Can You REALLY Zero Your Rifle At 30 Yards?
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Welcome to Ron Spomer Outdoors! Today, we are going to see if you can really zero your rifle at 30 yards or not.
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Who is Ron Spomer
For 44 years I’ve had the good fortune to photograph and write about my passion - the outdoor life. Wild creatures and wild places have always stirred me - from the first flushing pheasant that frightened me out of my socks in grandpa’s cornfield to the last whitetail that dismissed me with a wag of its tail. In my attempts to connect with this natural wonder, to become an integral part of our ecosystem and capture a bit of its mystery, I’ve photographed, hiked, hunted, birded, and fished across much of this planet. I've seen the beauty that everyone should see, survived adventures that everyone should experience. I may not have climbed the highest mountains, canoed the wildest rivers, caught the largest fish or shot the biggest bucks, but I’ve tried. Perhaps you have, too. And that’s the essential thing. Being out there, an active participant in our outdoor world.
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All loading, handloading, gunsmithing, shooting and associated activities and demonstrations depicted in our videos are conducted by trained, certified, professional gun handlers, instructors, and shooters for instructional and entertainment purposes only with emphasis on safety and responsible gun handling. Always check at least 3 industry handloading manuals for handloading data, 2 or 3 online ballistic calculators for ballistic data. Do not modify any cartridge or firearm beyond what the manufacturer recommends. Do not attempt to duplicate, mimic, or replicate anything you see in our videos. Firearms, ammunition, and constituent parts can be extremely dangerous if not used safely.
I never got the chance to hunt growing up, nor to meet my dad or grandpa. I always enjoy Ron’s videos. I feel like he would be just like my grandpa. His knowledge rings true almost every time.
Side note; 36yard zero with slower cartridges works better. 45-70, 300blk, 5.7 anything 1500-2300fps
I truly Hope someone will introduce you to hunting; Take you shooting ect. Ron Spomer is fun to watch and is informative.
I know my dad but, he cant legally own a gun, and has never been outside, other than boyscouts when he was 14. I'd kill to have the chance to go hunting with someone with Ron's knowledge. I suppose maybe one day I will be able to pay for a guided hunt or something but, that sounds lame to me. I am in texas tho so, i cant hunt unless i own land and at this point in my life, we can pretty much guarantee that is never going to happen lol
@@apollow_g1025 Are you telling us that citizens of the state of Texas ,(not just a resident) , can not hunt in that state unless they own property, even if they had permission from the land owner ; or is it that the land owners are so greedy & charge so much money that you could not afford to hunt ??
@@robertmintz63 In the west, as opposed to Texas, we often hunt on public lands, mostly Federal land, BLM or USFS. There's also some county land in places. In Texas there's only one "small" piece land administered by the BLM on the south side of the Canadian River. There's considerably more (around 60 times more) National Forest/Grassland land, though very little area compared to the size of the state. You'ld have to research the regulations to find out whether the Feds even open any of that land to hunting. The land owners that charge for hunting might regard using Fenderal to hunt for free unfair competition. When you look at the land holding patterns of Texas, the state is more typical of mid-west states. Land ownership is dominated by private "agricultural" concerns and gas and oil extraction concerns.
In the Marines, we zeroed at 30 yards, and it was the equivalent of 300 yards (M16A2 with iron sights). This is based on the trajectory of the 5.56. The bullet crosses your sight line at 30 yards on the way up, and it again crosses your sight line at 300 yards on the way down. It was pretty spot on for that rifle and that ammo.
EDIT: It was apparently 36 yards. That was a LOOOONG time ago, so memory is fuzzy.
yeah in the british army we basically did the same thing . spot on at 25 meters . a lil high at 100 and spot on at 300 meters
Fascinating.
In the Army we had a 30M known distance range we zeroed on. When I arrived at Camp Howze Korea in 1988 it was about 2300 ma and 4 other guys met the First Sergeant got fitted for our promask and zeroed our weapons on the KD Range they had set up. They handed us a packing list and the next morning was a 12 mile road march
@@markmclaughlin2690Army went to 25 m since, at least my entire career (92-23) and now do a 25m zero and zero confirmation at full range.
Actually we zeroed at 36 yards but I get what your say'n.
