Thread: River to Ranges to sight in rifle?

I've always sighted in my own rifles, but it can get bloody frustrating trying to find the time, a decent range to shoot at, and have somebody knowledgeable to offer advice there as well. If I was short on time, or didnt have access to some sort of range, then I wouldnt hesitate to get James to do it. He know what hes doing, and youre paying for his time, so for your $100 you will get his undivided attention to making sure your rifle is sighted in and gathering data for the longer shots. After hes done that for you, then I would suggest you go to the Handloaders range or the DA range to ensure that it is actually sighted in for you. Pretty good chance it will be.

James did my rifle set up for me verified out to 400m sent away my cds dial. Wouldn’t hesitate to do it again great service and rifle shoots great

As mentioned above, I have no doubt James does a great job & for a novice having trouble getting a rifle shooting well its probably $100 well spent, but no rifle will shoot the same POI between 2 different shooters, unless both shooters somehow happen to shoot said rifle from the exact same shooting position/grip & both have identical facial structure to give the same cheek weld (twins maybe? ) The difference in POI between James & yourself may be inconsequential at the distances you plan to shoot, but theres always a difference & this variable grows exponentially with distance. If you doubt this, Set your rifle up on something sturdy so it doesn't move, pointed at something close inside your house/shed, then look through your scope and move your head left to right / up and down without disturbing the rifle and see how much the crosshair moves around. Regardless of shooting experience, 2 shooters will shoot different POI due to where their eye ends up lining up with the crosshair when their cheek is against the stock.

My wife will consistently shoot groups with her 6.5 PRC just on 1.5 inches to the right at 100m compared to when i shoot it, both of us shooting from prone position with the same bipod/rear bag setup. If you are only shooting 100m then it wouldn't make much of a difference, but if she's shooting an animal at 500m, that 1.5 inches is now 7.5 inches right, not a, insignificant amount at that distance.

Originally Posted by 6.5 CRD

As mentioned above, I have no doubt James does a great job & for a novice having trouble getting a rifle shooting well its probably $100 well spent, but no rifle will shoot the same POI between 2 different shooters, unless both shooters somehow happen to shoot said rifle from the exact same shooting position/grip & both have identical facial structure to give the same cheek weld (twins maybe? )

I would question the validity of your sweeping claim about 2 shooters have the same POI - as my experience differs.

My son & I have shared a rifle, shooting FTR, on ranges at varying distances.
The one rifle, he shoots right handed, I shoot left handed on the same rifle - so we don't share the same shooting position.
Same bipod, same rear bag, different shooters.

I can shoot after him, just adjusting the shooting mat and hit the same place on the target (generally in the middle).
It saved me a couple of sighting shots.

We have differing eyesight, but the same rifle setup can & does work.

The problem with generalisations is that they are generally wrong.

Originally Posted by Cyclops

I would question the validity of your sweeping claim about 2 shooters have the same POI - as my experience differs.

Of course im only talking from my own personal experience, im a far cry from an expert so just my observations. I have no doubt it can work but theres alot of variables & the best solution is always going to be zero your rifle yourself, shooting from a position thats as close to how you plan to use it in the field.

Originally Posted by jpurdon

Has anyone had experience with Rivers to Ranges in Rangiora to sight in their rifle?

I have a Remington 700 ADL model with a Leupold VXIII 3.5-10x40 w/ 1 inch tube. It has Boone and Crocket reticle too so I am looking at taking it to R&R for them to sight in for $100 which I think is pretty reasonable.

I know I can do it myself but I think its worth the $100 for peace of mind, plus I don't have easy access to a range.

Will supply them with some Hornady 145gr ELD-X as the sighting load.

Thoughts?

could you please just take your rifle to a range and zero it like the rest of us - it will put us out of our misery reading all this thanks

Sorted cheers team

Originally Posted by jpurdon

Sorted cheers team

How? Lot of advice here. What of it did you take?

Having a properly sighted in rifle is essential for successful hunting and if long range shooting, you need an accurately setup ballistic app or drop chart but this not something a lot of hunters can do properly, so if you can’t, why not pay for it? When setting up ballistic apps or making drop charts, take the stated velocity and ballistic coefficient on the ammo box or from the manufacturer with a grain of salt. Velocity in many cases is serval hundred FPS slower and ballistic coefficients are lower so projectile drop will be a lot more than expected at long range. Different brands of ammo and especially bullet weights can have a huge impact on where a rifle shoots. The only way to get an accurate velocity is to use a chronograph and to find actual bullet drop is to shoot at long range. The rifle needs to held rock solid on sandbags or a sandbag and front bench rest, so shooter error is removed. Once that is done, a ballistic app can be set up properly. This is the service James offers along with initial sight ins at 100 yards. A properly sighted in rifle will have the same point of impact IMO.

The Biggest problem for a lot of shooters is no where to shoot decent distances, to calulate the ballistics properly.
That's what this is about.
NZHLA ChCh has a 200 yard setup. James has his own land, lucky him, probably 80% of shooters don't have that opportunity.

Originally Posted by flock

The Biggest problem for a lot of shooters is no where to shoot decent distances, to calulate the ballistics properly.
That's what this is about.
NZHLA ChCh has a 200 yard setup. James has his own land, lucky him, probably 80% of shooters don't have that opportunity.

From what I understand, this person already has the rifle & scope sighted in at 100.
What he is after is a long distance verification of drop at extended ranges, bought ammo, most likely most hand loaders have a pretty good idea of what they are trying to achieve, even so long distance measurements are critical.
R to R is offering is to do this, and so provide all the maths needed to having a custom dial chart or custom made up.
Conclusion over all, it’s well worth the money

Agree with all that has been said but how do you replicate the same hold, cheek on the stock etc or do the Nz Hunter sight rifles in for the shooter on each episode because as stated in other posts and my experience is you can get a big difference.
The distances they are shooting at is a bit more than I shoot at too.

Originally Posted by erniec

Agree with all that has been said but how do you replicate the same hold, cheek on the stock etc or do the Nz Hunter sight rifles in for the shooter on each episode because as stated in other posts and my experience is you can get a big difference.
The distances they are shooting at is a bit more than I shoot at too.

when you watch..they use the hug yourself method.. so rifle sits on bipod,human touches trigger hand as normal and off hand is on toe of stock..so in THEORY it is very similar between different users..and they relatively heavy rifles so wont jump quite so much..maybe... they also have big heavy soft projectiles so have little bit of room for error/overkill in thier favour LOL.

No 2 shooters shoot with the same application.Body build,strength differences and eye sight are not the same.

There's a lot of talk about the assumption of different people shooting to different POI.
To be fair, yes on a scope with out parallax adjustment this will be a problem.
With correct adjustment on a scope with parallax you can take that variable out.
It then comes down to hold and trigger control and recoil management.
Most rifles can have upto a 1/2 moa change in their zero between shooting sessions hunting ect.
Most people can't shoot the difference to tell.
Pretty much rifles I set up I can get their owners out 800m hitting the gongs I can by working with them on the basics..
The one thing that amazes me is the amount of people shooting longer range with out a level of some sort on their rifle.
The talk of Duleys crew shooting other people's rifle I don't have an issue with as they all have adjustable parallax scopes and are almost always set up very well, by that I mean their data and shooting positions.
Only my opinion!

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