How do YOU zero your BG rifle?

Since most (almost all) of my shots are less than 150-200 yds., I also don't like variable scopes. Fooling around by dialing different powers cost me several animals over the years. I found that a 4x to 6x scope is ideal for my situation. The GOLD standard for me was the Leupold 6x by 40 mm fixed power scope. If I could afford it I'd have put that scope on every rifle I own ... except my muzzleloaders.

I voted MPBR for cartridge, but I could have also voted 100.
My 7 3/4 lbs. Remington 700 30-06 is my field gun and has a Leupold duplex scope.
It is sighted in about 3” at 100 and has a MPBR out to approximately 307?
I use it when sitting on Ag fields mostly as it’s kinda heavy and long, for carrying in the woods. Not that I haven’t done that with it, just that it can be very awkward.
I just acquired a Tikka T3x compact in 308 which has a Vortex Diamondback 1.75-5 x 32 on it with a “Dead-hold” BDC retical and it is dialed in at 100.
First drop hashmark is for 200 and the second for 300 all field tested.
This is a 20” barrel gun with an overall length of 38” and it will be my woods rifle at 6.5 lbs.
if I’m sitting, I range specific landmarks when I first sit down with my range finder.
I’ll go as far as to document them in my phone to add to my hunting notes later.
This allows me to have confidence as to where I can shoot and out to how far.

I use the 200trd for my 30-06s that I hunt the fire breaks, dried lake bed and 3 food plots where I have the possibility of a 235yrd shot, when I hunt the bottom with a creek and marsh I have a 30-30 that is set at 75yrds, the 45-70 is set at 100yrds, both of those has never shot a deer at over 60yrds.

Back in the good ol days I sighted my 270 3" high at 100 yards with a MPBR of 275 yds. That would put me 12-14" low at 400 yds. Now all except one of my rifles are sighted in at 200 yards. They do service to 80% of my hunting. The other 20% goes to my Bergara which is set up for hunting the open fields. It's load coincides with the BDC in the Vortex scope out to 500 yards.

Chuck R. said:

Not the mechanics, but which zero do you prefer and why?

IE. 100yd, 200yd MPBR etc? For the "why" please elaborate on your conditions.

I've gone to all 200yd zeros to keep my drops somewhat constant. Also for my shorter range rigs, the standard Leupold Duplex gives me a 300yd hold using the duplex junction roughly a 7" drop going from 200 to 300. My longer range rigs all have CDS dials and BDC reticles. Images courtesy of Strelok Pro:

Standard Duplex:

View attachment 1102583

one of my BDCs:

View attachment 1102582

Click to expand...

200 yard for everything except my close range ones.

I like 1" high at 100. That puts me at +/- 1" from about 20 yards to beyond 200 yards and +/- 1.5" from muzzle to slightly beyond 225 yards. I don't like a 100 yard zero for my rifles because my MV is usually around 3,000 fps or higher (my main hunting rifles are .25-06 and .300WM). A 100 yard zero generally means the bullet is below your aiming point for all or nearly all distances unless your MV is below about 2,800 fps. I don't think a 100 yard zero makes any sense for high velocity rifles.

Chuck R. said:

I like keeping it simple! For instance I just ran a couple drop charts for my .270Win and .300Win mag for an upcoming hunt. The .270 with a 130 starting out at 3170 and the .300WM with a 165 starting out at 3145.

In MOA
Range 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600
.270 E 0.75 1.75 2.75 4.0 5.25 6.5 8 9.5
.300WM 0.8 1.7 2.7 3.7 4.9 6 7.3 8.6

W10Mph 9'oclock
.270 1.75 2.0 2.5 3 3.25 3.75 4 4.5
.300WM 1.2 1.5 1.8 2.1 2.5 2.7 3.1 3.4

So the holdovers at least are very similar.

Click to expand...

My close range guns are 357 and 7.62*39. There is no reason to sight them in past 100.

I have personally played with 100, 200, and MPBR zeros for my hunting rifles over the last several years. When I'm using a scope without a dialing elevation turret, I'm fond of a 200 yard zero. It's the most comfortable compromise for me at the ranges I typically hunt, but I basically never shoot deer-sized game past 200 yards. I really like the idea of an MPBR zero (+/- 3"), but I don't like being 3" high at the ranges I'm most likely to shoot and so I quit using it. If I was chasing antelope or mule deer out west where the shots are likely to be beyond 200 yards, and I wasn't using a dialing turret, I might go back to a MPBR zero. When my scope has an dialing elevation turret, I always zero at 100 yards. It's easiest to obtain and check zero at the range and I can easily dial to 200 or whatever yardage I want whenever I want. I only use a 50 yard zero for ARs, rimfire, and my smoke pole.

I use a 200 yard zero. For me I feel that this is a perfect distance to shoot point of aim at any distance from 200 yards and beyond within reason.
The reason for my statement is that the game I've hunted have reasonably large kill zones 8" to 10" for deer, antlope about 10 to14 inches and elk about 20+ inches. Using a little Kentucky windage up or down depending on distance, one can use point of aim with reasonable accuracy to be in the kill zone.

Now this works for me because I have only used one rifle and one caliber for the game posted above for over 55 years, a 30-06 165 grain bullet Remington core-lokt . I know what this bullet will do and fortunately for me, this bullet through history has provided ample meat to the freezer.