A friend of mine zeroed his scope at 30 yards and I told him he better check it at 100. He didn’t. Said it was good to go. A couple days later the biggest buck he has ever seen walks out at about 75 yards. He was one of those types who only needs the bullets that are in his rifle. He emptied his rifle, 5 shots right over the deers shoulder. The buck never moved he had no idea what all that noise was. Out of bullets, he got mad at himself and climbed down out of his stand and started walking back to his truck. Yes, the buck just stood there looking at him as he walked back to his truck. Lesson learned.
Tree stand? LOL he was shooting a 30-yd zero and downhill too? No wonder he shot over.
Legend has it that buck is still standing in the same spot…. Meanwhile my Harley Davidson is the signal to dart across the road
Shooting from a elevated position you will shoot high every time after sighting in on flat ground
Lmao do you still give him crap? Tbh I would all the time.
@@DonutVIP Me too, and obviously, I don't even know him... 😂
Hello Ron,
My father taught us to shoot 1 inch low at 25 yrds with our 30-06 to be 3 inches high at 100 yrds.... we did this religiously all growing up.... then we always shot at 100 yrds to be certain.....we were all shooting 30-06 7600 pump carbines...and this worked well!
Mike in tip top Northern Vermont.
I've always preferred having around a 2 to 3" high point of impact at 100 yards for most of my rifles. It sure makes longer shots easier to take, out to a reasonable distance of course. My Son took his longest shot on a deer at 366 yards and didn't need to hold off of the deers body. Good Content Ron. Thanks for sharing.
@RonSpomerOutdoorscammer
Great video, as usual. I stumbled onto this knowledge a few years ago while playing around with distances at the range. I was already zeroed for 200 yards with my 6.5 Creed, but I decided to take some shots at 50 yards to see where it hit. To my surprise, it was nearly dead on. Since then, I've started by zeroing my new guns at 50 yards (since my local range only has 50-yard increments). This gets me on paper and within a few inches of where I need to be when I back it up to 200. Point being, it's a good way to save some ammo whether you have a long range to shoot at or not.
Hey Ron, another great video, sir. I know AR-15s aren't Your thing,however in the Army back in the 80s when an AR-15 (M16A1) with 55 grain FMJ was zeroed for qualification the two position rear sight was flipped to Long Range 300 meters and fired in a 3 round group at 25 meters and once a proper zero was achieved then the soldier went to the qualification range with pop up silhouette targets from 50-300 meters. While the 5.56 is relatively flat shooting cartridge the difference between the 0-200 and L for long made the difference that mattered, and I still remember a picture in our individual soldiers manual of the trajectory arc of the round at 25 meters thur 300 meters. Again thanks Ron for all of your great work, sir !
In the Army basic training, we started with the Garand at 25 yards. Many of the recruits have never fired a rifle before and this was close enough for beginners.
We then elevated a certain number of clicks from 25 yard zero, based on the ammo we were using. And that gave us a maximum point blank range of 400 yards when we fired on the Trainfire range.
Forgot to mention that we kept range cards with the sight adjustments where we kept the settings for trainfire exercises and can go back to them after, for example, a live fire exercise on the KD range. We also recorded these settings on our range cards.
@@andybreglia9431
The Garand's sight 'clicks' in elevation/windage were about 1 MOA/1" at 100 meters...
How.old are you .
@@mdd1963 :
A minute of angle is an angular measurement that subtends 1.047 inch at 100 yards. In skull math, we say one inch at 100 yards. At 200 yards, we say two inch.
It starts to get noticeable at 1000 yards where the minute is 10.47 inches.
USMC-1967, we zeroed our M-14’s at 25yards, then rezeroed/doped at 100, 200, 300 and 500 meters and you were good to go. Iron sights at 500 meters….the eyes were 56 years younger…..
I figured out a long time ago a basic: the rifle IS sighted in, it is the SCOPE that has to adjust to the rifle. Ron is spot on about moving the cross-hair from the aim point to the bullet hole, and, yes, it is easier to do with two people, one holding the rifle, the other turning the knobs. I don't do 'higher math' to sight-in. I just start out at 25 yards, move to 50 and then 100 and get the group where I want it there.
Take the MV of the ammo in fps and divide it by 100. That give the range in yards to set the target and sight in. It helps to use a chronograph to get the starting velocity. I've used this method of sighting in for at least 35 years.
