Rifle Scopes At what yardage do you zero your rifle

[spleify]

I am sin the process of building my first "precision long rang rifle" and my question is for you guys that are shooting out to 1000 yards, where do you zero your rifles at. I have a rifle that has been great for me out to 600 yards and I have it zeroed at 100 yards.

Do I do the same, and zero at 100, or should i go out farther for a 1000 yard rifle?

Thanks

 

[smschulz]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

iron sight/non-magnified optics 50 yds
magnified optics 100 yds

 

[jasonk]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

Get the right base and scope combination to zero at 100.

The only reason you wouldn't zero at 100 is if you were building an extreme LR rifle, like shooting 1500 to 2000 yards all the time, then maybe you'd zero at a longer distance.

The right scope will let you start at 100 and probably go to a mile without a whole lot of work, by starting at 100 it keeps a lot of things simpler.

 

[2ndPanzer]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

I zero the scoped rifles and my iron sight comp guns at 200, the AR10 NRA LR service rifle is zeroed at 600, as thats as close as it gets shot. I do zero windage at 100 first though. The Iron sight rifles all get zeroed with the front sight, and the rear is up 10 ( 1/4 minute) clicks from bottomed out. The scoped rifles are NF with zero stops, and they get set to give me 10 clicks down from 200 yd zero, with the actual "0" mark being the 200 yd setting. All my scopes are .1 mil clicks. ETA the 10 clicks down give me plenty of adjustment to get down below 200 with no issues. On the IS rifles, -5 gets me to 100, pretty close on the scoped ones as well.

I am sure there are a few different procedures people on here use, and its going to be worth it to experiment and/or investigate each one and see what works best for your set up and needs. This is just what works for me and my situation. Hope this helps you.

 

[dstewart51]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

I do something similar to 2ndPanzer. I ZERO the scope and Turret at 200y then set the ZeroStop on my Nighforce to be 0.4 mils under, that puts me dead on at 100y.

So I kind of have 2 ZERO's a physical stop at 100y and an indicated 0 at 200y.

With the ZeroStop I can leave the 100y physical stop and set the Turret 0 to any range I like. Right now Im doing some load development at 200y.

 

[Ring]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

200 on bolt guns and SPR AR's
50 on M4

 

[2ndPanzer]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dstewart51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I do something similar to 2ndPanzer. I ZERO the scope and Turret at 200y then set the ZeroStop on my Nighforce to be 0.4 mils under, that puts me dead on at 100y.

</div></div>

I am at -5 for 100 without the can, -7 with the can, and depending on humidity/temp, could go further, I have had to go to -9 before on a shitty day to be on at 100 wth the can. 10 was an easy number to pick. Plenty of room for variables, and -5 is easy to remember. Good news is the can is ALWAYS -2 difference from without, so I only have to remember -2 really from my no can numbers. Just got the rifle coated and some stock work done and put everything back on and went to rezero, windage was dead on, and with the can on I was -2.the temp and humidity were nearly identical to my recorded zero.everything was right where it should be.

 

[lessthanfour]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

100, there's fewer variables to account for so you know wind has little to no affect on it. you adjust off of your zero, if you want to have a 600 yard zero you should rather have one at 100 and adjust up to 600

 

[Mahk]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 2ndPanzer</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dstewart51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I do something similar to 2ndPanzer. I ZERO the scope and Turret at 200y then set the ZeroStop on my Nighforce to be 0.4 mils under, that puts me dead on at 100y.

</div></div>

I am at -5 for 100 without the can, -7 with the can, and depending on humidity/temp, could go further, I have had to go to -9 before on a shitty day to be on at 100 wth the can. 10 was an easy number to pick. Plenty of room for variables, and -5 is easy to remember. Good news is the can is ALWAYS -2 difference from without, so I only have to remember -2 really from my no can numbers. Just got the rifle coated and some stock work done and put everything back on and went to rezero, windage was dead on, and with the can on I was -2.the temp and humidity were nearly identical to my recorded zero.everything was right where it should be. </div></div>

What unit of measurement are you going by?

 

[oneshotkyle]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

100yds, if you have a lot of rifles it could get confusing if you dont have zero stops on all of em...

