Why would you not sight in at 100 yards?

[BoltActionBob]

I like to maximize my "point blank range". That means I sight in at range where my bullet will still impact a 10" target for the widest range variation. For example I usually sight in at about 250 yards (260 for my 270wsm) and means I will hit that 10" zone anywhere from 80 yards to about 400 yards. Of course that all varies between rifle, load, and conditions, but you get the idea. So, anywhere between 80 and 400 yards just put the crosshairs in the middle of your vital zone and shoot. You usually know if the target is a little farther or closer than your sight in range so you make small adjustments accordingly. Works for me.

 

[FL_SquirrelHunter]

Why sight in at 200yd instead of 100yd? Windage adjustment, that's all. With mil dot or 1/2 MOA clicks, it's (maybe) a little bit better centering than 100yd. Or maybe just because it feels good to get small groups at longer range with a homegrown load.

I know my hunting shot will not hit exactly where I want, it just doesn't happen. Elevation is not an issue inside MPBR. Since our club has a 200yd range, I use it... before tines in pines tachycardia sets in.

 

[Martyn]

Something that has always perplexed me is why guys will sight in their rifles at 150, 200, 300, etc yards. Why would you not just sight in for 100 yards and learn your drops/elevation adjustments for anything beyond that? In my head, if I sight in for 300 yards I need to remember hold-overs for anything past 300 and hold-unders for anything inside 300 which is seems overly complicated. I'm a sight in at 100 yard guy but I want to understand why you would sight in at a different distance as I feel like I am missing something here.

If you use your rifle for hunting, whatever cartridge, rifle, bullet combination you are use it is quicker to get on for a swift shot that results in a humane kill if you use the MPBR (Maximum Point Blank Range) for your rifle/Ammo combination.
I use 257 Weatherby with 100gr BT Ammo, 270 WSM with 150gr SST's and 300 WinMag with either 180gr Partitions 220gr Sierra round nose for pigs and woods hunting and 208gr for long range as my primary hunting set ups.
Each if these hunting rigs with the exception of the Sierras gives me a point and shoot range of over 300yds with the bullet Staying within 3" of the point of aim throughout that distance which means they are all roughly 3" high at 175yds and 3" low at 300.
If the shot is beyond 300 you generally have time to dial up for the extra range with out spooking the animal so you still get a humane kill providing your a good shot.
Check out https://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_trajectory_table.htm for more info.

 

[FamilyH]

Something that has always perplexed me is why guys will sight in their rifles at 150, 200, 300, etc yards. Why would you not just sight in for 100 yards and learn your drops/elevation adjustments for anything beyond that? In my head, if I sight in for 300 yards I need to remember hold-overs for anything past 300 and hold-unders for anything inside 300 which is seems overly complicated. I'm a sight in at 100 yard guy but I want to understand why you would sight in at a different distance as I feel like I am missing something here.

With most rifles 100 to 300 yards is only a change of up to three inches and that little change is nothing. So you could call that zero as point blank to 300 yards. I do use a heavy duplex scope and I use the point where the cross hair is wider as a longer then 300 yard zero.

 

[antelopedundee]

I thoroughly enjoyed your post! There aren't many of us around! Myself, after lining everything up with the old-timer method of string on the wall, I then sight in whatever rifle for 25 yards. Yup! I said 25 yards! I've found that sighting to 25 yards is good for most calibers to be almost or dead on at 100 yards. If it's a little bit off though, it's much easier and less ammo consuming to do 25 yards then fine tune for 100 yards. Not only that, but it's much more fun to hit that accurately when you start going farther out. Another thing I'm kinda stuck on is researching to find what bullet, load, primer, and even brass that the gun was initially designed around. To me it seems that I'll get that farther out quicker by knowing what the original bullet was used for design of the caliber, because let's face it, that caliber wasn't designed for a rifle first. Often, a bunch of different rifles were used for the cartridge testing even if one was eventually the pick of the litter for fine tuning the caliber. I also pay a lot of attention to what the designers thought which rifle was aces for the particular cartridge. That may just be the rifle I want to get for myself!

Since a bullet's flight path is approximately parabolic there are as you found usually 2 points at which it will be right on. These happen to be at about 25 yds and about 100 yards for a rifle sighted in at 100 yards. It will probable be adequate for 90+% of situations.