Thank you very much
Ron, note that the average man of 5'10" - 6'1" has a 30" step; the D.S. pounds that into your brain during BCT. To move your target back 5 yards, you need to take 6 steps, not 5. The Army used 25.5M(1000") for the M16A1-2 when I was in; FM 3-22.9 will get you there. Keep up the good content, 99% of your stuff is spot on.
I used a some tips from this channel to sight my rifle. I got close and pulled out the bolt looked through the barrel then adjusted my scope. Moved back 30 yards about and had it sighted with 3 or 4 shots. I haven't had an opportunity to shoot any further yet. But my thumb pad covered all my shots. Great advice. Saved me from wasting ammo doing it wrong.
I’m now 61. When I was a kid, my father gave me my first centerfire rifle, a M70 243, and told me “the rule of 25s”. For a rifle with the scope 1.5” above the bore, we sighted in dead on at 25. That put the rifle 2.5” high at 100 yards, and back dead on at about 250. This is a rule of thumb, but a helpful one. For fun, sit down with a ballistics calculator and see how close it is.
I didn't see any mention of the "cold bore shot". Everybody has their own opinion but when it comes to hunting, my thoughts are pretty simple. It's the first shot that really counts and if the rifle has a COLD BORE and like most rifles shoots a bit different than when the bore is heated up, it's wiser to know where that first shot is going. Just one man's opinion.
It wouldn’t be the first time someone had to change scopes due to scope failure. My son’s froze over internally, bad scope, and we hustled into town bought what we could find. We did the 25 yard thing with his 243. He wound up shooting his deer at about 50 yards. Did the trick! Thanks again for sharing info that a lot of folks might use especially in an emergency situation.
I’ve had good success zeroing my rifles at 50 yards; that’s everything from 17 HMR right up to 30-06. All is hand loaded hunting ammo. I don’t worry too much about chronographs; they can confuse and create issues that may not really be there, which can lead to chasing phantoms. Cheers from Down Under.
I've been military and civilian shooting over 40 years. These short range "zero" ranges only really get you close enough... close enough to do it at the range you really want it zeroed at. The further back you go the more accurate it gets. Of course you have to be capable of shooting consistently at distance of course.
Yep, the battle sight zero sight-in distance at 25 meters to produce a 300 meter zero ALWAYS requires adjustment at 300 meters for elevation.
true. i think that’s why he commented that this is useful specifically for people who dont have the option to zero the scope at longer range, and that it really has to be dead on (b/c error doubles as distance doubles)
Now that you're dialed in where you want to be, go back and shoot a target at 25 and note where it lands. If you have a problem in the field and need to check zero, 100 yards may be hard to manage, but 25 is possible. Knowing that you need to be 1.2 inches low at 25 could be useful. I also put on a boresight and note on an index card that setting. The collimator and index cards always go into the truck on a hunting trip. Came in handy once.
Another great video. I do at times sight rifles in at 25 yards. You've given me a lot of useful information in this video especially with the ballistic charts and calculators. Thank you sir..
Critical ingredient to keep in mind too and if missing is probably where the confusion comes from… is the Maximum Point Blank Range / Vitals size.
It is one thing to zero on short range due to lack of space, and another to zero to something shorter than 100y/m zero for hunting purposes.
Nice video 👍
I was taught to zero at 36 meters/40 yards and it's worked out very well for me. I never heard anyone say 30 yards would put me close enough.
It just depends on the speed and bc of the round. .243 can be doing anywhere between 3100 to 3900 fps depending on the bullet, and that can drastically change your zero. And that's with just one caliber in one barrel length.
Excellent video. I prefer the phone app ballistic calculators because they don't require an Internet connection to provide you with data. Also, I've found the easiest way to measure scope height on a bolt action is to simply open the bolt and slide it back until the rear of the bolt is even with the rear of the scope. Then just grab a ruler and measure the distance between the center of the scope and bolt. It should be plenty close enough for this application.
Good tip. Never thought of this.
I’ve used a 25Yrd. Zero for a 8” kill Zone and a 50Yrd. Zero for a 6” kill Zone. This was also W/ a 1 1/2”COB Sight height. I’ve been using that since I was in the Army , except we used a 25Meter Zero. But… I’ve ALWAYS confirmed my Zero and made adjustments accordingly. As always another awesome video Mr. Ron.
