What Yardage

warbirdlover

New member
Do you sight in at?

I've been looking at ballistic tables and 2" high at 100 yards let's you hold dead on to almost 300 yards with my .300 Win Mag (150 gr) and even better with my .270 Win (130 gr). I used to go 1-1/2" high at 100 yards. How about you guys?
 

Eghad

New member
Depends on the range most of your shots are going to be taken at and the teraain you are shooting on. Around here in the piney woods 100 yards might be your longest shot in the brush.
 

insomni

New member
use a 25m zero target for my M4,

for my .308 700, since I use it for hunting, I put a Shoot NC out at 100m, and adjust via my spotter scope.
 

BIG P

New member
My 300 win mag is on 0 @ 200 Turrets do the rest out to 1000.
270 1.5 high @ 100
25-06 same as 270win.
556/223 dead on 100yds.
most of my shooting is over powerlines,cutovers.Large fields using a tri pod & range finder.
 

bamaranger

New member
2"high

The 2" high at 100 is my GP standard zero for deer 'scoped rifles like the .270, '06, .308, .243, etc. I don't own any mags, but If I did, they'd get the same treatment.

My belief is that a setting lower than 2" robs the rifle of point blank range, and a setting over 2" increases the bullet path over line of sight at mid range too much.
 

phil mcwilliam

New member
Depends what I'm sighting in. I use 2 inches high at 100 yards for my .308. I go 1.5 inches high at 100 yards for my 22/250. My .22lr is dead on at 75 yards, being about 2.5 inches low at 100 yards.
 

hooligan1

New member
My past experiences have lead me to sight in 3 inches high at 100yds...But I bought a Vortex Diamondback with the BDC reticle and it calls for a dead center zeroe at 100 yds. The three inch zero, I've shot deer out two 300 yds and it hit where it was supposed to. That .270 should be right in the money, sighted three inches high at one hundred, at three hundred yds!!;)
 
Depends on the range most of your shots are going to be taken at and the teraain you are shooting on. Around here in the piney woods 100 yards might be your longest shot in the brush.

Right. Going with the 2-3" high at 100 is fine, but if you aren't shooting to 300 yards or more, then a shorter range zero would be better.
 

Qtiphky

New member
Whatever makes the most sense to you

I used to sight all my rifles in 1" high at 100 yards for the 300 yard no holdover shot. Most of my hunting is in timber in the Upper Peninsula and I have since re-thought my theory. While I do walk across a farm field that could present itself with a very long shot, I probably would not take it as I don't practice that far and wouldn't feel right lobbing one out there. However, being a handloader and knowing my exact velocity and trajectory, I know that if I can see horns with my naked eye that I can hit it without any holdover as none of my loads drop more than a boiler room hit on an average size deer anyway. If you sight dead on at 100, then all of the ballistics come into play easier. If you know that your load drops 3.7 inches at 200 yards and 12 at 300, then you don't have to "figure" that extra inch or 1.5 inches into your computation. If your gun is 1.5 high at 100, and your drop is 12 at 300, how high should you aim to hit dead center? The correct answer is 10.5, but the question is, how high is 10.5 on a deer? The average deer in my neck of the woods is about 24 inches top of back to bottom of chest, so I would hold just below the back at 300. However, knowing that my drop is 12 I would know that I instantly hold the horizontal crosshairs on the top of back and I'm in the boiler room.

A laser range finder will let me know exactly the range, but once you put the scope up for a long shot, you are probably aiming at a deer and not a spot on a deer as your crosshairs are probably just as big as the deer is anyway. YMMV but that is my theory.
 

hooligan1

New member
Exactly right Double Naught Spy, If I were to be hunting where a 100 yd shoot would the furthest, than zero "dead-center" at 100yds.... I hunt where there are multiple directions that I could shoot 450-500, and actually, I have'nt had to take a shot over 75 yds or so yet..:) But If the shot presents that I need to reach out beyond 300 yds, I'm in the bacon dude!!;)
 

HiBC

New member
I have spent a lot of time with my Sierra Ballistic software.With a tool like that,I can optimize an ideal sight in range based on how much I will accept,+ or- trajectory.

Having said that,for most modern hunting cartridges...308,30-06,etc.

The general 2 in high at 100 ,on at 200 ,8 in or so low at 300,is easy and practical to work with.

For my preferences,the dead on at 100 yd zero...might be perfect for those who use it,butIMO,it greatly reduces the useful range of the rifle.

I can see no good reason to not sight a 2700 fps rifle for at least a 200 yd zero.I do not see where anything is given up.
 

NYH1

New member
Each of my three deer, hog and black bear rifles are zeroed at different ranges because I use them for different situations.

My main hunting rifle is my Remington 7600 Carbine 30-06 Spr. with a Leupold VX-II 2-7x33mm Scope, it's zeroed at 100 yards. I use it for most of my hunting, from 2 yards out to 200 yards. This covers about 75% of my hunting needs. Most of my hunting is in the woods so this setup works really well.

My Marlin 336C 35 Rem. has XS Ghost Ring Sights and is zeroed at 75 yards. This is my thick brush, deep woods, still hunting rifle. I use it when my shots are going to be 75/100 yards max. I use it about 15% of the time.

My Remington 700 280 Rem. has a older Redfield Tracker 3-9x40mm Scope. It's zeroed at 200 yards. I use it when I watch fields or large open spots like clear cuts or power lines. I use this one for the last 10% of my hunting time.

NYH1! ;)
 

Big Pard

New member
All my guns are 1.5" high at 100 yards and are close to dead on at 200. That allows me to "hold on hair" out to 300 which covers 90% of my shots.
 

spclPatrolGroup

New member
Take balistic tables with a grain of salt, unless they say what gun, and barrel length they are using. Every gun is differnt, shoot to confirm. For a deer season maybe its good enough, but if you are going on your once in a lifetime moose hunt or something, shoot to make srue.
 

taylorce1

New member
I zero at 100 yards and once I find a good load I run it across my chronograph. Once I run it over the chronograph for 10 shots I take the average speed and plug the information into a ballistics program like JBM. I then set my scope for a 300 yards and go back to the range and shoot an 8" steel gong to confirm my settings are correct, but I don't shoot for groups anymore on paper the gong confirms everything I care to know about my hunting loads.
 
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