100 or 400 yard zero?

[DoubleGobble00]

l would like to know everyone opinion on a 100 vs 400 yard zero. I am currently doing 400 yard zeros on my rifles and verifying the 100 yard elevation (measure inches high and verify windage). My thought is that this puts me about 1/2 way in my drop chart (800 yards is my max hunting) which would minimize error in dialing from 400 to 800 since it reduces the total MOA I have to dial. It also helps minimize error if I mounted my scope off cant.

On the other hand, the 100 yard zero helps eliminate environmental factors (wind, altitude, humidity, etc).

What are your thoughts?

 

[Rich Coyle]

Forgive me for not answering your posted question. I zero at 300.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I zero my hunting rifles at 300y.

Steve

 

[LaHunter]

I zero at 200 yards. I'm not following your line of thinking about reducing error of your dialing if you zero at 400. If you have a reliable laser range finder and a scope that dials consistently, dialing is going to be the most precise vs hold over.
With my 200 yard zero, my poi is nearly 17" low at 400 yards with my 7 mm RM. For me, I will dial every time at that distance and beyond.

 

[memtb]

Forgive me for not answering your posted question. I zero at 300.

We also, zero at 300. As our primary use, is big game hunting, 300 just seems to work better. From muzzle to 400....hold on hair. memtb

 

[NW Hunter]

If you're target shooting, either works.

For a hunting rifle, my thought is 400 yards is too high.
What if an animal steps out at 50 yards on you? IMHO, it is going to be very difficult to put a kill shot on that animal.
I know, long shooters like us like the shortcut on dialing distance or using your reticle.
But while hunting, any situation can happen.
I have a 250 yard zero and I spined my buck at 43 yards. I should have been aiming low.
With a 400 yard zero, he would have been gone at the shot.

 

[DoubleGobble00]

The thought was, if my scope crosshairs are not exactly level/horizontal and my scope did not track perfectly, I could minimize error since I would only have to dial let's say 7 MOA verses 14 MOA if going from 100 yards.

The error in 7 MOA would be less than the 14 MOA if I was off by let's say 10%.

If hunting close range, I use another gun so this is strictly for my "out west" guns.

 

[jlysa145]

For me a 300 yard zero works best for my hunting ranges. It is easy to compensate for closer shots as you will usually be within 2 MOA for most calibers.

Again this is just for my dedicated hunting rifles, for range rifles I keep it at 100 for groups and then dial/hold any range beyond.

 

[Bhobbs78]

The thought was, if my scope crosshairs are not exactly level/horizontal and my scope did not track perfectly, I could minimize error since I would only have to dial let's say 7 MOA verses 14 MOA if going from 100 yards.

The error in 7 MOA would be less than the 14 MOA if I was off by let's say 10%.

If hunting close range, I use another gun so this is strictly for my "out west" guns.

If these are both a thought in my head I wouldn't be taking a shot at 800yds on anything. Just my opinion.

 

[Greyfox]

I have tried various zero's as it relates to LRH(and more recently for PRS) for over 10 years and have settled in 200 yards as the sweet spot. This assumes s consistent rifle/load/scope with valid inputs into a ballistic calculator. Based on my experiences, shooting to 1000 yards, a 200 yard zero has only 5x the error to 1000 yards over the 100 yard zero(10x) that can be induced by parallax/error. Zero's greater then 200 can
"exagerate" error 2-3x due to environmental factors(wind, mirage,etc) a big trade off for the questionable 2-3x benefit gained in distance factoring using the longer range zero. The 200 Yards zero doesn't inhibit you from verification at shorter or longer ranges, and allows more intuitive corrections with shots from point blank range to 1000+ yards. I very rarely have to adjust my 200 yard zero's with standardized set-ups. IMO.

 

[FEENIX]

I zero at 200 yards. I'm not following your line of thinking about reducing error of your dialing if you zero at 400. If you have a reliable laser range finder and a scope that dials consistently, dialing is going to be the most precise vs hold over.
With my 200 yard zero, my poi is nearly 17" low at 400 yards with my 7 mm RM. For me, I will dial every time at that distance and beyond.

Ditto!

 

[FEENIX]

If these are both a thought in my head I wouldn't be taking a shot at 800yds on anything. Just my opinion.

Good point!

 

[Canhunter35]

I zero at 100 then spin it to mpbr usually around 200 when I go out.

 

[DoubleGobble00]

I have tried various zero's as it relates to LRH(and more recently for PRS) for over 10 years and have settled in 200 yards as the sweet spot. This assumes s consistent rifle/load/scope with valid inputs into a ballistic calculator. Based on my experiences, shooting to 1000 yards, a 200 yard zero has only 5x the error to 1000 yards over the 100 yard zero(10x) that can be induced by parallax/error. Zero's greater then 200 can
"exagerate" error 2-3x due to environmental factors(wind, mirage,etc) a big trade off for the questionable 2-3x benefit gained in distance factoring using the longer range zero. The 200 Yards zero doesn't inhibit you from verification at shorter or longer ranges, and allows more intuitive corrections with shots from point blank range to 1000+ yards. I very rarely have to adjust my 200 yard zero's with standardized set-ups. IMO.

Thanks Greyfox... That's was what I was looking for...