Sight-in Distance for your Medium Game Hunting Rifle.

[Gun-Reck]

Have both Aperture and Scope sighted hunting rifles.

As per Cactus Jack, grew up sighting them to 3" high at 100 yds.,

Then, with the advent of the PC/interweb, shifted to MPBR(6"), which is generally about the same.

But over time, reasoned that JOC shot a lot of Western game in open country, over dubious ranges, while piney woods, cut-overs, and pipeline cuts were where most of my hunting found me.

So have gone to a 2"/200 yd./2 foot sighting (which is 2" high at 100, 200 zero, 24" low at 400), and this works better for me.

It results in that shooting over the cross-hair, like a HG, gives precision in the thickets, especially on fast moving hogs, and a point-n-shoot to 250, which is the lion's share.

A top of back hold out to 350, and light under the cross-hair on an iffy 400 yard shot, will generally produce solid hits.

As the aperture rifles are sighted in to the left corner of the post, hold can be adjusted as well, and the M1 rifle can even be dialed.

So, what works for you in your hunting fields?

 

[Chuck R.]

I've gone to 200yd zero for everything, except black powder and probably the the new .358Win I'm putting together. It just keeps things simplier for me.

I find that the 200 zero puts me about 7" low at 300 with most of my rifles, and it lets a Leupold duplex juncture act as a 300yd aimpoint and it coincides with most BDCs:

(Images courtesy of Strelok Pro)

.260 Rem (put the Duplex juncture on hair and it's a 400yd hold)

.300WM:

.270Win

The .358 is going to be a primary riffle for woods & drives with a 1.5-5X, so I'll probably go with a 100 or 150.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

As of yesterday my 270 is 3" at 100 yards. That's my max at the range here at my place.
I have an invite to check it tomorrow at 200-300 yards so then I'll know better.
(Hope this North wind dies down by then?)

 

[Chuck R.]

As of yesterday my 270 is 3" at 100 yards. That's my max at the range here at my place.
I have an invite to check it tomorrow at 200-300 yards so then I'll know better.
(Hope this North wind dies down by then?)

It's going to be NW 5-6 tomorrow am and around 40 degrees..

About as perfect as we're going to get here in KS. Once we get your MV we'll be able to accurately predict or at least account for your wind defection.

We can take it further than 300 if you want to... 400 & 547 definitely, further if you don't mind going prone on my "Mobile Shooting Platform" AKA 5x8 Trailer:

No big deal, I've got to set up for some guys coming out to practice on Sunday anyway, so I'll put the steel out this afternoon.

BTW, 3" is close to my old MPBR zero (2.8" @100) for .270Win win for a 130 at 3150 FPS..

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Thanks Chuck, further is tempting...
Both the 130g load and the 150g are hitting at very close to the same spot. I'll bring along the targets to show you .

 

[Gun-Reck]

I've gone to 200yd zero for everything, except black powder and probably the the new .358Win I'm putting together. It just keeps things simplier for me.

I find that the 200 zero puts me about 7" low at 300 with most of my rifles, and it lets a Leupold duplex juncture act as a 300yd aimpoint and it coincides with most BDCs:

(Images courtesy of Strelok Pro)

.260 Rem (put the Duplex juncture on hair and it's a 400yd hold)

As I generally still hunt and shoot from field positions, the scopes stay low, around 3x.

This generally gives about a 3 MOA post (Leupold duplex) below the cross-hairs.

So it comes in handy if I have time to use it.

 

[Chuck R.]

Thanks Chuck, further is tempting...
Both the 130g load and the 150g are hitting at very close to the same spot. I'll bring along the targets to show you .

No worries, I'll see it on the steel through a scope

I've got about 30 more rounds I want to put through my 300WM anyway before I get serious about load development, so we'll pay around some.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

No worries, I'll see it on the steel through a scope

You'll only see it if I can hit it...

 

[md7]

I’m going 200 yard zero on my 308 win.

Zero at 200, -8.5 at 300, and -24.6 at 400.

Now… these are approximates. Still sorting through which ammo to use and it needs chrono’d and verified at distance. But that should be close to realistic upon completion of that process.

 

[someguy2800]

I sight in at 100 yards and either dial the elevation or use a ballistic reticle for holdoever. About half of my rifles have custom ballistic turrets like this one on my Burris Veracity

 

[md7]

I've gone to 200yd zero for everything, except black powder and probably the the new .358Win I'm putting together. It just keeps things simplier for me.

I find that the 200 zero puts me about 7" low at 300 with most of my rifles, and it lets a Leupold duplex juncture act as a 300yd aimpoint and it coincides with most BDCs:

(Images courtesy of Strelok Pro)

.260 Rem (put the Duplex juncture on hair and it's a 400yd hold)

.300WM:

.270Win

The .358 is going to be a primary riffle for woods & drives with a 1.5-5X, so I'll probably go with a 100 or 150.

Chuck, do you know if this reticle can be used similar to the duplex you show in your post?