0p0
Recommend starting with a MPBR based on the target size, then run the ballistic calculations to determine the distance to your desired close distance zero… this close zero negates the wind effect zeroing the scope too. Remember altitude, temperature, and humidity differences between where/when the rife is zeroed vs. hunting also changes the point of impact especially at longer distances
Been using this method for years.
Good cause I just mounted a new vortex on my 270❤
For deer season I’ve always sighted my gun in at 25 yards and have never had a problem out to 300 yards, I’m 35 and have been doing this since I was 7 it’s how my Father taught me to do it, and The .30 Cal is King of hunting, but I do love my .35 Whelen as well
Been doing this for years…it works. 👍 Personally I love a 200 yard zero for big game in my neck of the woods.
Yesterday at the range I zeroed at -.4” at 25 yards. According to my ballistic chart I should be 2” high at 100, and dead on at 200, and 6.37” low at 300. But my longest area to shoot is only about 250. I hope the chart is right. My final 3-round group all touched each other -.4” at 25. I guess I’ll find out. There’s no 100 yard range near me. I feel confident. Enjoyed your video.
I've been doing this on family and friend's rifles over 30 years. I bore sight at 33 yards and shoot once. I then make scope adjustments ( measuered inches) X 3. That puts me Really close at 100 while only shooting one round. You can then fine tune at 100-400 yards.. I like 2+3 inches high at 100 in my .308. thats puts me close at 200 and only 5-6 low at 300.👍
ive done this too.
Like the way you think, I only go to 1” at 100, after 200 I hold 2” high, don’t miss much.
35 yard zero is a good combat zero at 100 you are 4" above bullseye 200 5", 300 -2.5 ,400 aim at the head.100 yard zero at 200 5" above bullseye,300 you are dropping 15.5 " so 35 yard zero it's the best for 308
At this point we're probably just arguing about who's Chrono is more accurate yours or the 🏭 that made the ammo
Yep! My mate - who is a gun stock maker and a registered scope repairer - has his own sighting-in range marked on his gate. Once the rifle is trued-up and clamped in his wood vice, he then mounts the bases on the centreline of the barrel and then mounts the scope. Then, using the windage and elevation turret adjusters, the scope is pretty much zeroed in. 👍
I usually try to be about 1” low at 50. At 100, I am pretty close with some slight adjustments needed.
Thanks for this video. I always enjoy learning something new and / or reaffirming a process or technique already in use. I have always sighted my rifles in Initially at thirty yards for a couple of reasons. First of all, that's all the distance I have at the house, but more importantly. I don't have a bore sight to help when sighting in a new rifle or scope. At 30 yards, it's going to at least be on paper. I always put a dot under bullseye the same distance as the height of my scope. Aim at the top dot and adjust so the round is hitting the bottom dot. Then, when I'm able to go shoot at 100 yards, I'm usually within a couple of inches, and finish zeroing at 100. For those looking for a decent target idea. We had gotten my grandson a cheap youth recurve bow and arrow set from Walmart. It came with a target. The bow really wasn't worth a crap and he didn't use it much before he outgrown it. But the target is a square piece of Styrofoam that had a couple field tip arrows with a T handle on top. It came with an adhesive target. It became his BB gun target, and then I started using it for my rifles. It's super lightweight, has its own anchors, and can quickly slap a new target on it. If anyone thinks that would work for them. The Styrofoam is like a thick packaging foam. About 2" thick, firm but not real hard and regid. It lasts a really long time.
Love the video Ron, however there is a much more exact way to measure how high the scope is above the bore.
1) Measure the diameter of the bolt and the diameter of the ocular end of the scope and divide by 2. in other words take halve of both of those measurments.
2) Measure from top of bolt to bottom of ocular end of scope. this is easily accomplished by pulling bolt back and using a small 6 inch metal ruler.
Excellent video Ron, something to many people just don’t think about.
Thanks
My dad has always set his scope at 25 yards, and as a kid, I didn't know any better. I've often wondered wtf his bullets would actually hit at 100+. He has always been a believer/lover of see-through mounts, so his scope is 2" over his bore. He did this because he was told this at some point in the past, "they say" mentality runs strong with my pa. Amazingly he's killed a good pile of deer over the past half century plus. I'm also sure he's never shot at a target at 100 yards. As kids, we were so poor that there was no fun shooting. He has always been in the mindset and financial means that ammo was as difficult/expensive as it is today
Close to the end of this video, when you were comparing the 3000 fps to the 3050 fps, there was also a 5 yard difference in zero point. I feel like that was where most of the point of impact difference came from.