 

[Gcan]

QUOTE="SavageHunter11, post: 1630839, member: 100006"]Something that has always perplexed me is why guys will sight in their rifles at 150, 200, 300, etc yards. Why would you not just sight in for 100 yards and learn your drops/elevation adjustments for anything beyond that? In my head, if I sight in for 300 yards I need to remember hold-overs for anything past 300 and hold-unders for anything inside 300 which is seems overly complicated. I'm a sight in at 100 yard guy but I want to understand why you would sight in at a different distance as I feel like I am missing something here.[/QUOTE]

There are a lot of reasons. Here's just one. Its called point-blank.

Ive used two basic methods. Full and half sized kill zones.

The pictures below are for the same gun. Same load with a 100 yrd zero, a 250 yard, a 300 zero and a 327 zero and a 7" kill zone. (The point blank changes with different cartridges/speeds/and the animal being hunted)

Look at the photos.

With a 100 yard zero I can hold center of my target out to 253 yards. I can aim slightly high or low in that zone depending on distance.

But with same gun zeroed at 250 yards my point blank is 323 yards.

A 300 yard zero and my point blank becomes 360 yards.

A 327 zero and I'm point blank to 381 yards. No
No Muss. No fuss. No worries.

I'm not thinking of ups/downs till I'm past my point blank distances. I'm simply ensuring Im within my free fire zone. If you hunt animals that move a lot you can find yourself dithering with a laser and turrets when you should be shooting.

The flatter your gun or the larger your kill zone the farther you can set zero.

The trick is to find the point in your arc where your bullet is the same distance above the line of sight (high) as the kill zone. In this case its 327.
So at 200 yards I'm holding low in the kill zone. At 381 I'm holding top of my 7" circle.

Some people use the above method and hold high or low in the kill area.

Some use the half kill zone method.
Divide the zone by 2.

Now assume you are hunting moose. And you have a 14" kill zone. Using the 7" point blank you can hold center mass out to 381 yards and have a killing shot without thinking.

If you ever find yourself shooting at other than animal situation knowing your point blank distances might work well for you.

 

[Gary kittelson]

I zero at 300. The last four years the shortest shot has been 420 yards longest 620.these were antelope and deer a and b tags. Not exceeding one revolution gets me to 740 yards

 

[J E Custom]

I started hunting over 70 years ago and a lot has changed since I was a young boy with a BB Gun using iron sites. There were no adjusting and the sights mainly gave you a reference point to base you hold on.

Then came adjustable iron sites but still you decided where you wanted the rifle to hit dead center and adjusted the sights accordingly. next came scopes that were fixed power and 4 to 6 power was the norm and with magnification accuracy was greatly improved but was normally limited to 2 to 3 hundred yards.

As rifles, Ammo and scopes got better, the usable/practical distance improved and hunters were no longer held to 1 to 200 yards for accurate, ethical shots on game. then I started shooting NRA Matches at much longer distances using iron sites and learned the value of adjusting the sites for different distances for best accuracy.
With over 25 years of bow hunting I was used to holding over/under
for best hits because we had pin sites for every 10 yards so splitting the distance was the norm.

Once long range hunting came along, there were new challenges for accuracy to over come. I first tried the Maximum point blank range method and found that it worked, but the hits were never as good as i demanded. (The game died, but the hit would /could be off 3 or 4 inches from the desired point of impact.

I then switched to Mill dot scopes for better aiming at greater distance. But the problem was that the game was all different sizes and using the mill dot scope for ranging was still just not accurate enough (For me).

Then along came laser range finders. This realy made a big difference and with modern scopes with good adjustable turrets. the challenge
became more shooter skill. I am just one that gets more satisfaction from near perfect hits than "close enough".

So once I have a rifle that out shoots me and know where each distance is and can adjust the zero for that distance. The rest is up to me. In my opinion the most accurate method no mater what your zero range is, is to make scope corrections for windage and distance,
using all of the tools available.

A note to all new shooters, even with all of the current tools available, they wont make up for a poor shooter, they will only help so practice, practice, practice .

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[Gary kittelson]

Well said jd custom. At the range one day,the guy next to me was getting 3 moa groups with his brand new rifle. He asked if I would shoot it, same results. I told him there can be worse problems. " if a new rifle shoots bugholes , what do you do with the rest of your life?"

