Thread: What's changed- more advice for the newbie

Originally Posted by charliehorse

@grandpamac you'd be spot on with the calibre, and sometimes yes theres not much left....legs and wings seem to fall off. @Micky Duck 'hug yourself' for both but you're quite right with the loading when standing. I'll need to be mindful when finalising my load. The 2" high would be easier because of point and shoot? Or something else I'm missing? Because my ranges vary from 80m to 400m I just assumed a 100m zero and dial up to whatever would be easier. It's all new to me

Greetings Charliehorse,
The neat little chart and data the Micky has furnished are based on a maximum trajectory above line of sight that will not be a miss over on deer and give a maximum point blank sighting range. Your targets are a lot smaller so you need to work out how much above line of sight you can tolerate. This is likely to be somewhere between 1 and 2 inches (25 to 50 mm). You can then use one of the free on line ballistic program's, such as the Hornady one to sort out your Zero range. Once you have put in your ballistic coefficient, velocity and sight height above bore (this last is important as it effects trajectory) select the closest spacing and say 125 metres zero range and look at the trajectory. You can fiddle with the zero range until the projectile does not go above your selected maximum trajectory above line of sight. You don't have to zero the rifle at the zero range just zero it above or below at a convenient range in line with the trajectory. This sounds a little complex bit it is easy once you have worked it through.
Regards Grandpamac.