Zeroing you guns?

[Native Hunter]

I was friends with a guy who worked at a big sporting good store in KY. They would bore sight rifles for free. He said the night before gun season opened there would be a line of people 75 yards long bringing their guns in to get bore sighted so they could hunt the next day.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I was friends with a guy who worked at a big sporting good store in KY. They would bore sight rifles for free. He said the night before gun season opened there would be a line of people 75 yards long bringing their guns in to get bore sighted so they could hunt the next day.

“Sportsman” “hunting is conservation”

And I’m flabbergasted by what I see volunteering at public sight-in day the weekends leading up to season. Bore sighting is worse.

 

[Telemark]

No, I haven't, but everything I hear about them is good. Do you shoot them?

PS - I have been loading the 150 grain Hornady SSTs in my 308 Win Rifles, and I'm happy with them.

I've used them for 3 seasons in my 308. Most precise bullet I've ever shot. I came upon it by accident because the sporting goods chain where I buy ammo in Norway started carrying Black Hills instead of Federal. I'll probably just keep using this ammo in that rifle as long as it's available. Black Hills also has a load with Accubond bullets, but those aren't as precise in my rifle. The ELD-X is the closest thing to a "magic bean" I've ever found in the shooting/hunting world.

 

[Wild Thing]

I zero all modern centerfire rifles with 2600 fps+ muzzle velocities at 100 yards, even my dedicated long range rifles. The reason is at 100 yards you are unlikely to be materially impacted by atmospheric conditions and wind like you will at farther distances and thus you are less likely to impart an error in your zero from the range conditions at a given time. If I wanted to set a scope up for a maximum point blank range (which i'm not a fan of), i'd just add the desired elevation adjustment to a 100 yard zero.

This - Everything is zeroed at 100 yards.

 

[Barndog56]

I typically use 2 different rifles depending on where I'm hunting. My stand on public overlooks a marsh where I can see up to 1,000 yards. I won't shoot farther than about 250. Even at that distance, finding a deer that far from the stand, when everything looks the same, is no easy task. Even worse if it doesn't drop in it's tracks or leave a nice blood trail. Most of the deer I've harvested there have been within 100 yards anyway. So that rifle, a Marlin .308, is zeroed at 100.

For drives or hunting at the house I'm using my AR in .300 blackout, so zero that at 50 yards.

I've got 50 and 100 yard targets set up at the house, but don't seem to shoot as much as I thought I would.

 

[b116757]

I go in spurts with the shooting myself. I’ve got a range at the house and one at the old farm been around a couple years since we have done much long range at the farm we did go shoot Wednesday evening for a couple hours. It definitely gave me the bug to start shooting agian and the fact that I finally scored some primers has help my reloading attitude. There for a while I and my shooting buddies where pretty reluctant to shoot up our stashes of components not knowing if or when we could replenish them.

 

[Turkish]

This is consistent kill zone zeroing for hunting 250 yards and in. So you aim dead on and will hit within the kill zone of a deer without worrying about holdovers.

1 inch to right at 100 is 1 moa accuracy and is better than most can shoot at any time. If you’re doing long distance competitions, that “may” be an issue. If not, that’s perfectly adequate for any hunting situation you would encounter.

The 25/200 is a rough guess that on at 25 is on at 200. You can always actually shoot at 200 yards and fine tune if needed.

While I respectfully disagree with much of what you’ve said, I mainly want to know are you ONLY shooting your rifle at 25 yards? Forget “zeroing;” are you “practicing” at greater distances? If so, why not “zero” at those? That will facilitate box-checking precision AND accuracy of rifle, optic, ammo, and, most importantly, self! Why even play with 25 yards? Bore sighting is no less effective.

 

[Angus 1895]

25 yards gives less wear and tear on your shoes compared to 100-200.

But it is no replacement for stretching her out to get it dialed in. IMO

Good Hunting

 

[Mortenson]

Always did 100 for our slug guns. Hit paper at 25 then hopefully breeze past 50. BTW I see a couple places are selling 3" accutips in 20 gauge right now, albeit for $25+ per 5. Searched for 3 yrs to finally find them now. Will keep one 20 gauge in the rotation for the time being.

