Thread: How to sight in a rifle - the right way

So after getting my mate his first stag with Black Beauty, he's been totally hooked. He's just got his FAL and bought his first rifle!

It arrived today (he's cack handed) so was keen to sight it in. Coupla rounds down range and it was sorted. I couldn't help myself but set up this mega wanky photo but hey, I think this T3 in 7mm08 looks just fine without a latte in the foreground!

Smiles all round and we thought we would he cheeky and Cruize over the road to a likely spot. Not two minutes into the hunt and I spotted a goat, 550yards away. "Nope, only deer" he says.

Three minutes into the hunt...we spot a spiker 150yards away!! He sets up with another mates assistance and I see...a second spiker behind him in the "safety" of some thistle.

Boom goes the Tikka, flop goes the deer. And the other bigger spiker just stood there so it would be shame not to follow up. And just 0.2seconds later, my savage shot it's second deer.

Hot barrels.

T3 straight outta the box


Deer on the deck!


.223 vs red heart


My neighbour and mate Jade, into it.



The huge redskin that my sisters inlaws have requested

Nice looking block,well done.

F-ing sweet. Miss my T3....

Thumbs up to you, well done!

Good work,nice looking rifle too but they do look weird with the bolt on the wrong side.

have a heart Dr dougy!.do you do routine post mortems or is it just for special occasions.
PS -for all you boring types us cacker handers are the truly talented.

The bolt is on the correct side thank you kindly.

Well done, you did better than me last night. Hunted for 2 hours before seeing an animal, a young fallow buck, too far away to stalk. Then after another hour finally bumped into another deer, a fawn. Left it, and round the corner bumped into its mum. Didn't see anything else until last light when I was climbing up out of a creek and 20m away was a young stag peering down over the scrub at me. No chance of a shot. Hunting's just like that sometimes.

Originally Posted by JoshC

Well done, you did better than me last night. Hunted for 2 hours before seeing an animal, a young fallow buck, too far away to stalk. Then after another hour finally bumped into another deer, a fawn. Left it, and round the corner bumped into its mum. Didn't see anything else until last light when I was climbing up out of a creek and 20m away was a young stag peering down over the scrub at me. No chance of a shot. Hunting's just like that sometimes.

Mate that sounds bloody successful to me! Seeing deer is a treat, now you know where to ninja back in tonight What colour was the fallow? When I first saw the goat I thought it might be a black fallow yearling but there aren't any in that block.

Very fun night and I am quite knackered today! Lots of butchering. Oh and thanks @7mmsaum for my Christmas present of a gimble for the rafters in my shed, even with it I really had to yank hard to get that big red up on the hook. Very cool set up though thanks!!! Worked a treat.

Also PS - this was a bloody big spiker. His body was as large as the 12 point stag I shot a while back. What's up with that? He had very minimal fat on him, so surely isn't that old? I thought maybe they were brothers, hanging out together but the velvet was only just stripping on my mate's spiker and mine was completely hard with huge coronets. Is that typical to have two deer in much a different antler state?

Originally Posted by Dougie

Mate that sounds bloody successful to me! Seeing deer is a treat, now you know where to ninja back in tonight What colour was the fallow? When I first saw the goat I thought it might be a black fallow yearling but there aren't any in that block.

Very fun night and I am quite knackered today! Lots of butchering. Oh and thanks @7mmsaum for my Christmas present of a gimble for the rafters in my shed, even with it I really had to yank hard to get that big red up on the hook. Very cool set up though thanks!!! Worked a treat.

Also PS - this was a bloody big spiker. His body was as large as the 12 point stag I shot a while back. What's up with that? He had very minimal fat on him, so surely isn't that old? I thought maybe they were brothers, hanging out together but the velvet was only just stripping on my mate's spiker and mine was completely hard with huge coronets. Is that typical to have two deer in much a different antler state?

Any hunt is successful. I know the block well, I hunt it several times a month. Just strange not seeing as many animals as usual on such a nice evening. The fallow was black as...and fat, had beautiful antler form and good palmation. In 2-3 more years he'll be a cracking trophy, if he hangs around/doesn't get shot in the meantime. The hind and 6 point stag were fat as mud!

Both of those deer are spikers (obviously), most likely the same age, in their first year as a juvenile stag. Most likely brothers from another mother. Other than the fact they have spikes and not antlers, you can tell they are young by the height of the coronets, they are very high above the skull and quite narrow spacing between them. As a stag ages the coronets grow larger in diameter, lower to the skull, and wider apart. A "mature" stag with a decent head will have coronets that are massive, like diameter of a coffee cup or bigger and they'll almost be hard against the top of its skull. Don't take too much notice of stages of velvet, at this time of year it can be only a matter of a few days between hardening off and polishing up. Spikers can do some weird sh*t when it comes to velvet.

Variations in body size between animals is very common (same as humans), especially wild ones. Age doesn't necessarily mean bigger animal. I've shot 8-9 year old stags smaller than a year old spiker...but shape and composition of the body is much different. Size could be as simple as the tucker they've been on, one mum/or dad being more of a hybrid than the other (red vs wap vs sika cross), fawn being conceived earlier (1st cycle vs 2nd cycle), fawn losing mum early, mum drying off early etc.

I have seen many wapiti/red crosses in HB but I'm quite certain this guy was straight red eh, no wap earlier in the line. He had minimal white creeping onto his back and just looked like, well, a big deer!

Thanks for the info been very cool seeing so many deer lately and discovering the differences in them. Still.....the elusive Sika has yet to see the inside of my shed

Originally Posted by Boulderman

F-ing sweet. Miss my T3....

I don't care what people say...this is an absolutely perfect set up for a new hunter, and crap the price! Plenty of dosh left in his pocket. He'll never sell this gun (if he knows what's good for him ) I can see it shooting many a deer, pig, whatever else walks in front of it. Very super proud of my bud for making a great D on rifle selection and doing the business with it just hours after opening the box!!!

Pretty cool pic of it too, if I say so myself

Originally Posted by Dougie

I have seen many wapiti/red crosses in HB but I'm quite certain this guy was straight red eh, no wap earlier in the line. He had minimal white creeping onto his back and just looked like, well, a big deer!

Thanks for the info been very cool seeing so many deer lately and discovering the differences in them. Still.....the elusive Sika has yet to see the inside of my shed

Every deer does look different in one way or another! Those two do look very red, and strictly speaking are red deer. However these days there are not many "handy" hunting areas in NZ, especially in the vicinity of farmed deer (within 50 odd kms) that you can absolutely guarantee the herd is not influenced in some way by farmed genetics. You'd probably be pretty surprised where x-bred deer turn up. Not a bad thing tho.

Excellent result Dougie,your mate must be chuffed, sight his rifle and drop a deer in the same day.....you will have peeps thinking its 'easy'........well done

Nice work and a good way to test out the new rifle.