Anyone sight in there scope like this?

[Slideshow86]

I was reading somthing that was talking about rangefinders, how some people use them and some dont. But with there accuracy there isnt any reason not to. It was also talking about estimating distance/yardage and how tricky it is. He was saying when sighting in a scope you can,

-Sight in, on rest dead on center at 100 yards, Depending on caliber you aim "x" amount hight at 200 yards or "x" amount hight at 300yards.

Or you can try

-Sight in, on rest 3" high at 100 yards, Depending on your caliber your bulled will drop to a few inches high at 200yards and a few inches low at 300 yards.

The first way you will need to estimate how many yards it is and how high you need to aim. Aiming too high and miss judging distance results in a miss.

With the second way you just point aim and shoot (if 300 yards or closer). With this way, all hits are in the kill zone (depending on caliber)

What do you guys do?



My scope has BDC So I will be sighting in to use that and a range finder but I was very interested as a range finder isnt always available and estimating yardage is difficult.

[rasbo]

at 100 2 inches high for my big guns..

[bonecrusher]

all my rifles are high at 100 and just about nuts at 200 if not still just a little high. i know im good all the way to 300 holding dead on with the way ive got um set up. dont make it harder than it has to be  

[wrangler]

my point of impact is always 2-3" high at 100yds for nearly all my hunting rifles.

[Jerry malbeck]

What you are refering to is max point blank range .
If you use a ballistic calculator knowing your

ballistic coefficient
bullet weight
height of scope above barrel
muzzle velocity
altitude and temp
 you can run a point blank range calculation and find the best zero for that caliber and bullet weight.
here is a example
223 with 52 gr. h.p. velocity 3250 . max point blank range is 297 yrds when zeroed @ 257 yrds.
this will put you no more then -1.2@ 25 yrds to - 5.5 inches@ 300 yrds.
that is how i zero my coyote rigs , when you do it this way you can hold fur from 25 to 300 yrds and make a  connecting shot .

[Galpster]

I as well sight my rifle high at 100 yds. I sight in at 25yds dead on. With a 30.06 this will put you in the kill zone out to 300 yds.

[Woodchuck]

 

[Bofire]

 ! Jerry knows everythign!
and he is correct again.
Carl

[MikeWalking]

when zeroed @ 257 yrds.

Zeroed at 257 yards, is that what you meant to say?    I've zeroed several M16's at 25m and had about 5in drop at 300...

All the rifles I've had, except the .22LR's, have been zeroed to hit 2-3in high at 100yds.

[Jerry malbeck]

223 with 52 gr. h.p. velocity 3250 . max point blank range is 297 yrds when zeroed @ 257 yrds.
 that IS what i said LOL. If you read my post it says youll be 5.5 inches low at 300 yrds.
you can get pretty much the same effect if you zero @ 50 with a 223.
Hold overs are a guessing game and that is one game i really suck at .
That is my reason for sighting for MPB range .
whever i tried to hold over i usually missed , its way to hard for me to judge range
( I really suck at that) and when i sight a gun in at 2 to 3 inches high at 100 i end up missing as most of my coyotes are taken at 50 or less. ( tight ground i guess)
Here are the numbers for the MPBR I posted above , youll see why i favor it as your always going to hit fur
Yards        Path
25             -1.2
50             -0.1
75             0.8
100            1.4
125            1.8
150            1.8 not a misprint
175            1.6
200            1.0
225            0.0
250           -1.4
275           -3.2
300           -5.5 effective max range of a 223 in my oppinion .
MPBR is 297 sighted @ 257 i sighted @ 225 for my needs .
Hope this makes it easier to understand , Jerry .
I guess i should have added , I think in all my years of calling i can only remember shooting 2 coyotes past 100 yrds , so i dont really have allot of exp. with 300 yrd stuff.

Carl , I dont know everything , Yet , still trying to figure out my wife , she is kinda like a coyote , just when i figure i know it all she changes the rules .  
 
  

[shaneman153D]

I do the same, zero to MPB range.  If you want to know what yours is, go to http://www.biggameinfo.com/index.aspx?page=/balcalcadv.ascx and punch in your info.  Under the "preferences" tab, enter what you want in "Vital zone radius".  This will determine the parameters of the MPB range.  I have mine set at 2", so that out to 247yds the bullet will stay +/- 2" elevation if sighted in at 215yds.  3" is probably pretty good for coyotes but I'm not one of those that thinks coyotes aren't deserving of a clean kill.

The program is also pretty good at calculating drop if you use target turrets and a range card.  I suck at holdover so I do the turret thing.

Also, if you're limited to 100yds at your shooting range, you can determine how high at 100 you should be for that MPB range.  I always zero to this number first, then take the long walk to verify.

