Thread: Sighting in your hunting rifle

they say a picture is worth a thousand words..... that .270 load is slow and blunt projectile.... but as shown, it does not drop below 4" off point Xhairs are looking at (black line) till 250 yards its zeroed dead on at 200 yards and also as aluded to earlier...pretty darn close to half way between 0 and 50 yards..... so,if you are sighted in for 100 yards on the button...at 30 yards you will still be low/lower as bullet is still rising...not by much but it will be rising.


thats a really old chart...from really old book,way before slippery ELDX type projectiles were around...and rangefinders were no more than a wet dream...... dialing up...yeah right....sight in at range and fire to confirm it....
things have come a LONG WAY since then..but if you were to use this as a basis for sighting in and easy no fluffing around HUNTING rifle ,life just is more simple.....

I dial so I zero bang on at 100. When I walk around with the rifle though I have my dial wound up 1 - 2 moa which replicates a 200m zero and gives me a better max point blank range for rushed shots where I might not have time to dial. I’m also a believer that the most accurate zero is achieved at 100m. If you zero at say 200m and the conditions aren’t perfect then your zero could be influenced by other factors such as wind.

170m zero. 308

gives 50mm high at 100m. and 50mm low at 200.

everything further needs to be dialed.

lower range shots are more likely though which is why I dont want to be off more than 50mm...

Where I grew up, the kill area on a deer was at least as big as a dinner plate - so 300-400mm across. I always sighted my hunting rifles in to be 50mm high at 100 metres - and the kill area on a deer at 100 meters is still the size of a dinner plate.

If I cant hit a dinner plate at 100 - I should stay home .

You guys overthink every thing these days ....

I usually do the X-inches high at 100m for X-metres zero method. Not a long range shooter, no rangefinder or fancy scope so it suits me. My 303 and 223 are sighted in for 180m and the 308 for 200. And usually that works out around the 2 or 3" high at 100 (about 1" high for the 223 & 1.5" for 200m zero).

But I also use the Nikon Spot On app to check zeroes. It's not a super duper flash ballistic calculator; but has most factory ammo (and you can put in custom load velocities etc) and is a good basic free app. It was very helpful when I first bought the 223 as tere was so much conflicting advice about zeroes. You can scroll through the (Nikon) scope models in the app to get something that matches what you have. All mine are basic Bushnell Elite 3-9's and a 2.5-10 on the 223, so pretty easy to find a similar scope. The app might not be everyone's cup of tea; but works well for me. Cheers

https://spoton.nikonsportoptics.com/...spoton.html#:4

Originally Posted by sportco62

Where I grew up, the kill area on a deer was at least as big as a dinner plate - so 300-400mm across. I always sighted my hunting rifles in to be 50mm high at 100 metres - and the kill area on a deer at 100 meters is still the size of a dinner plate. If I cant hit a dinner plate at 100 - I should stay home . You guys overthink every thing these days ....

@sportco62 I watched a NZ deer hunting video a while back where the deer popped out at (ranged with a rangefinder) 200m. They took so long messing around dialing for 200m that they missed the shot. I just thought; that since the rifle was probably sighted in to be dead on at 100m if they were dialling it; just aim 2" or 3" higher at 200m! Not a tricky calculation.... I could understand them dialling if it was for a long shot though

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Why not just dial up from 100 metres you say? Any error at 100 metres is multiplied by 2.75 at 300 yards and 5.5 at 600 yards rather than half that when shooting at 200 metres.
Regards Grandpamac.

This is not correct:

https://youtu.be/cvkpL4f87WA?feature=shared

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

they say a picture is worth a thousand words..... that .270 load is slow and blunt projectile.... but as shown, it does not drop below 4" off point Xhairs are looking at (black line) till 250 yards its zeroed dead on at 200 yards and also as aluded to earlier...pretty darn close to half way between 0 and 50 yards..... so,if you are sighted in for 100 yards on the button...at 30 yards you will still be low/lower as bullet is still rising...not by much but it will be rising.


thats a really old chart...from really old book,way before slippery ELDX type projectiles were around...and rangefinders were no more than a wet dream...... dialing up...yeah right....sight in at range and fire to confirm it....
things have come a LONG WAY since then..but if you were to use this as a basis for sighting in and easy no fluffing around HUNTING rifle ,life just is more simple.....

Bullets don't 'rise', it's the peddling of such mumbo-jumbo that makes new shooters confused due to all the poor info out there. And proves that many 'experts' who write in hunting mags don't have a clue and prepetuate bad info because it is generally accepted.

Your methods involve a guesstimate of where the bullet will impact. I've seen front legs blown off due to such 'guesstimates', as if the deer is significantly smaller, the whole 'maximum point blank range' method is in the bin.

Personally range most clearings so I have a good idea already of the general range for when deer appear there. The quality of rangefinders has increased exponentially as price and size has decreased.

People should be encouraged to improve and try new methods, as you can revert back if things don't work.

Had a blast with @stagslayer 12 zeroing the remmys at 100 yards and yes stagslayer confimerd the distance with his range finder.

4 Shots with his new scope to zero.

3 Shots and mine was on.

Originally Posted by Dundee

Had a blast with @stagslayer 12 zeroing the remmys at 100 yards and yes stagslayer confimerd the distance with his range finder.
Attachment 236941
4 Shots with his new scope to zero.
Attachment 236942
3 Shots and mine was on.

Bloody spring grass, makes shooting from a bipod a pain in the arse!

Originally Posted by caberslash

Bullets don't 'rise', it's the peddling of such mumbo-jumbo that makes new shooters confused due to all the poor info out there. And proves that many 'experts' who write in hunting mags don't have a clue and prepetuate bad info because it is generally accepted.

Your methods involve a guesstimate of where the bullet will impact. I've seen front legs blown off due to such 'guesstimates', as if the deer is significantly smaller, the whole 'maximum point blank range' method is in the bin.

Personally range most clearings so I have a good idea already of the general range for when deer appear there. The quality of rangefinders has increased exponentially as price and size has decreased.

People should be encouraged to improve and try new methods, as you can revert back if things don't work.

I reckon what you are describing here is lack of shooting skills.

If one doesn't understand what "rising" means in this context it indicates further lack of important basics.

Many new "hunters" have not grown up on a paddock shooting rabbits with a 22 from the age of "just barely able to walk"

And sadly the availability of institutions that help beginners to learn to properly shoot so they can hunt in a safe manner is very limited. Although that would be the only way forward to ensure hunting and shooting does not get banned eventually.

I just set my 308 tikka at 2 1/4" high at a hundy =2 1/4" low at 260yds,5 1/2"low at 300yds from line of sight.No need to be adjusting scope every hunt,most deer are inside 250yds.Bit different for the long range hunters,400-600yds they gota range and dial.And have a lot of practice behind them.

Originally Posted by STC

I reckon what you are describing here is lack of shooting skills.

If one doesn't understand what "rising" means in this context it indicates further lack of important basics.

Many new "hunters" have not grown up on a paddock shooting rabbits with a 22 from the age of "just barely able to walk"

And sadly the availability of institutions that help beginners to learn to properly shoot so they can hunt in a safe manner is very limited. Although that would be the only way forward to ensure hunting and shooting does not get banned eventually.

The NZDA HUNTS course cover all this stuff for beginners.

Originally Posted by Tahr

The NZDA HUNTS course cover all this stuff for beginners.

One range day, mostly used for sighting in rifles, does not make a proficient shooter out of a beginner.

The HUNTS course is great, but it can only do so much.