Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What's your sight-in range?

Depends on the rifle and what I am going to use it for, but:

.204 Ruger, .220 Swift, .257 Wby, .270 WSM, .300 Wby, are all sighted in to hit dead on at 300 yards. This generally puts this class of cartridge in the 1.5" to 2.5" high at 100.

.257 Roberts, .375 Ruger are sighted in to hit dead on at 200 yards. This generally puts them around 1.5" high at 100 yards with the loads I use.

Other rifles use CDS scopes, which I zero at 100 yards, then 'set and forget' at 250 yards for most hunting, if there's no time to be fiddling with turrets.

Somehow my reply got piled in with Bighorn's original comments. I do much the same as Bighorn.

I sight in at 100, 200, 300, 400 meters.. Then check against my dots or dope sheet, and start practicing..

I zero dead on at 100. With the rifles I own I can still hit any big game animal at 300 while still holding at the top of the back. Beyond 300 yards requires some hold over regardless. If I can figure out how much to hold over with a 200 yard zero, I can figure out the 3-4 more inches needed with a 100 yard zero.

In my opinion zeroing a rifle so it is high at 100 yards causes more problems than it solves unless you plan on taking all shots at 300+ yards. With my 100 yard zero the bullet is never more than 1/2" above or below my line of sight from 50 yards out to about 130ish. Exactly the ranges most shots are taken even in more open places. Often game is partially obscured and bullets above the line of sight will often strike brush not seen in the scope. It is a lot more natural to hold a tiny bit high at longer ranges than try to remember to hold low at close range.

.270 Leupold VX-2 4-12 LRD, 300 yds.
.30-06 Leupold VX-2 3-9 LRD, 200 yds.
.338 Fed. Leupold VX-2 2-7 duplex, 150 yds

These zeros work good with my loads and Leupold's LRD reticle. For the .338, I wanted less deviation from line-of-sight.

I have been shooting and hunting for over fifty years. When I started the rule was 3 high at 100. With experience, I observed that the mid-range max rise, at about 175 is way too high...it is nearly 4". This is a problem because animals have a space below the spine but above the lungs at about that place.

Now I sight so the highest mid-range rise is no more than 1.5 - 2". With a muzzle velocity of 3000 this means a zero at around 175 to 200. Use a program to calculate the number for yourself. Hitting high will cause problems particularly since most shots are at 200 or less.

Get a laser rangefinder and use dots or stadia wires for longer shots. I don't care for dialing on a hunting rifle.

Everything I have except my pronghorn rifle is dead on at 100 yards.

The majority of the elk I have killed are less than 100 yards,usually 60-70 yards. MY pronghorn rifle is dead on at 300 as that is usually the distance I kill them at.
I'm cleaver enough to adjust the sight picture if what I have is not viable.

On at 100. Dial the CDS to the actual range if necessary.

7Mag with CDS: 100 or 200

7mag w/out dial: +3" @100 = hold on hair out to 340.

+ 2"-2.5" elevation @ 100 yards makes all my rifles point & shoot.

Where is it at 200 and 300?

And how far is "as far as that rifle should be used?"

Me, too. Reading this thread, it's obvious I been doing it all wrong for 40+ years.

Oh well, I can change....nothing 30-40,000 rounds won't cure.

My 5 hunting rifle are all zero'd at 200 yards. All have similar trajectories and are setup with either dots of hash marks.

I used to be a little more practiced but hardly shoot anymore so my max hunting range has dropped 50-100 yards.

400 yards on a buck would be a long shot for me so I guess that's my MPBR.



And it's usually easy enough to just sight in and do load workup at 200 yards. Or even 400, just need a little bigger target.....grin

You're working too much Sam!

Being almost exclusively an open country hunter, I chrono my hunting loads, use the ballistic program in my PACT chrono and determine the MPB, then sight in accordingly. With most cartridges and loads, it turns out to be anywhere from 2-1/4" to 3-1/4" high at 100 yards. I burn up about 20-30 rounds to check the ballistic program and make any needed adjustments before I lock everything in.

I almost never shoot beyond 300, but I got in the habit of doing this when I was guiding guest hunters in case we needed to put a wounded animal down at extended distances. The farthest I have had to shoot was to put down a pronghorn that a female guest was wounding to death: 420+ yards. I was very glad that I had the rangefinder, and the "cheat sheet" taped to my butt stock.

+3 at 100 for big game rifles, +2 at 100 for groundhog rifles. Been working for me for over 35 years.

Dale

I would not think of shooting an unwounded game animal at long distance without those two things. Exact distance is badly needed in those instances. miles

100 yd. for rifles I actually hunt with, and 200 yd. for the range-only rifles.

272 yards with a 300 wm.