 

[lal357]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

i first sight in at 100 then resight in at 300 since this is where i do 99% of my shooting after sited in at 300 i set my turrets to zero.then i adjust up or down depending on conditions range and what bullet i'm shooting i keep all my loads and zero on my phone ballistic calc. and input info for new range seeting as needed

 

[bkster]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

100 yds

 

[shootist~]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

Another same as 2ndPanzer. Irons, magnified optics and red dots all at 200 meters - probably because my range keeps three sizes of steel plates hanging at 200M (5", 8" & 10"). It's just simpler for me, but there is nothing wrong with going with a 100 Yd/M zero either. FWIW, a SEAL I shot with last weekend was setting up a personal rifle at 100.

I also allow for ~2MOA negative dial on my NF with ZS and plan do do the same on my USO mil/mil when it decides to get here. This usually allows you to temporarily move the optic to another rifle without being forced to back out the ZS.

 

[KillShot]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

100yds and just dial-up or hold-over for anything beyond.

 

[_RJ_]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

100 meters

 

[TexasClassIII]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

100.

I tried the whole 300 thing and after a couple of months of frustration switched back to 100.

100 is just a whole lot simpler.

Parker

 

[67rschev]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

Agreed , 100 is simple and easy to hold or dial up

 

[winxp_man]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

+ 1 for 100 yard zero. Simple and easy.





Aron-

 

[lal357]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

why is it hard to go from 300 to 100 if your zero'd at 300 i just dail down 3.4 moa and its good if you know your load it shouldnt be to hard.

 

[Topstrap]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

Our first target at the 1000 yard matches is 234 yards so we zero both the rifle and our long range pistols at 200 and crank from there. If a target is closer we can crank down a few moa but usually just hold down a bit below center which works fine.

Topstrap

 

[Drifter™]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

I use a 200-yard zero since the primary purpose of most of my rifles is hunting. Don't really use holdovers or unders for medium game out to ~250 yards. And I rarely target shoot at distances less than 200 yards.

 

[2ndPanzer]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mahk</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 2ndPanzer</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dstewart51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I do something similar to 2ndPanzer. I ZERO the scope and Turret at 200y then set the ZeroStop on my Nighforce to be 0.4 mils under, that puts me dead on at 100y.

</div></div>

I am at -5 for 100 without the can, -7 with the can, and depending on humidity/temp, could go further, I have had to go to -9 before on a shitty day to be on at 100 wth the can. 10 was an easy number to pick. Plenty of room for variables, and -5 is easy to remember. Good news is the can is ALWAYS -2 difference from without, so I only have to remember -2 really from my no can numbers. Just got the rifle coated and some stock work done and put everything back on and went to rezero, windage was dead on, and with the can on I was -2.the temp and humidity were nearly identical to my recorded zero.everything was right where it should be. </div></div>

What unit of measurement are you going by? </div></div>

Ahh, sorry, all my optics are in .1 mils. Thought I had mentioned it.

ETA, a 200 yd zero is very easy to deal with, less elevation changes to deal with out to about 5-600, and I do zero the windage at 100 to minimize windage errors. I don't shoot much at less than 200, but like I said, there are a ton of ways to do it, just got to find what works for you.

 

[arkansashntr]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

200 yds puts me 1" high at 100 yds with my 5R. Haven't tried past 400 yet. Be interested in what other s have to say.

 

[ChielScape]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

109.36 yards. (100m)
Milliradians work so well with metric, too. None of that 3.6" at 100 yards or ranging with that 27.78 factor. It's all powers of 10, as it should be.

 

[pinzmann]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

200yds, that way I'm more sure of the zero.

 

[rpk762]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jasonk</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Get the right base and scope combination to zero at 100.

The only reason you wouldn't zero at 100 is if you were building an extreme LR rifle, like shooting 1500 to 2000 yards all the time, then maybe you'd zero at a longer distance.

The right scope will let you start at 100 and probably go to a mile without a whole lot of work, by starting at 100 it keeps a lot of things simpler.</div></div>

That is what I do.

 

[Hoser]

Re: At what yardage do you zero your rifle

I ran a 200 yard zero for a long time. Last year I switched to a 100 yard zero when I noticed that some matches were tossing in some close up targets. Not wanting to do too much of the hold under thing I went with the 100 yard zero.