Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 300 savage sight-in query..

Folks,

Just picked up my first 300 savage model 99F off of 300jimmy, here on the fire.

I have a 70yd range here on my place that I can sight in at.. Gonna be shooting remington factory ammo, 150gr coreloks.

Where should I zero this rifle on the target? Most shots are gonna be 100 yds or less.

Any advice appreciated.

dave

Dead on

ok..thanks. pretty much thought that.. just wanted another opinion.
dave

I got mine sighted in for 2" high at 100 meters. That gives me a line of sight hold out to about 180 yards with 150 grain reloads. Longest shot I had to make is 180 yards, most shots are less that 100 yards, you neve no when you might have a 200 yard shot.

appreciate the insight. I wish I had more room to back out to 100yd and do exactly the same. The area I hunt does afford a couple areas that could go beyond 100yds..

I am wondering where I would be on the trajectory at 100-200yds, if I zero it at 70yds about 1 inch high?

dave

In order to answer your question, we'd need to know what your rile's muzzle velocity is since bullet drop is dependent upon muzzle velocity and muzzle velocity determines the time-frame in which gravity "works" on your bullet-in-flight to the target.

My reloads (40.8 grains of H4895 w/ a 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet) give about the same muzzle velocity as a 150 grain factory loaded round. I'm getting a chronographed 2635 fps average (� 3 fps (+1/-2 fps) outta my EG's 24-inch barrel.

If your rifle and your hand-loads are giving you about the SAME muzzle velocity as I'm getting, then you can use my "numbers" (below). Even if you are getting 50 fps more or less, there wouldn't be enough difference in bullet drop to be concerned about.

Sighted "dead on" the center of a 1" orange paster at 25 yards, the bullet is 2.75 inches high at 100 yards with a maximum height of 2.9 inches above the line-of-sight at 140 yards and "dead on" again at approximately 210 yards and 3-inches low at 250 yards which give me a "point-blank-range" of 0-250 yards.

"Point-blank-range" is defined as the range wherein the bullet never rises or falls more than 3-inches above or below the line-of-sight from the end of the rifle's muzzle out to the maximum range you will shoot.

Therefore, my "point-blank-range" for my rifle and my hand-loads is 250 yards.

I.E., If your bullet strikes your point-of-aim, regardless of the range from the end of your rifle's muzzle out to 250 yards, you will still easily be within 3-inches (or less) of the point-of-aim and well within a deer's "kill-zone" from the rifle's muzzle all the way out to 250 yards.

As a result, simply sight your rifle in to be in the center of a target paster or the target's bullseye at 25 yards and you're good-to-go all the way out to 250 yards.

Therefore, it's relatively meaningless to know where your bullet is at 70 yards. I.E., don't be concerned about it if your bullet is "dead-in-the-center-of-the-bullseye" at 25 yards.

Naturally, you should check out the bullet alignment at a longer range (100 yards or whatever) if possible to insure you have things "right".

Good luck in your hunting...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Presuming your scope is 1.5" above the bore and you're shooting in about 60 degree temp..

Calculated Table
Range Drop
(yd) (in)
0 -1.5
10 -1.0
20 -0.5
30 -0.1
40 0.3
50 0.6
60 0.8
70 1.0
80 1.2
90 1.2
100 1.3
110 1.2
120 1.1
130 0.9
140 0.7
150 0.4
160 -0.0
170 -0.5
180 -1.0
190 -1.6
200 -2.3
210 -3.0
220 -3.9
230 -4.8
240 -5.8
250 -6.9


I quickly generated this online using JBM's ballistic calculator at http://www.jbmballistics.com/. For myself I use a free ballistics program called PointBlank which makes nice charts. Available at http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2008/02/free-point-blank-ballistics-software/

Every time I've compared them they've been within 1" or so at 300 yards. Real world data will be off more than that, so they're good enough for me.

some great info and insight guys, thanks.

Sounds like this is a decent deer load out to 250 or so.. shoots flat enough to cover the kill zone, as long as I have decent accuracy and groups.

Thanks for the links Calhoun!

dave

Dave,
Faced with a similar situation as I have 80 yards off my porch. Here's what I've learned.
Too many variables to reliably predict longer range trajectory with a sight in at 70-80 yards. I thought I was pretty hot [bleep] but my little 80 yard range convinced me otherwise!!
For something under 200 yards you can probably fake your way thru it, but when you want to shoot "long" you'd best spend as much time as possible knowing, not guessing your trajectory. Scope height is probably the big variable. I've recently had opportunity to fire 430 and over 600 yards with the 270 Titus and there is no substitute for practice.

Anybody remember this part?

Anybody ever heard the phrase "paralysis by analysis"?

Sight it dead on at 70 yards. Hold dead on a deer's chest out to 200 yards.

You'll stack deer up like they were cordwood.

Think too long or too hard on it and your brain will start to hurt, but it won't change the results.