SCOPE ZERO FOR OVER 1000 YRDS

West Calamus

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I would like to hear at what distance long range shooters are zeroing their scopes at. Additionally mention if and how much elevated rail you have, I currently shoot with a few of my rifles in the 850 to 1250 yrd range with a 300 yd. zero and no elevation rail. Thanks for your input.
 
Zero at 100 yards and have a 20 minute rail I am not sure about internal elevation of my scope the two I have are night force NXS and an ATACR
Thx Bill, I always appreciate your input Pard. I know I am not working out of the middle of the scope by not having a rail but you know how it is once you set a rifle up at some point you have to stop tinkering with them and save your ideas for the next build. That's my excuse for a need for another setup!
 
You didn't explain why you use a 300 yard zero. Seems like you understand scope capabilities. Most I know run a 20moa or more base(depends) and a 100 yrd zero. The reasoning, we probably have 50-60 days a yr when you could actually get a true zero at 300. Add in atmospheric conditions, variance from zeroing conditions, and you may not have a true zero.
A more radical example, I had a 338 snipetac built, 40 moa base, limited travel scope, so I needed a 600 yrd zero. It was completed mid May, and all summer I never encountered any issues as I shot when it was warm. Come late Oct, things no longer jived, and I am pretty sure it all started with my zero being off. I was done or over owning the rifle and sold it, so I never dug into the issues.
 
100 yards. I shoot from conversational distances to a mile with a bias to the 500-1400yrd range. Outside of really exotic situations there's very rarely any need to have a zero any farther out. I do have one rifle that is set up so that I CAN have a 100yrd or 600yrd or 900yrd or 1400yrd zero and still have ~40MOA of up left but I leave it set up with a 100yrd zero since it gets to as far as I have a place to shoot as is.
 
no particular reason for 300 yd zero other then less dial up by 3 or 4 MOA at 1000 yards. Although I do set my left /right at 100 yrds to mitigate any wind influences. Since primary purpose of my rifles are for hunting It's usually a simple 3 or 4 inch hold under at 100 or 200 yrds. and be in the kill zone. As far as Milo's point on atmospheric conditions affecting POI on scope I will experiment with that on winter vs summer temp's. but then I figure that would be a powder sensitivity issue and I always chrono for MV and adjust accordingly on swings in temp either side of 65 degrees. I am surprised somewhat that everyone so far sets zero for elevation at 100 yds. Neither of my ex's every said I did things the right way. :)
 
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Something I no longer worry about.

Something I no longer worry about.

OOOOH I would love to have that scope but as one of my old buddies said "I live on a fixed income"
 
100 yard zero. There's no reason to zero these types of rifles beyond that.

For really stretching the legs on these rifles, the main reason why you shouldn't zero past 100 yds is due to the environmental variables involved. At 100 yds, the zero is mostly reliant on the scope's ability to retain zero and your rifles ability to make bullets go where it's pointed. You might see wind or other factors affect its impact by 1/4MOA or so, but for the most part, at 100 yds, the bullet is going to go to zero regardless of what's happening around it, what the temperature is, what elevation you're at, what the ding-dongs in Seattle are doing, etc. When you zero at 300+ yards, you're letting all of that stuff in. Wind blows you around, air density starts to count, and if you don't keep perfect track of it then the basis of your ballistics calculator will be flawed because your zero moved for that day.

If you're worried about not having enough elevation range, pour the coals to it and throw a 40+ MOA base on the gun. If you don't have enough down adjustment to get point-of-impact down to point-of-aim at 100yds, then bottom the scope out, come up a minute off the hard stop, and let it group 5", 6", 10" high or wherever it falls, and then get it centered up for windage. Most ballistics calculators have an input for zero offset for this exact reason. You just want to be absolutely sure where your gun is impacting in a vacuum, and the closest you can get to that in our real world is 100 yds.
 
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