 

[Angus 1895]

I have enjoyed the savage 220 for a slug gun.

Has anyone had the 12 ga model?

 

[Wild Thing]

I haven't let anyone mount a scope for me or bore sight a scope for me in many years. There is something to be said about the adage that says "If you want something done right...do it yourself"

I purchased a new (to me) used Savage .204 from a buddy of mine at the beginning of the year. He had purchased it new but had only fired 23 rounds through the barrel. He gave me the 23 empty cartridge cases along with the other 17 factory bullets in the second box and a third full box of 40 grain factory ammo. I didn't want the scope he had on it so I only bought the rifle from him. When Vortex Optics had a special sale on their Veterans VIP sales for Memorial Day (50% off MSRP), I purchased a 6-24X50 Viper HS-T with MOA reticle. The scope included a free 4" sun shade and I also ordered a rail and rings for it at 50% off. They even sent me a free T-shirt.


Yes, you do need to buy a few tools in order to do it yourself, but once you've bought them you can use them forever on your guns, as well as your family and friends guns.


Once the base/s is installed and you know the bottom rings are aligned you can lap the rings to ensure a tight fit...




Once the scope is mounted and all of the screws are torqued I went out to my 100 yard range, and stapled up a lot of white paper with a 1" sharpie mark in the middle. I then removed the bolt and sighted my eyeball through the bore, moving the reticles until I felt that the paper was close to being centered in the scope as well as the bore...


Here is my 2-shot zero. The first shot was low and right. I left the rifle in the rest without moving it, and carefully moved the reticles until they were on the hole made by the first shot. The second shot was at 12 o-clock pretty much where I wanted it to start my load development.


Whether or not you believe there is any merit to barrel "break-in", I decided I would go ahead and do it. Depending upon who you believe, a rifle barrel isn't in its sweet spot until you have fired 100-200 rounds through it anyway. I also wanted to use up the factory ammo so I could use those casings for my reloads. I used the break-in suggested by Savage which is a whole lot of cleaning (about 40 rounds) with many cleaning intervals in between. For me, I am satisfied that it works as I have seen no copper fouling in this rifle at all.


Once I found the powder charge that the barrel liked, I went to work testing different bullet seating depths in order to tighten up the groups. I still need to tinker with it some but I needed to get some ammo loaded up for a prairie dog hunt so these last 2 sub .5 MOA groups had me dialed in enough to start loading... These are 3/4" dots at 100 yards.

Disclaimer - My load of 26.0 grains of RE 10X is actually a little above the max SAAMI load, but I started my load development at a much lower powder charge and worked my way up to this charge and found no signs of pressure, so I know this load is safe in my rifle with the cartridge case, primer and bullet I selected. YMMV - Always start low and work your way up, while looking for signs of pressure.


After loading up about 500 rounds for the new .204 and my .22-250 I was ready to head to South Dakota


I had two back-to-back strings of shooting 9/10 prairie dogs - so I killed 18 out of 20 - all between 250-400 yards with the new rifle. No, I haven't shot 500-1,000 yards with it yet and probably never will, but it works well for what I bought the rifle for so I am happy, and....I had no disappointments because somebody else didn't mount or bore sight the scope for me.

 

[rusty1034]

Beautiful rifle.

 

[Wild Thing]

Beautiful rifle.

Thanks Rusty - It is probably about 20 years old? Savage Model 12 VLP (Varmint Low Profile). It has a 26 inch bull barrel and laminated wood stock. I set the Accu-Trigger as low as I could get it - slightly under 2# and I did just a little bit of sanding in order to free float the barrel, and then sealed up the wood again. With the Vortex scope I mounted on it - it weighs in right around 12 1/2 # - not something you want to carry around on predator hunts but perfectly suited for shooting prairie dogs off of a bench, which is all I plan to use it for.

 

[Wild Thing]

BTW - This is the barrel break-in procedure I used:



I doubt if I will shoot it enough to burn out the barrel but I decided that I would keep track of the number of shots fired through the barrel anyway. I am now a little over 400 rounds down range with it.