[Caseyd]

Thanks for the link Shane

[MikeWalking]

when zeroed @ 257 yrds.

For a sec there I had an image of you pacing off 257 yards to set up your target. Which after a nights sleep following a 16hr shift now doesn't sound so odd...

[Jerry malbeck]

It all seems alot clearer after sleep , been there done that .

[Intruder]

Max point blank range is something I often find folks to misunderstanding and subsequently, not using.  IMO if a guy isn't adhering to some form of sighting to this standard, they are vastly underutilizing high powered rifles and good optics.  The quick and dirty way to to achieve it is use the ol' 2" high at a 100 yrds formula.  As Jerry pointed out, w/ a balistic calc you can get more exact. 

The concept allows you to achieve the most performance out of your gun/round without having to compensate... hold high or low.  Most big game formulas try to achieve a + or - 3" variance.  Meaning out to a certain range, if you are aiming dead on, the bullet will not hit higher or lower than 3". 

For example... say a 300 mag shooting a 180 bullet at 3000 fps.  Max point blank range will be about 290 yards when the gun is zeroed in dead on at 250.  Translation... any shot between 0 and 290, just aim and shoot.  No need to worry about hold over etc.  At 100 yard you'd be hitting about 2.5" high.

Here's a nifty trick to allow you even more versatility.  Assuming you're already sighted in to achieve max point blank range and you use a standard heavy duplex scope.  You actually have a "long range" sight point on the bottom of the vertical cross hair where it goes from thick to thin.  Just do some messin around at the range to determine yardage where that point shoots and you'll be set using you standard crosshair out to max point blank and then the other point for longer shots.  Obviously scopes w/ multipe aim points you can do this for each.  I'd still dial in on max point blank for the regular crosshairs though.     

[carpsniperg2]

alot of info on here, most my guns are 1/2-1" high at 100 some of my flater shooting guns are dead on at 100.

[Slideshow86]

Yep alot of good info. I just picked up a range finder and am getting a much better feel for distance.

Now I need to figure out my Max point blank range and sight my rifle in using the BDC circles my scope has.

[Jerry malbeck]

Interesting, its always nice to learn sompthing new , thank you for the tip .

[Pathfinder101]

I don't have a BDC Scope.  My .270 is 2.5 inches high at 100, 3 inches high at 200, dead on at 255 and 3 inches low at 300.  Same as was stated in the post starting the thread, anything between point-blank and 300 yards with a vital zone 6 inches high, I can just hold dead-on and hit lung somewhere...
A lot of this is just knowing and shooting your gun enough to know where it hits.

[jasnt]

i sight mine in high   i use hornady rounds wich give muzzle vilocetys and dropage and diff. yadages
i sight in acording to there recomendations. works well for me

[Intruder]

alot of info on here, most my guns are 1/2-1" high at 100 some of my flater shooting guns are dead on at 100.

First... let me say that a guy has to do what he has confidence in and what he's comfortable with.... no right or wrong.  But just for the sake of argument lets use your flat shooting example sighted in at 100 vs max point. 

Assumptions: 300 mag, 180 grn w/ high BC bullet, 3250 fps..... pretty flat shooting round.

- sighted in dead on at 100 it'd be 3.5" low at around 225 yards... meaning you'd have to start compesating for hold over around 220 give or take.  It'd be 11" low at 320.   

- sighted in at max point blank, it'd be dead on at 275 and you could shoot out to about 320 yards without compensating.  It'd be 11" low at 405.   

Sighting in to max point blank allows ya to take full potential out of a gun.  The flatter shooting the bigger effect.   

[Shootmoore]

I sight my scopes in dead nuts @100 yds not because it is better but I have an easier time doing the math in my head for longer shots.

I sight my AR and CAR's iron sights in @50yds dead nuts.  Also easier for me to do the math in my head from 5 yds to 250yds.

Is it the best way?    But it works for how my mind works I guess.  I would suggest that you do it the same with any scopes and any iron sights as you don't have to remember which one is which (ie now is this gun 1" @100 or 2" @100.  Other than that what works for you is what I would do.

Shootmoore

[dontgetcrabs]

1" high at 100 yds for me.

[Lowedog]

Another calculator for ya!
http://www.handloads.com/calc/

[Pathfinder101]

OK, I have never done MPBR before.  That was pretty cool.  I punched in the info for my .270 and for my boy's new .308.  Got a MPBR of 304 yds, zeroed at 259 yds for my gun, and 276 yds zeroed at 234 yds for my son. 
I am going to try this out next time I am at the range. 
Pretty cool, thanks...

[VarmintVentilator]

Just buy a Zeiss Conquest rapid Z 600 or 800 that ends all this guess work.  I have one for each gun,  because I'm not a math guy.