Thoughts of an Old Fart!
In my opinion....sitting at 100 yards and shooting time after time on a target is a waste of components! After starting out with an 03A3 Springfield when I was 12 years old, which Dad bought me, early on and with Dad's tutelage I learned the importance of proper trigger control, position, sight alignment, follow-through, calling the shot, etc....all of which are highly important in marksmanship! For new shooters and those unfamiliar with a new rifle....I understand using 100 yards to get on paper (although I prefer the foundation zero to be at 200 yards) and for the shooter to become familiar with a new trigger and the degree of recoil experienced. This is especially true when working with junior shooters!
On some of the shooting forums I visit I constantly read about adult shooters sitting down at 100 yards and blasting away in so-called group shooting and unless one is a dyed-in-the-wool bench-rest competitor, IMO very little is learned about the true accuracy potential of their rifle and loaded ammo. Some of these folks, after many rounds fired and visits to a range don't have a clue as to what it would take in MOA elevation to be on target at anywhere from 300 yards on out to say...1200 yards even though they have the equipment to make the required change! Possibly the old adage "whatever floats your boat" is the order of the day!
My personal Modus Operandi is such that all my rifles have a DWZ aka Dead Wind Zero of 200 yards! It's really easy if one desires to use an App Ballistic Program to input 200 yards for a zero as it is to use a 100 yard zero. I do not use a bullseye or a paper target unless I reverse the paper target to reveal the blank side as the bullet holes show up much better against the white rather than hunting for the holes in a black bull! I establish my zeros shooting off a bench initially and then confirm from field positions such as using a back pack for a rest. If I am zeroing a hunting rifle I do not use a commercial type front rest! In my experience with rifles that weigh in at less than 10#, to obtain the best accuracy potential, during the act of firing a shot the rifle should be fired off of a flexible front rest such as a rolled up shooting mat which I use with the forward hand atop said rest and the forearm of the rifle held in the shooters hand. Why? Pretty simple really! Unless one can control the recoil of the lighter weight rifles, the ability to establish the accuracy potential is hindered to a degree! With the forward hand at the upper portion of the rifles forearm and with the hand atop a flexible rest, recoil and barrel jump are dampened and minimized. Using a rear rest is OK as long as it is placed near the toe of the butt-plate and as long as the butt-plate is pulled solidly back into the shooters shoulder! Let me digress a moment. Since I do not use a bulls-eye....how do I select a point of aim? It's really easy using a scope! I shoot center mass. It's a simple matter to find the center of a square target paper or steel plate by judging four quadrants! In all my years of hunting I have yet to see an animal with a bulls-eye on its side!!
After bore sighting from 200 yards I fire a shot and usually I'm on paper. After making whatever adjustment required if working with a new scope I will fire three shots and if centered....I set the scope caps to zero.....and move back to the next firing line. To eventually get all my zeros set under as near as possible to a 'no wind condition' may take 2-3 days depending upon weather conditions. Wind/mirage back to 300 yards does not normally present a problem for a hunter, especially on game the size of a deer or elk and when using rifles such as 7MM or .308 caliber with an appropriate bullet weight! The primary reason I use 200 yards as a zero is because with the afore mentioned calibers I discovered long ago that if I was presented a shot on a deer at 300 yards all I needed to do to put the POI in a vital area was to hold the horizontal cross-wire atop the deers back and the bullet would drop into the kill zone. No time lost figuring bullet drop or rotating knobs!
All zeros are recorded in a data book which denotes time, date, wind condition, temp, load data and BP! In my opinion recording relative humidity is not necessary. What is most important to the hunter is POI for the first shot! Animals don't usually stand around and allow sighter shots therefore on many days I will go to the range, pick a distance, apply the zero and fire one well aimed shot to observe the result thereof! I do this on days when conditions are not ideal....meaning I pick days when it's windy/gusting, overcast, low light, at daylight and dusk dark! Mind you....I've already established my zeros under ideal conditions and now....I want to see how those established zeros and my wind reading skills and scope adjustment are going to hold up under 'field conditions'! At long range temperature changes will change elevation zeros enough to cause a miss if not accounted for, so recording same and shooting under varying temps is necessary!
NOTE
I am most fortunate in that I have my own range where I can shoot back to 1600 yards here on family property. I have helped literally hundreds of shooters (free of charge) over they years that have come here to shoot and this has been my way of giving back to the game so to speak for all the enjoyment the Good Lord has seen fit to allow me to have. Starting at age 20 in 1960 and for 4 years after I had the opportunity to train under, what was and is the most professional group of marksmanship coaching individuals that the world has ever put their eye to a team spotting scope. Those were the guys that instructed back in the '60s era and trained a group of shooters that whipped the Russians in the olympic shooting games aka the coaching staff from the USAAMU stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. And if there are any of those guys that are still around and kicking clods....my most heartfelt THANK YOU.....for putting your combat boot up my Irish arse and making me pay attention!