 

[Wild Thing]

I like my guns to shoot groups of 1.5" or better at 100 yards. Most decently made rifles will shoot a decent size group with just a little tweaking around.....so why not make an accurate shot? Here in MN we seldom take shots over 100 yards....but you never know. I've got a few areas where a 250 yard or better shot is possible. I'd hate to have a 200+ yard opportunity at the "buck of a lifetime" (or any deer for that matter).....and have a gun that does not shoot a decent group. Confidence in shooting goes a long way toward killing critters cleanly.

Mostly, I have been using a single shot Henry Rifle in 308 Winchester the past two seasons.... 'cause it's accurate enough and compact and easy to carry....but sometimes I haul a heavy barrel 25-06 Savage into the stand. That Savage is capable of any range I got....and because it's so heavy the sights settle quickly and it's easy to shoot well. Normally I will take a high shoulder shot.....as I do not like tracking deer......but I'm not opposed to whatever decent shot placement presents itself. I lose little desireable meat with decent bullet placement. Also, we want to continue hunting our relatively small property.....and that goes much better if you drop the deer in it's tracks......and then gut the animal out back at camp (which we do). We haul our deer in a small trailer and then lift them on our "buck pole" before gutting 'em out. Works slick.

High Shoulder Shot On Deer - TACTEC

When it comes to deer hunting, head shots or heart / lung shots have been to priority, more recently though, one of the most popular methods is known as the high shoulder shot. This involves aiming higher up on the animal’s shoulders in order to take it down, just around the area of it’s spine, […]

www.tactec.com

We have been using the "Brachial Plexus" shot on most of the better bucks we shoot for the past 20+ years. It does ruin some shoulder meat but, as you say, if you don't want to take a lung shot and maybe have the deer run over onto a neighboring property, the BP shot is what we use. They just pull up all fours and drop on their chin.

 

[Wild Thing]

Have you tried ELD-X bullets?

My son and my wife are both shooting ELD-X bullets in their Browning X-Bolts in 6.5 Creedmoor. Both shoot 1-hole groups with them.



143 grain Hornady ELD-X bullets, Hornady Cartridge cases, H4350 powder and CCI-200 LR primers...


My son's Day 1 group with 41.2 grains of H4350 at 100 yards.


They have both had good success effectively killing deer with these loads.

 

[Mozark]

I must be the only one to have bad luck with eld-x bullets. I purchased a box of precision hunter ammo for my 300 win, they were awesome on accuracy, best factory ammo ever. I shot one buck with them at 150 yards, through the heart! The buck ran over 100 yards after the shot, no worries, I saw him go down. There was no blood on the ground and hardly any on the deer. I was a huge fan of their tipped bullets, v-max started that love. I have no explanation for what happened with that particular deer, he was very heavy for where I live in the ozarks. I will always hunt with a tipped bullet because of V-Max.

DISCLAIMER:I NOW WORK FOR A COMPETITOR,

 

[drycreek]

My .280 Rem is zeroed to 1.5” high at 100 yards. My .375 Win is zeroed at 100 yards. If I had longer distances to shoot, I would zero the .280 Rem 2”” or 2.5” high at 100 yards.

 

[Turkish]

My son and my wife are both shooting ELD-X bullets in their Browning X-Bolts in 6.5 Creedmoor. Both shoot 1-hole groups with them.

View attachment 55862

143 grain Hornady ELD-X bullets, Hornady Cartridge cases, H4350 powder and CCI-200 LR primers...
View attachment 55863

My son's Day 1 group with 41.2 grains of H4350 at 100 yards.
View attachment 55861

They have both had good success effectively killing deer with these loads.

Let’s see some 5-shot groups!!

 

[Foggy47]

Let’s see some 5-shot groups!!

Some years back.....I had no faith in Hornady brass (Frontier). It was not a good choice 15 to 20 + years ago. Now, it seems that Hornady has upped it's game considerably in recent years as I hear so many good things on their brass providing decent ammo. (They always did make decent hunting bullets, but when it came to brass....there were too many inconsistencies.). Kudo's to Hornady, if that is the case (pardon the pun). I guess I got all the brass I need now....but I'm glad Hornady is now perceived as a quality product....as they are good people....and good for our common interests.
(you owe me a beer for this plug ....if you see this Jason.....grin.).