Zeroing new rifle

david1976

Well-Known Member
A quick question.

When sighting in a new rifle, if a bullet strikes 1 inch high at 100 yards, where will it strike at 30 yards?

The reason I ask is I took my new rifle to a gunshop who supposedly sighted it for me so it would be near enough on target at 100 yards.

Turned out it was shooting about 3 feet to the left and i ended up wasting 19 bullets sorting it to hit the target which was about A3 in size.

Scope is spot on I took it from my old rifle so i know its not that.

Went to the gunshop ( a different one) to buy more bullets and im going to zero it tomorrow. Just want to know so i can waste less bullets tomorrow.

cheers

david
 
I once saw a "Gunshop" owner twiddling the turrets on a customers rifle and commenting that will take him a box of bullets.

Not on my xmas card list.
 
Dave, set up your rifle on bags or bipod & rear support of some kind, look down the barrel from the breech end & set up rifle so you can see the target, now without moving the rifle with your body, look through the scope, if you are on paper your reticle should be fairly close to central on 100yds.
 
Try this.
Bore sight the rifle first. set the rifle up on a steady rest so that you can remove the bolt and look down the bore at an object about 100m away (a brick is somewhere near the right size) now without moving the rifle, look down the scope and adjust the scope so the cross hairs are on the object. have another look down the bore to make sure nothing has moved.

Stage 2,
set up your target at 100m, get the rifle as steady as possible (a rear bag really helps here) then fire a shot at the target. If you are confident that the rifle has returned to rest in the same place (the cross hairs should be where they were before you fired) then adjust your scope so the cross hairs now coencide with a point 1" below your first bullet hole (without moving the rifle). If you do this correctly you can get zeroed with about 3 rounds.
 
Hi Dave
Fiinnbear is right bore sight it first.
Pick any distance above 25 yards and up to 100 yards.
I tend to go for 100yards with a 3 inch circle and if your scope cross hairs and when looking down the barrel look to match then you will hit the paper and you can go from there.
Regards the 30yard question it will vary a little but rule of thumb is that the trajectory of a bullets POI is the same at 25 yards and 100 yards but that can vary with scope height etc

Good look

Smithy
 
Cheers folks, I am confident the rifle is stable as I have one of the following to use:

http://images.cabelas.com/is/image/cabelas/s7_226686_imageset_01?$main-Medium$

I will have a go at the bore sighting and hopefully get it right so i can get out stalking :)
 
finnbear270 said:
Dave, set up your rifle on bags or bipod & rear support of some kind, look down the barrel from the breech end & set up rifle so you can see the target, now without moving the rifle with your body, look through the scope, if you are on paper your reticle should be fairly close to central on 100yds.

Works every time. I did this with a new Howa in the box...2 shots to bull. Check the obvious screws etc, it only takes one, I've done that as well !
 
When I've had to do the boresighting thing, I've used a 2' square white card (with an aiming mark in the centre) as the target, which I found very easy to centre down the bore.

Once the crosshair and the bore are both centred on it, I've never failed to get a single shot aimed at the mark onto the card, from which position two more shots max should get the POI where you want it.

The very valid point has been made that the position of the crosshair and the bore on target should be checked before taking the first aimed shot. When moving the crosshair onto the hoped-for POI while looking down the bore, the adjustments of the scope become rather confusing (to me, anyway :oops: )
 
A small point, it might be worth centering the cross-hairs in the scope before bore sighting (the scope's instruction manual will tell you how - usually wind the turret fully one way then back a specified number of clicks). That way you'll get an idea of how "out of true" the scope and barrel are.

Andrew
 
bore sight

Perhaps I'm just tight but I do the bore sighting and then shoot at a BIG target from 30m. As soon as I am an inch or two from bull I switch out to 100m and all is well. difference between 100m and 30m is never much.
 
Well I have just checked over my rifle/scope/mounts to make sure everything was tight and the scope rings were not tightened, each one took about 1/2 or 3/4 turn to tighten up.

I cant believe the gunsmith did not check his when he supposedly zeroed scope for me! :evil:

As a seperate question entirely, with my previous rifle, I zeroed my rifle at 100 yards with a 2 inch square. I had the bullet touch the top of the square so I knew it was 1 inch high.

