what is correct zero range for my Savage F T/R .223

[Linko]

With my Savage using 77 gr SMK what is the correct zero range 100 or 200 ?

 

[Travelor]

Not sure I understand your question. Are you wanting to get adjustments from a sight in distance or a sight setting to allow his on an animal at 100 and 200 without a sight change?

 

[Linko]

I am target shooting. I am shooting this rifle and bullet combination at 500 - 600 yards in competition. At what distance do I zero the rifle. 100 or 200?

The savage is 1:7 twist 30" barrel target action. Black hills .223 77 SMK ammo.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

With my Savage using 77 gr SMK what is the correct zero range 100 or 200 ?

Some dual use guns are sited in at 200 yards. There is less fiddling on going from 200 to 600 and you'll be on in fewer shots at 600.

However, for a dedicated F-T/R gun there is no reason not to site in directly at 600 and keep it there unless shooting at longer ranges. I would recommend getting in a habit and sticking to it and writing down the zero range evert time you put it back in the case.

 

[Dgd6mm]

100 - 600 yards, know your zeros for multiple ranges, record them.

 

[XTR]

Zero is simply a reference distance at which you set your elevation turret to read zero. It makes no difference how the rifle shoots or how the scope performs. You are simply loosening the screws in the knob with graduations on it and aligning it with zero.

Lot of people set zero at 100 and learn all their come ups from there. Generally about 1.5 MOA to 200, 4 to 300, about 10.5 to 500 and 13.5 to 600.

My mid range rifle is set to zero at 300, my main long range rifle the knobs are set to zero at 1000 yards.

The answer is where ever you want it.

 

[Linko]

Thanks for the replies. Interesting. I expected a finite number. Makes sense how you explained it.

 

[mysticplayer]

how about another angle....

I prefer to set up my scope so that the optical center of the scope covers the main distances I will compete at.

So for palma, 800,900 and 1000yds. I will set my ZERO at 900yds at the optical center of the scope.

Now I dial back 4.5mins to 800 (or thereabouts). Plus 4.5 (or thereabouts) to 1000yds.

If you are always competing at 500 and 600yds, I would do the same thing with the optical center close to one of these distances.

I really don't care where the bullets needs to be at 100yds to get me to where I want to be. I just know the come ups and set accordingly.

Jerry

 

[dcali]

Zero at 100 yards so you can do load development free of wind effects. Then dial up to 600 for the match.

And get some 80's.

 

[Linko]

Zero at 100 yards so you can do load development free of wind effects. Then dial up to 600 for the match.

And get some 80's.

Ah and now there is another interesting point. 100 yd zero for load development.

I also understand I would need to ream the chamber to load the longer 80's in my Savage

 

[tenring]

Zero at 100 yards so you can do load development free of wind effects. Then dial up to 600 for the match.

And get some 80's.

I also understand I would need to ream the chamber to load the longer 80's in my Savage

I shoot a Savage LRPV .223 in competition, and I have 4 other competition rifles. All my scopes are sighted on at 100. Otherwise, I would have a problem knowing where to start which scope. I keep my come ups in a pocket tablet indexed by caliber, load and turret settings. I shoot 80 and 90 gr. Bergers thru this factory barrel constantly. There is no need to ream the chamber.

 

[r bose]

All my guns, scope or open sights are sighted in at 200 yards. Why? That's how far my local range is. I can test loads, get good feedback, and not have the wind skew load development too much. From there I use a ballistics program, plug in the data and get what I need to be close on my sighter shots. Then I record settings in a data book at 300, 500 600, 1000 yds after I shoot that distance.

Shot in a 1000 yd match over the weekend. Haven't shot that far in over 10 years. Before I left home I used the Berger program, selected the bullet I was using, and put in my chrono number. Put the settings on my rifle before I left home.

Was very nervous on Saturday. (what if I totally miss the target?) Was called to the line, shooting in a sling with open sights. Shot my first sighter the target went down. What a relief. It was only about 3/4 min low and 1/2 min right. Very high humidity and a bit cooler then expected.

My point, these ballistics programs work if you feed them good info. And yes, it's great to shoot that far again.

 

[Linko]

Zero at 100 yards so you can do load development free of wind effects. Then dial up to 600 for the match.

And get some 80's.

I havent done any measurements of the rifle to determine oal of a round, but your



I also understand I would need to ream the chamber to load the longer 80's in my Savage

I shoot a Savage LRPV .223 in competition, and I have 4 other competition rifles. All my scopes are sighted on at 100. Otherwise, I would have a problem knowing where to start which scope. I keep my come ups in a pocket tablet indexed by caliber, load and turret settings. I shoot 80 and 90 gr. Bergers thru this factory barrel constantly. There is no need to ream the chamber.

I getting off topuc but.....So a stock savage chamber is long enough to fit a 80 gr vld? How far off the lands are you?
I am new to reloading and appreciate the feedback. I would like to be sure it will be correctly sized for my gun.

Since my range is 200 I figured I would zero at that and use the calculator for dope. Is the question of zeroing at 100 vs 200 just a matter of preference, and not a factor of balistics when shooting longer?

