Sighting Zero at what distance ???

[Topshot]

Originally Posted by digisol

For answering the OP's original question, whatever "zero" you choose is of no real consequence, a hunting shooter chooses a particular zero so they shoot 2.5" high at 100yds and 2.5" low at 400yds, .....

digisol,
Not too many hunters on this site shoot this way. Most dial up from a set Zero.


.25 MOA
Down here in Victoria we can shoot on public land like State forest.
I have access to both private land on my own property and nearby state forest land. Where I can shoot out past 2000 yards.

[Michael Bent]

when i zero my scope i look at the bullets trajectory and the purpose of the gun and then go from there. I find the point at which the bullet stops "rising" and begins to "fall" in it trajectory and then go away from that point about 100 yards further to a set distance that i then zero at. for my 7mm rem mag with a 168 berger bullet that is at 200 yards.

This works for me because i am a hunter and sometimes have to take shorter ranged shots on animals reasonably quickly and don't always have much time to dial a scope and range the distance. so by zeroing at 200 i have a window from about 75 out to 250 in which the bullet is within a 3 in. window above or below my cross hair. because i am hunting Deer, Elk, and other big game a 3 in error is ok for me in a guick shot.

But a 200 yard zero also gives me just a little more room for turret adjustment as well as the turret is always adjusted upwards.

But the post above is right, most everyone on this site shoots to hit exactly where they shot and when you are shooting very far at all you must be shooting that way because even on most big game at long range errors grow exponentially.

In my opinion i like a zero that allows me a window of about 200 yards or so at a reasonably short range in which i know the bullet is shooting reasonably flat.
this is mainly because most of my shooting is done in the 50-250 yard range with shots every once in a while out to 800 yards. this means that the optimal zero for me is one that covers almost my entire normal shooting window. Then on the longer shots i dial and shoot to hit exactly where i am aiming not expecting to even hit the hair 1 in away from where the cross hairs are.