@mikecarroll3132 , yes, it made no sense to me that increasing the speed would lower the POI at 100 yds, so I also went back to read the fine print on the calculator input. Came here to see if anybody else had caught the mistake.
Another excellent tutorial on sighting in. Thank you Ron.
That looks like a Stukey’s shooting bench. A bit expensive but worth every dollar. Good call Ron.
I was literally just talking about this idea the other day! Short range zero for get your close then you can use a longer range like 100 yards to validate windage is on. It let's you zero for a weird distance like 275 yards without having access to a really long shooting range. Just an aside, in this particular example with that data used for the calculator, instead of a 30 yard, I would have used around 34 or 35 yards for a 3.1 inch high around 150 yards and a final zero around 266 yards. 3 inches down at 310 yards. Kinda making me want a 6.5 PRC now. You still have to go shoot groups to validate at distance, there's no substitute for actually doing the shooting, but it should ball park you. Also, I should have finished watchin the video as you came to the same conclusion.
I shot and reloaded for a dozen rifles and always sighted in for 25 yards and then confirmed how high or low at 100 and 200 yards. The 25 yard zero was handy for small game which I shot while deer hunting.
Great information Ron, thanks!
This video is great. I've been thinking about this method the past few days. Perfect timing, Ron!
Excellent presentation. Thanks for the work you put into it
Another great video, thank you.
Just curious, was your first shot from a cold bore or a clean bore? I feel there may be some nay sayers out there, but I'm one who will fire a round through just to "dirty up" and then make my adjustments. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's always worked for me.
YES! I have not watched yet, but I have done this at 25 or 50 yards for a couple decades when I need to sight in in the high or gusty winds. Gets me effective to 400 yards.
Thank you sir these are excellent reminders of my past studies thank you for this
I think where the 25yd zero comes from is Military. An M16 with 62gr ammo zeroed at 25 will be on at 300. Peak is +4.7 at 100 MOHB.
Sir ron spomer iam thanksfull for providing us with such a valuable expriement all riflemen must be,of bore sighting at 25,30 and 35yrds coz i wasted a lot of ammo of my .22 hornet with ups and downs at 25yrds some youtubers are missguiding one of them says one and a half inch low at 25yrds will put you dead at 200yrds for 150g 308 win bullet🥴.
Ron, the natural dispersion of the gun is probably within these adjustments you did at the target. Would be way more accurate, and honestly ammo saving in the long run, to shoot a 5 shot group when you see you're that close, then adjust after the center of that group. Way more accurate than chasing one shot-hits.
Thank god you know the proper way to sight in a rifle, other UA-camrs 99% of them do it incorrectly
I use Zeiss Scopes. They have a good ballistics app. I first sight all my rifles at 30m. If not using the Zeiss app, I make a second target about 2 inches below the aiming point. When it hits the lower target at 30m, it is likely to be roughly on zero at 100m. Some minor adjustments to get it perfect. However, the Zeiss app works very well. Zero at 30m and it will give the expected adjustments for every distance out as far as you want to zero for hunting or precision shooting. Also handy for variable distance target shooting adjustments. Even takes temperature, air pressure and wind into consideration when it projects the adjustments.
I really like the "Target book" put out by percentage tags
It’s very helpful in getting it right for height at the yardage you want!
I also try to be about 1” low at 25 yards to get a close zero for 100 depending on the round. But then I will confirm at 100 and if needed make adjustments and then 1-2 groups at 100.
When I was being trained to go overseas, they used a 25/300 target for our M-4 sight in.
Really good information that's broken down and well explained.
Ron I've been sighting my rifles in at 25 yards for the last 26 years. Its alway work for me out to about 200 yards.
That’s a great video and explains something not many people understand
Times have sure changed. I remember when the only " Ballistics tables" were the ones printed in the back of the various loading manuals & we had to do our own math. And the 25 yard charts were for handgun loads. Scopes were mounted as close to the bbls as possible so one really only had to figure drop & guess distances. We actually had to THINK & remember telephone numbers in our heads.
I have found better results by doing a 50yd test. Usually go with 1/2" low. Then test 100, take a look. Then go to 200 & 300 yards. Same principle just. A little bit of a variance to the 30 yard zero.