Leupold 3X9-50 firedot. I’m shooting 308 win. Pic of reticle below..

 

[Chuck R.]

Chuck, do you know if this reticle can be used similar to the duplex you show in your post?

Leupold 3X9-50 firedot. I’m shooting 308 win. Pic of reticle below.. View attachment 1174625

Unfortunately I don't think so, that lower juncture would be about a 400yd+ hold depend on caliber (MV + BC) and magnification (SFP). I'd have to run it in Strelok.

It's also double unfortunate, cause that the reticle I'm going to get with the 1.5-5X I'm looking at. NOT an issue for a woods type gun, but IMHO it's not as useful as a standard duplex or a BDC. That "C" is pretty huge MOA wise, and half of it looks to be the holdover subtense at the juncture

IF you've got your cartridge, or bullet and MV I can/will run it for you this evening and let you know what Strelok says that point is in distance. PM me with your data and I'll send you a pic. It will have a corresponding range, it just might be too far to be useful.

 

[.38 Special]

For many years I used MPBR, as provided by the Sierra books. That still seems like a good plan to me, although I'll admit that in later years I just zeroed at 200 yards and called it good.

I came up, though, during an era when shooting at unwounded big game animals past 300 yards was considered poor practice, and so exactly how the rifle was zeroed was not terribly important.

 

[jmr40]

I zero modern bottleneck cartridges firing pointed bullets @ 2600-3000 fps at 100 yards. This way the bullet is never more than 1/2" above, or below my line of sight from the muzzle out to 130-150 yards depending on the exact cartridge and load. Which are the ranges where 90+% of all game animals are taken even in wide open places.

It also makes it a lot easier to thread bullets through small openings in brush. I'll still be no more than 2" low at 200 yards and around 10-12" low at 300 yards. I use scopes with multiple aiming points. They may not be exact, but using them I'm within 2-3" at 200, 300, and 400 yards. That's close enough to kill a big game animal.

Even with a typical scope with a simple crosshair there is very little hold over needed out to 300 yards. If I can see a sliver of daylight between the top of a game animals back and the crosshair the bullet will still impact in the kill zone anywhere between 200 to 300 yards. Beyond 300 yards and you need a range finder and either a scope with dots or adjustable dials.

I don't like zeroing high at 100 yards unless I don't expect a shot closer than about 300 yards. If you're 3" high at 100 you'll be 4-6" high somewhere between 200 and 300 depending on the load. You will still be 6-8" low at 300 and still need a range finder and modern optics past 300. Most everything shoots flat enough to make hits out to 300. Most everything needs some modern technology past 300. I don't see where it helps at long range and being high at close range increases the chances of shooting over a game animal or hitting unseen brush.

 

[LoonWulf]

My adjustable optics (turret or reticle) are zero'd at 200 if possible (100 if i dont feel like driving all the way up the mountain).
My set and forgets are MPBR for a 6" target.

 

[LimaCharlie]

It depends on the caliber and the scope. With a simple cross hair and an average 30 caliber bullet, I zero it at 200 yards. With a BDC reticle or first focal plane scopes, I zero them at 100 yards.

 

[mavracer]

Most of my optics now days either have some type of BDC reticle or exposed turrets, they all get zeroed at 100 indoors (no wind) and then I use DOPE.
Come to think of it the only center fire that just has crosshairs is my quasi Vietnam era 03A4 and it's the old 1" high at 100.

 

[CptnAwesome]

I still zero at 100 for all of my rifles. I rarely shoot at game far enough to worry about bullet drop, and definitely will not shoot past 350yds where I hunt.

 

[JDeere]

100 yds dead center. Most of my shots are at about a 100. I take a lot of base of the skull shots. Down they go and no messed up meat. If I do miss it's clean and no wounded animals to track. More than 100, low behind the shoulder heart,lung shot. I can't stand wasting meat with in the shoulder shots...

 

[FL-NC]

100 yard zero, confirm holds at 25, 200, and 300.

 

[Berserker]

Most deer are shot 30-50 yards around here. I do have a spots cleared 50-100. Longest ever was 60. Many people just sight to 30 yards, not that I agree with that.

Sometimes I do my shoot at 50 yards, sometimes 100, usually 1-2" high.

 

[tominboise]

I used to site my rifle in a couple inches high at 100 yards, but the past few years I zero at 200 yards. I also check zero at 200 shooting prone off a makeshift rest, like a backpack or something. Just to make sure that nothing weird has happened when sighting in off a benchrest.

I hunt in Idaho and have hunted in Montana and Washington state, where the country is pretty big and wide open.

 

[JFrank]

30-30 are zeroed at 100 while our 270 wsm are zeroed at 200.
It doesn’t matter to us what distance someone else uses, we just do our thing.

 

[Robert]

I zero my 375 and 308 at 200y.

 

[Berserker]

It doesn’t matter to us what distance someone else uses, we just do our thing.

I think he is just making conversation. it is a forum. Change the channel.

Obviously it maters where you want, and we hunt in vastly different areas.