In my opinion....sitting at 100 yards and shooting time after time on a target is a waste of components! After starting out with an 03A3 Springfield when I was 12 years old, which Dad bought me, early on and with Dad's tutelage I learned the importance of proper trigger control, position, sight alignment, follow-through, calling the shot, etc....all of which are highly important in marksmanship! For new shooters and those unfamiliar with a new rifle....I understand using 100 yards to get on paper (although I prefer the foundation zero to be at 200 yards) and for the shooter to become familiar with a new trigger and the degree of recoil experienced. This is especially true when working with junior shooters!
On some of the shooting forums I visit I constantly read about adult shooters sitting down at 100 yards and blasting away in so-called group shooting and unless one is a dyed-in-the-wool bench-rest competitor, IMO very little is learned about the true accuracy potential of their rifle and loaded ammo. Some of these folks, after many rounds fired and visits to a range don't have a clue as to what it would take in MOA elevation to be on target at anywhere from 300 yards on out to say...1200 yards even though they have the equipment to make the required change! Possibly the old adage "whatever floats your boat" is the order of the day!
My personal Modus Operandi is such that all my rifles have a DWZ aka Dead Wind Zero of 200 yards! It's really easy if one desires to use an App Ballistic Program to input 200 yards for a zero as it is to use a 100 yard zero. I do not use a bullseye or a paper target unless I reverse the paper target to reveal the blank side as the bullet holes show up much better against the white rather than hunting for the holes in a black bull! I establish my zeros shooting off a bench initially and then confirm from field positions such as using a back pack for a rest. If I am zeroing a hunting rifle I do not use a commercial type front rest! In my experience with rifles that weigh in at less than 10#, to obtain the best accuracy potential, during the act of firing a shot the rifle should be fired off of a flexible front rest such as a rolled up shooting mat which I use with the forward hand atop said rest and the forearm of the rifle held in the shooters hand. Why? Pretty simple really! Unless one can control the recoil of the lighter weight rifles, the ability to establish the accuracy potential is hindered to a degree! With the forward hand at the upper portion of the rifles forearm and with the hand atop a flexible rest, recoil and barrel jump are dampened and minimized. Using a rear rest is OK as long as it is placed near the toe of the butt-plate and as long as the butt-plate is pulled solidly back into the shooters shoulder! Let me digress a moment. Since I do not use a bulls-eye....how do I select a point of aim? It's really easy using a scope! I shoot center mass. It's a simple matter to find the center of a square target paper or steel plate by judging four quadrants! In all my years of hunting I have yet to see an animal with a bulls-eye on its side!!
After bore sighting from 200 yards I fire a shot and usually I'm on paper. After making whatever adjustment required if working with a new scope I will fire three shots and if centered....I set the scope caps to zero.....and move back to the next firing line. To eventually get all my zeros set under as near as possible to a 'no wind condition' may take 2-3 days depending upon weather conditions. Wind/mirage back to 300 yards does not normally present a problem for a hunter, especially on game the size of a deer or elk and when using rifles such as 7MM or .308 caliber with an appropriate bullet weight! The primary reason I use 200 yards as a zero is because with the afore mentioned calibers I discovered long ago that if I was presented a shot on a deer at 300 yards all I needed to do to put the POI in a vital area was to hold the horizontal cross-wire atop the deers back and the bullet would drop into the kill zone. No time lost figuring bullet drop or rotating knobs!
All zeros are recorded in a data book which denotes time, date, wind condition, temp, load data and BP! In my opinion recording relative humidity is not necessary. What is most important to the hunter is POI for the first shot! Animals don't usually stand around and allow sighter shots therefore on many days I will go to the range, pick a distance, apply the zero and fire one well aimed shot to observe the result thereof! I do this on days when conditions are not ideal....meaning I pick days when it's windy/gusting, overcast, low light, at daylight and dusk dark! Mind you....I've already established my zeros under ideal conditions and now....I want to see how those established zeros and my wind reading skills and scope adjustment are going to hold up under 'field conditions'! At long range temperature changes will change elevation zeros enough to cause a miss if not accounted for, so recording same and shooting under varying temps is necessary!
NOTE
I am most fortunate in that I have my own range where I can shoot back to 1600 yards here on family property. I have helped literally hundreds of shooters (free of charge) over they years that have come here to shoot and this has been my way of giving back to the game so to speak for all the enjoyment the Good Lord has seen fit to allow me to have. Starting at age 20 in 1960 and for 4 years after I had the opportunity to train under, what was and is the most professional group of marksmanship coaching individuals that the world has ever put their eye to a team spotting scope. Those were the guys that instructed back in the '60s era and trained a group of shooters that whipped the Russians in the olympic shooting games aka the coaching staff from the USAAMU stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. And if there are any of those guys that are still around and kicking clods....my most heartfelt THANK YOU.....for putting your combat boot up my Irish arse and making me pay attention!