Your right on! My short 60+ years of hunting reloading and collecting rifles and owning hundreds of just about every caliber and the 50 yard works best for sight in for most calibers! I bore sighted in 20 rifles this year so far for me and my 4 sons! Then go to the range and your already almost half way done!
Jack O'Connor wrote about sighting in at 25 yards, and it's worked on countless modern rifles over the years. The only dangerous thing about sighting in this way is the number of guys who have the right rifle, and are sighted in properly, but have never really practiced at longer ranges. Just because the equipment is capable of it doesn't mean the shooter is!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and keep your videos coming please.
Of course you can. 30 yards is 27 meters, which is close to the standard Army 25 meter BZ.
Military is different from hunting!
Yes but the army standard is based on the standard 5.56, most people are using cartridges that have nothing in common with the ballistics of the 5.56.
Well there's a little more to it but generally yes.
Military scopes use mils, and since miliradians are an SI unit they will correspond to meters. A common dialing on a mil dot scope will be 1/10 mil, which is 10mm at 100 meters. Whereas these scopes are using minutes of angle, which just happens to be about 1 inch at 100 yards. I feel like the math would be easier just staying within MOA and the corresponding imperial units the scope adjustments account for, rather than including an additional step of converting between imperial and metric units. If your scope has 1/4 MOA adjustments (0.25 inches at 100 yards), and you're 30 yards out, thats 0.25 x 0.3 = 0.075 inches of adjustment per click at 30 yards.
The rifle and bullet doesn't know the difference...
Reading these comments i sure there's going to be a lot of missed deer in future. Thanks for your hard work Ron.
Interesting content. I've always shot at 25 yards and made adjustments to zero. Then shoot at 100 yards and make the appropriate adjustments. Hunting in the woods of north east Michigan, a 100 yard shot is pretty much my longest shot.
Good information, what I was taught as a kid ,
But them old guys had great "rules of thumb "
And most of them shot 30-30
I just use a combination of PBR to just look at that. I use ballistics calculator to zero at 200 yds by using 25 yds and then 50 yds and use the appropriate hold under or over using 25 yd stations out to 300 yds. I use a 270 win and 6.5 PRC that shoot very flat. I enjoy your posts.
My rifles are zeroed at 50 yards because it is very brushy where I hunt. A typical shot there is around 35 to 40 yards.
Note that in your last 2 charts showing results from the ballistic calculator where you were changing the bullet velocity from 3000 vs 3050 you also show a change in zero distance of 30 vs 35 yards. This is probably not the comparison you intended (changing 2 variables at once). Otherwise, awesome video. Very informative!
Ron, I don't think you live at sea level. Always adjust for atmosphere and especially elevation. It makes a HUGE difference.
I did a 25 yard with my Ruger American Hunter .308. Within 3 shots I rang steel at 200 yds. What an ammo savings…
Ron, your scope was mounted high above your barrel, I suppose for bolt clear the scope. Maybe that would also make a difference.
Everything Ive ever read or been told said to shoot at 25 or 30 yards just to be sure you were "on paper" , then shoot 100 to zero the rifle. That is what I have always done.
Me too
I start at 25 and adjust to be 1/2" low. That puts me zeroed at 175 yds for my 6.5 Grendel. At 100 yds it should be 1.75" high. I fine tune the adjustment at 100 yds.
Right on. I do a quick boresight then get my Windage and general elevation at 25 yards. Then I do a quick test at 50 yards to make sure my impact is still good then my final test at 100 yards.
Ron - what rifle is that?
It depends on the trajectory of the cartridge and load you are using.
This is understood to mean with relatively modern and flat-shooting cartridges. For anything with a MV of 2,700 or above, with a reasonable BC, it's true.
@jasonbroom7147 There is no such thing as "flat shooting". The faster cartridgwes just stretch out the ballistic curve a little, but they all travel in an arch.
@@bobclifton8021 - Relatively speaking, faster cartridges flatten that arch out a lot, such that there's no need to hold over or under, if you sight in correctly, out to ~300 yards. Only younger shooters, enamored of adjustable turret scopes, feel otherwise.
Great video! Thanks for making it simple and easy to understand the use of a ballistic calculator for newbies like me.