 

[B James Rizzo]

When I did an African Safari we had to sight in all rifles at 300 yards. Most of the shots were around that distance. My closest shot was 157 yards on an Impala with my Remington 243. I just aimed right on it an scored a one shot kill. My other 3 kills were with a Winchester 300 mag and were also one shot kills at 265, 317, and 321 yards.

 

[greenejc]

QUOTE="SavageHunter11, post: 1630839, member: 100006"]Something that has always perplexed me is why guys will sight in their rifles at 150, 200, 300, etc yards. Why would you not just sight in for 100 yards and learn your drops/elevation adjustments for anything beyond that? In my head, if I sight in for 300 yards I need to remember hold-overs for anything past 300 and hold-unders for anything inside 300 which is seems overly complicated. I'm a sight in at 100 yard guy but I want to understand why you would sight in at a different distance as I feel like I am missing something here.

There are a lot of reasons. Here's just one. Its called point-blank.

Ive used two basic methods. Full and half sized kill zones.

The pictures below are for the same gun. Same load with a 100 yrd zero, a 250 yard, a 300 zero and a 327 zero and a 7" kill zone. (The point blank changes with different cartridges/speeds/and the animal being hunted)

Look at the photos.

With a 100 yard zero I can hold center of my target out to 253 yards. I can aim slightly high or low in that zone depending on distance.

But with same gun zeroed at 250 yards my point blank is 323 yards.

A 300 yard zero and my point blank becomes 360 yards.

A 327 zero and I'm point blank to 381 yards. No
No Muss. No fuss. No worries.

I'm not thinking of ups/downs till I'm past my point blank distances. I'm simply ensuring Im within my free fire zone. If you hunt animals that move a lot you can find yourself dithering with a laser and turrets when you should be shooting.

The flatter your gun or the larger your kill zone the farther you can set zero.

The trick is to find the point in your arc where your bullet is the same distance above the line of sight (high) as the kill zone. In this case its 327.
So at 200 yards I'm holding low in the kill zone. At 381 I'm holding top of my 7" circle.
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View attachment 133385

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View attachment 133387

Some people use the above method and hold high or low in the kill area.

Some use the half kill zone method.
Divide the zone by 2.

Now assume you are hunting moose. And you have a 14" kill zone. Using the 7" point blank you can hold center mass out to 381 yards and have a killing shot without thinking.

If you ever find yourself shooting at other than animal situation knowing your point blank distances might work well for you.[/QUOTE]
What cartridge/chambering are you using? Just curious.

 

[whirlwindjml]

100 yds. is where I zero. My reasons are twofold:
1). No matter where or what elevation I hunt, if I set my zero at 100 yds., it will be "on" at any elevation. If I set the zero at 200 or beyond, it won't. Real easy to check after long plane rides and idiot baggage handlers.
2). If I set the zero at 100 yds., it is REALLY easy to adjust and true elevation: 400yds = 1" of elevation hold, 800 yds = 2" of elevation hold.
Doesn't mean I can't preset the turret for a 350 yd. quick shot when hunting the Alberta prairie.

This is is true for those dialing scopes. A 200+ yard zero can change day to day and has to be compensated for. The environmental conditions change and so does the zero when the atmosphere changes.
The time of flight on a 100 yard zero is generally so fast that there is no noticeable effect on zero from weather. (Your cheap Tupperware stock could effect it at 100)

If your 200 yard zero is off at 200 yards it will be magnified at 1000.

The maximum point blank range is fine to a point but your accurate range will be reduced for humane shots.

 

[whirlwindjml]

Best I remember Carlos Hathcock, famous sniper in Vietnam if someone didn't know, used a 700yd zero for his Winchester 70 in 30-06. Guess anything under 700yds just aim at their privates. No mil-dots back then. Just a talented country boy from Arkansas.
,

There were a few snipers ive read about doing 600 and 700 yard zero. Then aim chest every shot. At 100 its a chest hold yielding a head shot. At 1000 its a chest hold yielding a shot in the nuts. (Somthing like that) Eitherway its a kill with a 173 grain hollowpoint. The problem is we hunters dont want leg and toe shots.... So maximum point blank range has its limits for meat harvesting.

 

[26Reload]

Figjam said....." sure it may shoot a little high at 10 yards using a 20 yard pin"....

With a bow....at 10 yards...you should be shooting your 40 yard pin......at least that is how I learned at college....and practiced in the winter evenings in my garage...shooting a 1/4" dot.....just make sure you have lots of dots to shoot...and a really good backstop....