100 yards or metres zero ?

It won't make a difference for your test, at 100 yards / metres you're splitting hairs. Just make sure you know your aim point / hold over for the close range dispatch (head) shot.

When it comes to zero distance, personally I don't like my bullet to pass more than 1.5cm above my line of sight, I either dial or use a mill reticule to hold over when required. In my experience this reduces the margin for error significantly, especially for head shooting.

Not so relevant to your test but: I have often taken guests that claim they are confident and competent to take shots at 250m+, the same people are happy with a 100m zero that is a few cm out (3-7 cm in some cases both horizontal and/or vertical) saying, it's good enough for stalking/ chest shooting, and at 100m they'd be right, and 250m they'd be very wrong.

I'd say do all you can to make sure your zero is cock on and know your dope. When you do your test you may have more adrenaline than you ever did / will in front of a 14 point red, despite shooting in team competitions, finals, exiting rut and other hunting experiences my heart rate and shakes were worse on the DSC1 test than anywhere else. I passed with plenty a margin but plenty of people that usually shoot very well were right on the edge of the kill zone and if their zero was out a couple of cm in the same direction it wouldn't have been so great.

No need to play fair, use the best grouping lowest recoiling rifle you have with the best ammo & practice the 10m shot

And don't stress you'll be fine ;)
 
Pick one, stick with it, and make sure all your kit works in the same units. Meters and Mils, Yards and MOA. Range finder, Turrets, Reticule and shot solution calculator (Strelok or the like) all need to work in the same units to make your life simple. Mix them up and you have a lot of calculations to do.
Above does make sense. However I am now mixed race. I started of with range finder that worked in yards or metres. I always had it set on yards and used moa scopes so all was good until I was issued with range finder that on worked in metres. At first I used to convert metres into yards but this all took time so decided to find out moa adjustments for the metres. It does work but can be a problem when using a ballistic program that doesn't mix and match.

To the op. 100 m or yards zero doesn't really matter until stretching the distance from that zero reference
 
As some have already mentioned the shortest range is the part of the test that could possibly cause the most problems for shooters taking the revised test.
If I were to take the shooting test today I wouldn't be at all concerned about the 100M and 70M segment but I would get a few rounds of practice in before hand on the shortest range just to confirm that I was familiar with my aim point.
 
10% smaller, a 1 moa target is 1” at 100 or 2” at 200. 100% bigger at 100% extra distance.

The new despatch test sounds interesting, 10 yards with a fixed 8x56 people are probably better off looking down the side of the barrel

The old target, viewed from 100 yards, was 19.7% larger in area than the new one, viewed from 100 metres. In area. Which is what counts, not the linear dimension.
 
Its useful to look where the centre of the roe target zone is, so you know where your point of aim should be.
You might shoot a good group in your normal aiming point which might be on the edge of the target "kill" zone.
 
I always zero British or (most) American calibres at 100 yards with the exception of the 6mm Remington or 7mm Remington Magnum that I zero (as I do with all continental European calibres) at 100 metres.

\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/

But only if the date I am zeroing on is 1 April!
 
None of the above. Every centrefire rifle I own except my 308/222 bock drilling is sighted in for 200m. To save me time for the bock drilling because I need to regulate two barrels it was spot on at 181m so I left it there.

Using swaro FFP scopes and 1cm per 100m clicks makes all metric simple.

If you want to know the difference between 100m and 100 yards (91m) get some targets out and start shooting offhand. That will show you quickly how much that extra 9m makes.
 
It won't make a difference for your test, at 100 yards / metres you're splitting hairs. Just make sure you know your aim point / hold over for the close range dispatch (head) shot.

When it comes to zero distance, personally I don't like my bullet to pass more than 1.5cm above my line of sight, I either dial or use a mill reticule to hold over when required. In my experience this reduces the margin for error significantly, especially for head shooting.

Not so relevant to your test but: I have often taken guests that claim they are confident and competent to take shots at 250m+, the same people are happy with a 100m zero that is a few cm out (3-7 cm in some cases both horizontal and/or vertical) saying, it's good enough for stalking/ chest shooting, and at 100m they'd be right, and 250m they'd be very wrong.

I'd say do all you can to make sure your zero is cock on and know your dope. When you do your test you may have more adrenaline than you ever did / will in front of a 14 point red, despite shooting in team competitions, finals, exiting rut and other hunting experiences my heart rate and shakes were worse on the DSC1 test than anywhere else. I passed with plenty a margin but plenty of people that usually shoot very well were right on the edge of the kill zone and if their zero was out a couple of cm in the same direction it wouldn't have been so great.

No need to play fair, use the best grouping lowest recoiling rifle you have with the best ammo & practice the 10m shot

And don't stress you'll be fine ;)
I couldnt agree more regarding zero and dialing or using holdover at longer ranges
 
Its useful to look where the centre of the roe target zone is, so you know where your point of aim should be.
You might shoot a good group in your normal aiming point which might be on the edge of the target "kill" zone.

I think that everyone is invited to take a look at the target first, at least we were on my BDS course. As Malcolm has said, there is a faint marking that can be seen through a higher mag. scope, in good light.

There is some controversy about whether the heart/lung shot position is quite correct, some would say it is a little low. But this is shooting for the test, so, line up with the middle of the foreleg, and halfway up the body. + marks the spot.

I've not seen where the new headshot target is positioned, nor how large it is, nor what might be a ready-reckoner as to how to position the crosshairs. But I don't expect it to be challenging, providing you are aware of whether some holdover might be prudent

All in all it seems to be an improvement on the previous test, where on my course, many years ago, there was an almighty amount of fannying about by some, who should have known better. The prepared ones had no trouble clearing it at first go. Go into it with confidence in your rifle, your abilities, and shoot to the test, and it should be no problem.
 
Back
Top