Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Africa sight in

Just curious - What is the common sight-in range (zero) for African hunting with scopes, and with irons?

I'm not anal about my NA scoped rifles - I do most of them 2.5 inches high (plus or minus is fine) at 100 yards. My Ruger 77 in .338WM has the lowest irons I could put on - a .260 ramp and lowest blade possible (I think also a .260) on the front, with a V-notch filed into the highest integral scope base for a rear, in case I ever need to lose the scope. The irons are dead on at 100 yds with 250 gr slugs. I wanted irons on the .338, but Ruger's are way too high for my taste, so I did my own.

I do have my on-site caribou gun zeroed at 300 yards, but I don't like that as well as a 200-250 zero. More used to the latter I guess. But better suited to my current hunting conditions here in the Arctic

Unless you are hunting the Cape or the Karoo...I'd be spot on at 100 yards.

Two inches high at 100 yards. For every rifle I own, from 223 to 416 Rem. Africa seems like a damn poor place to be learning a new sight-in!

Although, before going into a leopard blind the PH usually wants the rifle sighted in at the exact range from blind to bait. Otherwise, the 2" high has worked great.

Having done the Cape and Karoo that is my plan for Matetsi.

My PH in Uitenhage used 25 yards. Here's a tip -- take a target you've shot at 25 and 100 yards to compare. That way there's no argument about moving the crosshairs if the hold at scope check feels off to you. Added to that, if he "makes" you move the crosshairs, keep track of how many clicks so you can move it back to where you had them before adjusting. (There's a saved trophy fee or two worth of advice, not opinion.)

^^^^^^^^^^^


GOOD Advice!


I referred a client to my PH, he asked the same question, and I told him the same thing Spot on at 100 yards.


He INSISTED he couldn't do that with his .300 RUM, it HAD to be 3" high at 200 yards!


He even had bought TWO boxes of shells...one to "Practice" and one to hunt with....



You know whats coming next....


He shot a Waterbuck( too high) and they were not able to recover it. $1600 trophy fee....


Ask me if I felt bad for him..........

The 25-yard (or rather 25-meter) sight-in is apparently still taught in the South African professional hunter training course. Or at least it was until a few years ago. It doesn't work with a lot of rifles, for various reasons, but it sometimes takes a young PH a while to learn that.

I had one insist on it in 2002 on a hunt in the Karoo, when I went over with a group of several guys. It was his first season as a PH, but the other guys had never been to Africa before and apparently thought PH's were gods. Almost all of them had to readjust their scopes because their rifles shot several inches high (not just a couple) at 100.

Hunted with the same PH five years later with another large group of Americans, and he had us check our scopes on a 100-yard range....

Man, and a Waterbuck can suck up lead. Don't bleed a lot with that oily coat it's wearing either.

Use 25yds to get on the paper and do your adjustments at 100yds. I agree with the posts above, it all depends on which area you will be hunting.
If you're hunting Limpopo or North West, I would stick closer to zero at 100yds, but if you are hunting in the Eastern Cape, 1.5 - 2" high at a 100yds, caliber dependent, should put you close to dead on at 200yds.

My sight ins for Africa:

375:


300 Weatherby:


416 Rigby, 400gr Swifts and 410gr Hornady solids:
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums...3-4e02-91df-0c0fe3f2df8d_zps2e49cc26.jpg

Note; 375 took a buffalo at 25 yards and a kudu at a bit over 350

YUP!

Jorge, nothing wrong with that! I noticed the one hole, labelled "Fouling Shot"
Do you oil the inside of your barrels before sticking them back into the rifle safe?
I have found replacing the oil, with a multi purpose lubricating agent, such as Q20( I think you guys have it as well), totally got rid of all fouling shots. When it comes out the safe, I run the bore snake through it, and the first shot is on the mark.
I was wondering if anyone else uses this technique when storing firearms.

Sorry for the hi-jack.

Marius: Used to, now I use Hornady HD ONE SHOT, which is a non-oil based preservative.

Heck, it will take another 5 years for something like that to be on the shelves over here...

The PHs I've hunted with stated a 100 yard zero is the way to go, but almost everytime, the rifle is checked out at about 25 - 50 yards, once in Africa. My hunts were for buffalo and elephant.

For a plains game hunt, I would imagine going with 2.5 inches high at 100 yds or a 200 yd zero might be satisfactory, depending upon the caliber of the rifle and the ranges you can expect to shoot at (and of course the animals you are hunting).

BH63

I've used a 200 yd. zero for my rifles in Africa.

With my .375 Ruger and 250 gr. Barnes TTSX bullets, a 200 yd. zero is .25" low at 25yd, .5" high at 50 yd., and 1.5" high at 100 yd. It is only about 3" low at 250, and about 7" low at 300.

For me, this sight-in has worked perfectly on three rifle safaris.

With 30-06 type ballistics, 1" high at 100 means about 2.5" less drop at 250 yards than zero at 100 does. I'll gladly accept that trade-off.

Nice groups Jorge!! Your .375 is definitely dialed in to " a minute of buffalo".

On my African hunts, I've sighted in my .375 RUM at 2" high at 100 yds, and my .300 Weatherby at 2.5" high at 100 yds,

My wife and I hunted the Eastern Cape in 2014

.308 dia 150 grain Accubonds @ just under 2900 fps with a 200 yard zero never let us down

Eleven different species of plains game over the course of two weeks with shots ranging from just under 100 to a 341 shot my wife laid into a good Impala ram.

Most shots were right at, to just under 200 yards

I use a 100 yard zero for Buffalo, 200 yards zero for plains game.