Without even watching the video, in my experience with several of my rifles, if 30 yards is all you got to zero with and your scope is not extremely low, or extremely high above the barrel, the answer is.. yes.
the norma calculator gives you a trajectory graph witch you can change the inputs to give the perfect passing point through first zero for your calibre
Before making any corrections on the scope I would shoot at least a three shot group. Instead of watching the reticle you can also recalculate the value of one click according to your distance.
Possibly.... the operative word!
Definitely your windage concerns are really on mark here, too!
It depends on the rifle, cartridge, scope and mount height, etc....
For elevation, I typically look for impacts at 25 yards being about 1/4" low.... and maybe dead on at 50 yards....or sometimes a 1/2" high.
@RonSpomer0utdoors thank you!
Ron Spomer is my amazing gift to me AND other readers!!
Thanks!
Art
Last year I zeroed my 270 WSM. a browning a bolt with 130 grain bullets 1" high at 130 yards. I was not expecting to shoot past that distance. .... 2 days later I saw a BIG mountain mule buck at 440 yd. I AIMED 15" over the bucks back and shot him through the heart....
Funny, I seem to be wearing out that same ballistic calculator online just out of curiosity with all sorts of stuff. It's fun; the more you understand about external ballistics the more the numbers make sense and the more you can anticipate what the numbers will reveal or represent.
I zero my ARs with non magnified optics at about 25 yards, I want the bullet to impact 1"-1.5" low at 25. That usually works out to be pretty close to dead on at 100
Good Details adjustment scope. You must be the Dunke Wayne !
A higher scope mount, will increase your Point Blank Distance. In other words, instead of a point blank going 150 yards, it may extend to 180 yards.
Very few seem to understand that,
Point is zero at 40-50 yards and don't look back for game under 250-300 yards if you have a fast bullet with high bc? Great video Ron can't wait to try with my 1917
Lower rings are the proper setup to get a better check weld.
Each caliber has different ballistics. My .308 zeroed at 25 is 1.5” high at 100, back thru zero at 200 and 3” low at 250. I shoot 165g interbonds.
I was in Army and zeroed 308 at 1000 inches using Canadian Bull targets and was taught how to range field target
Having solid ballistic data is the key here and height over bore and then you can zero at any distance you like can be 0.5" high at 50 or 0.5" low at 25 doesnt really matter as long as youve set your MPBR and KZ for the quarry correctly. But you need to reconfirm at distance anyway as soon as you have opportunity as you can find that youve not quite got it right at the close distance a few clicks at 25 yards makes no difference but at 100 yards it can be a fair ways off.
so for this example, instead of finding zero at 35 yards, looks like you could also do it at 25 yards and adjust so impact is 1/2” low, e.g., if you want to figure the elevation clicks in your head
I found when you zero at 25 yards are about 6 inches high with a 30 at six at 100 yards. I’ve also found one you zero at 100 yards your point of aim can be left or right at 200. Imo you want to still want to check your POA to see if it shifts at longer ranges.
I used to zero my rifles at 50 yards. This normally put me 2 inches high at 100 yards, dead on from 185 to 200 yards depending on the cartridges and somewhere between 3 inches to 7 inches low at 300 yards depending on the cartridge.
200 yard zero normally 6-8" low at 300 with most calibers, and 16-18" low at 400...
Hi Ron,
I love your videos and still very much a novice enthusiast of the craft. Just today I went shooting to try and zero my rifle. On a 50 yrd range, I had to aim 9inches low to hit bullseye. The rifle is brand new Christensen Traverse chambered in 6.5 creedmoor. Shooting 125gr. Leupold vx6hd scope. Fresh out the box. I’m stumped. The Leupold only has “up” elevation. No down elevation. The windage was dead on. Elevation was the only issue. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
As usual great show,,,,always useful info.... so lucky to enjoy Ur expertise....
Thank you.
I was always told with GENERAL setups: 2" high at 100. Close at 200. About 6" low at 300. It's close enough for government work with modern bottle neck rifle rounds.
Thank you very much
I zero at 50 yards with everything and the reason is simple for ME and the area where I live. Here in SW Pa I have yet to shoot a whitetail deer at 100 yards. I’m 57 and have YET to shoot at ANY DEER past 60 yards. I have taken a deer every year with a bow, crossbow, or rifle. The fact that I don’t hunt fields and stalk my deer is why.