in. One range goes to a shade under 100 and the other goes out to 300.

Getting your rifle properly zeroed at an appropriate distance is mandatory, getting your shooting ability up to snuff before venturing out to shoot at live animals is highly recommended. With two inch groups at 50 feet supported with a rifle, you're looking at BEST a 12 inch group at 100 yards under identical controlled conditions. You won't likely find controlled conditions in the field and that group size will likely increase dramatically. If that's the case, I'd not be shooting at deer much past 50 yards under any circumstances. Two inches from a controlled support is adequate shooting for 100 yards with a rifle. Two inch groups at 50 feet is pistol territory, unsupported. Practice, practice, practice.

Anything under 50 yards is close to useless as far as patterning your rifle. 100 yards is recommended.

You need a 100 yard range, period! 50 or 100 feet...... that dog won't hunt. I know you Yankees have got to have a 100 yard (minimum) range up there in New York. Otherwise, you are in a heap of do do! Good Luck If you were near Alabama I could take you out in my back yard range to site it in.