 

[memilanuk]

Soft seated 10 thou in. To the best of my knowledge, the 12 F/TR .223 uses a Wylde chamber - same as my AR match rifle (space gun), actually. The Wylde is a good do-all chamber - it's long enough that 80s aren't completely stuffed down in the cases, and short enough that mag-length rounds aren't jumping too far. It'll eat the digest the 77s with no problem, and it should handle the 80s as well. Maybe not my first choice if I was going to build a bolt gun specifically for NRA style target shooting with 80+ gn bullets, but it works pretty darned well. I shot the B82BT out of mine quite a bit in the past, with excellent results. Once you try the 80-82gn bullets, you'll appreciate how much you were giving up in the wind with the 77s. A friend of mine used the 77s, crowing about the accuracy he got @ 100-200yds. I just shrugged and reminded him we don't shoot matches @ 100-200, but 300-600. He understood what I meant next time we shot a match. You might say he 'got the drift'

 

[memilanuk]

Is the question of zeroing at 100 vs 200 just a matter of preference, and not a factor of balistics when shooting longer?

Bingo. The only time I zero longer, is when my scope won't go that low. Sometimes with a 30 moa base on, its hard to zero under 300yds as the elevation turret is bottomed out.

 

[dcali]

Since my range is 200 I figured I would zero at that and use the calculator for dope. Is the question of zeroing at 100 vs 200 just a matter of preference, and not a factor of balistics when shooting longer?

The idea is to separate out the effects of wind vs the inherent dispersion of the rifle/load. The easiest way to do that is to shoot up close where the wind doesn't matter as much. The downside is you won't see the effect of variable velocity very well - or even at all in some cases. 200 yards won't help much with vertical, but it will add a little wind, so 100 is ideal.

Some will tell you that the accuracy of the rifle itself, even on a calm day will be different down range. I don't believe this, and I think the differences are accounted for by wind and variable velocity. The effects due to bullet quality, barrel vibration, etc, should be linear with range - you can just scale them up based on the 100 yard number.

In the end, I think it makes most sense to develop loads on a calm day at 100 yards (or even 50), noting velocity standard deviations. If group size and velocity are in check, you'll be fine at long range (assuming no dynamic stability shenanigans).

 

[Berger.Fan222]

Since my range is 200 I figured I would zero at that and use the calculator for dope. Is the question of zeroing at 100 vs 200 just a matter of preference, and not a factor of balistics when shooting longer?

The idea is to separate out the effects of wind vs the inherent dispersion of the rifle/load. The easiest way to do that is to shoot up close where the wind doesn't matter as much. The downside is you won't see the effect of variable velocity very well - or even at all in some cases. 200 yards won't help much with vertical, but it will add a little wind, so 100 is ideal.

Some will tell you that the accuracy of the rifle itself, even on a calm day will be different down range. I don't believe this, and I think the differences are accounted for by wind and variable velocity. The effects due to bullet quality, barrel vibration, etc, should be linear with range - you can just scale them up based on the 100 yard number.

In the end, I think it makes most sense to develop loads on a calm day at 100 yards (or even 50), noting velocity standard deviations. If group size and velocity are in check, you'll be fine at long range (assuming no dynamic stability shenanigans).

t
Sounds like a great case for initial load development at 100, but I'm not sure it needs to be zeroed at 100 to work up loads.

With a 20-30 MOA scope base, a rifle is awfully low in the range to be zeroed at 100. It makes more sense to me to work up loads with a big paper target and work with the fact that the group is 16" or so above the point of aim than to crank the scope that far down in its range. Splitting the difference (300 yard zero) puts the group 8" or so above the point of aim at 100 yards.

 

[Dgd6mm]

don't meam to be a jerk or a turd or whatever, but this is not rocket science. it can be done a few different ways, no matter what moa base you have at 100 or 200 yards

Zero is simply a reference distance at which you set your elevation turret to read zero. It makes no difference how the rifle shoots or how the scope performs. You are simply loosening the screws in the knob with graduations on it and aligning it with zero.

Lot of people set zero at 100 and learn all their come ups from there. Generally about 1.5 MOA to 200, 4 to 300, about 10.5 to 500 and 13.5 to 600.

My mid range rifle is set to zero at 300, my main long range rifle the knobs are set to zero at 1000 yards.

The answer is where ever you want it.

 

[dcali]

Sounds like a great case for initial load development at 100, but I'm not sure it needs to be zeroed at 100 to work up loads.

With a 20-30 MOA scope base, a rifle is awfully low in the range to be zeroed at 100. It makes more sense to me to work up loads with a big paper target and work with the fact that the group is 16" or so above the point of aim than to crank the scope that far down in its range. Splitting the difference (300 yard zero) puts the group 8" or so above the point of aim at 100 yards.

Nothing wrong with that. I like the Sinclair practice benchrest targets for load development (the one with 20 mini-benchrest bulls on one page), so getting a POA close to the POI is helpful for me - there's only about 1/2" of space between the targets, and the whole page is only about 13" tall.

 

[Linko]

This Savage Target rifle is new and so am I . The zero for me using Federal Gold Medal 77 SMK 77gr is to be sure I have an accurate starting point for the Scope setup (Nightforce Competition) before Load development (reloading is also new to me) This way I know when I am shooting what is me and whats the rifle setup.

When I looked at the Shooter balistic program the table for this given setup it looked like the 500 yd trajectory was calculated with a zero of 200 and a drop of aprox 42 in. Vs a 100 zero and a drop of 49 at 1000. So its all new to me. I really have so much to learn my descripetions and terms are poor. But the bullet path showed less drop from the zero point at 200 when aiming at 500. I hope to leave my 200 yd range later this year and try my hand at the mid range distance at an I ther range. I believe they go out to 600 .

Bottom line for me.

Get the scope zeroed with the Federal and then start the load development on my other new hobby, Reloading.

Zeroing at 100 is easier to both see and hold the rifle steady, so that is something to consider.