New bullets according to the box if zeroed at 100 yards are dead on and this means at 200 yards they will be -3.3 inches. Does this mean at 100 yards it should be just over 1.5 inches high - half the distance drop at 200 yards?
 
zeroing

Hi
I use the 'maximum point blank method' see below for a better explanation, but do your own research on it. Don't get too concerned with long-range target or sniper methods, they are not for shots at game.

'Most folks zero their rifles for too short a range which severely handicaps them should a target appear at longer range. The key to determining a good zeroing range is to first decide on what size the "vital area" of the target is. Most shooters use 6 inches for this measurement. Thus the best zero range is one that will allow you to hit inside that area over the greatest distance by holding to its center without the bullet passing above or below the area (in this case ± 3 inches)'.

http://www.frfrogspad.com/zeroing.htm
 
david1976 said:
New bullets according to the box if zeroed at 100 yards are dead on and this means at 200 yards they will be -3.3 inches. Does this mean at 100 yards it should be just over 1.5 inches high - half the distance drop at 200 yards?

No, it means that if you zero your rifle at 100 yards and your mean point of impact coincides with your point of aim, then if you aim straight at a target which is 200 yards away the bullet strike will be 3.3 inches below where you are aiming.

That's why most folk zero their rifles to shoot 1.5 inches high at 100 yards - you can still aim 'dead on' at an animal out to 200 yards and the impact will only be about an inch & a half low at that distance.
 
One more thing for you to check out Dave, as you have been shooting with slack scope fixings, have you looked at the reticle with the rifle in your shoulder? does it have any cant in the scope? if you have even the smallest amount of off perpendicular, the further you shoot the worse your defect will be. try a small spirit level across the turret cap & look at the rear bridge.
 
finnbear270 said:
One more thing for you to check out Dave, as you have been shooting with slack scope fixings, have you looked at the reticle with the rifle in your shoulder? does it have any cant in the scope? if you have even the smallest amount of off perpendicular, the further you shoot the worse your defect will be. try a small spirit level across the turret cap & look at the rear bridge.

Cheers I will do, I have a small level in the garage ill check it out. whats the rear bridge?
 
If you don't have a level find some thing like the corner of a building (preferably unoccupied :lol: ) or a window casement do the same thing as boresighting, look at a rightangle as described & then look at the rifle to check for vertical attitude of the action, no buildings or rightangles to look at, all you have left is the horizon or get a level.
 
zeroing a new rifle

First of all you need to make shure your scope is not canting, espcialy if the rings have been losened for any reason.go to your garage workshop and fix your gun somewhat level in a position that you can see easily through scope and down the barrel, from the breach with the bolt outplace a white a4 sheet so that it can bee seen through both barrel and scopealternatly look through one then the other and you will observe if the crsoss hair or vertical post is pointing through the center line of the bore, rotate scope until reticle is pointing through centre line of bore,, walla you have eliminated cant of your scope.

Now for the scottish bit, zero your rifle with one round..

Go to the range with a realy good rest or portable vice.

set up the rifle in rest scope adjuster caps of , bolt out, place a4 shett between 25 and 28 yards away, this point of impact will result in a down range point of impact of between 180 and 210 yards, you will of corse check this latter, in the midle of the a4 you will have a one inch circle black orange ect as long as it is easily observed,looking through the bore centre the circle then, making sure no movement ocurrs, adjust your cross hair onto the circle.

you are now in the zone, now with the rifle held in your normal shooting possition take all the time you want and fire one shot carfully aiming at the circle.
after the one shot put rifle back in the rest vice and set it wit the cross hair on the circle keeping the rifle very firmly in place adgust your crosshair so that it is exactly on the bullet hole that you shot earlier.

Walla one shot Scottih zeroing, you will of course confirm at longer ranges that this is the case!.

Sometimes us oldies know a thing or two.

Good shooting, dry powder.

Barry Thom
 
Dave,

I have the same rest. I find that, particularly on the bigger calibers, the front elevation adjustment screw can move after a shot. Helps if you really wind in the locking screw, and check that the unthreaded part of the turret is seated correctly. I would save you the dozen bullets it cost me to discover that .

ATB

Hugh
 
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