Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who sights in their rifle at "FTFOI" range?

I see targets that folks put up with their "100 yard" sight in.

I imagine a lot of peeps are kind of restricted by the shooting range target stops.

Anymore, I head out with a piece of cardboard to "yonder stump" or "old fence post", basically, FTFOI (for TF of it), and sight it in.

120 yards, 150 yards, 138.37 yards, just wherever. Rangefinder, or sometimes, I can consult my "target map" for the range...

1/4" per click at a 100 is 3/8" at 150, whatever, get it sighted in, then put out more targets at different ranges and start testing different BDC, and more recently, twisting elevation.

I have one target that doesn't move - 438 yards from the corner of the shed - so I guess it depends where I set my bench, or park the truck when I shoot, if its a few yards more or less. Or if the corn is too tall, in which case I can't see it....


Basically, I can't remember the last time I actually hit something at exactly 100 or 200 yards.

anybody?

Three inches high at 100 yards and head for the woods.

Yep, works for me.

100,200,300, etc..

Check them all, recheck dope sheet, ready to go.

Damn.

You must get some long shots there in the Ozarks.

Or shoot a caliber that has the ballistic coeffient of a mattress.

Tiny groups, aside from development is good for building confidence in gear...outside of that, nothing matters other that clean quick kills.

Sight in at 200. Then, shoot groundhogs, crows, rocks, stumps, steel targets, etc., at various ranges (lasered) to get used to the rifle.

That is a good way to shoot over stuff at the ranges you'll actually hunt. Or hit unseen brush.

I zero dead on at 100. With most modern loads, 308, 270, 243, etc., I'm no more than 1/2" high or low between 50 yards and 130'ish yards. Best way to shoot through openings in brush. I'm only a couple inches low at 200 yards and I can still hold on hair and get hits to 300 yards. Beyond 300 a rangefinder and dots on the reticle take over.

Anytime you zero above point of aim you are making things far more difficult at the ranges you will actually shoot for minimal advantages at ranges where you'll likely never shoot.

That's it.

hunting in Florida, at least where I go, is a short range affair. I sight in to be an inch high at 75 yards. I have not killed a deer past that range in many years. Well, there was one at a stepped off 250 yards, but that was an anomaly.

Yep there is a lot of this around here.

I develop loads from a bench at 100 yds, zero the scope whatever way strickes my fancy, then shoot reactive targets at between 255 & 378 yds (distance allowed in local hayfield).

One day a guy drove up behind me, looked at my milk jugs strewn across the hillside at 255 & asked if I was shooting a 50 BMG (he thought that was quite a distance). You can image the look of disbelief he had when I said no, just 223, 243, and 257. He kinda scoffed like I was putting him on and drove away.

For all the hoopla surrounding "stunt shooting" and such, I get more concerned about the guys who shoot once a year at maybe 100 yds, verify their rifle is "on" (which in itself is relative) then "hunt".

Scary.

I've been ringing steel at 77 yards of late, offhand with a Red Ryder. Lots of holdover but you can follow the BB during the entirety of its journey.

I haven't done stuff like that since I was a kid. Damn, was/is that a lot of fun.

I fudge a little in between for the reasons JMR40 mentions, but keep it simple with no dials nor range finders.

I sight my .30-06 big game rifle in for 2 1/2" high at 100 and used to check POI at 150, 200, 250 and 300 though haven't done much of that in recent years.

My critter calling rifle in .243 is sighted in a scant 3/4" high at 100 with a low mounted 32mm objective lens scope. My intent with that one is to thread bullets through the hole I'm looking/aiming through inside of 75 yards, and yet be good on fur out to 150.

I have shot over the back of one deer at 120 yards when all I could see was his back line, but killed him the second shot by breaking his neck. Also shot over a couple of coyotes at 75-100 with the 30-06.

Killed a buck at 260 yards last year with the 06 and hit him within an inch of aiming point. Also killed a buck at 110 yards by aiming right at a fir branch covering his shoulder, and broke his spine as I anticipated. Having sighted the same for 30 years and remembering what it does helps.

Nothing wrong with dials and range finders but simple still works to keep meat in the freezer.

Used to lay on the hay in our barn and shoot BB's at the neighbor's chickens about 75 yards away. Pure fun.

I'm kind of restricted by the location of a good backstop. I don't like shooting level with a rifle without knowing where the bullet is going to stop. When I hunt, it is always from a tree or tower stand. Mostly so that I can shoot down on the deer. There is much less chance of the bullet leaving my property if I do that and that keeps the neighbors cows happy. We have a 100 yard and 400 yard range, but nearly all hunting shots are under 100.

Im a whole lot less worried about the target being a whole number away than I am with my bullets striking the target in a nice little hole. If I can do math to get to long range...I can do it starting anywhere, besides.....shooting "long range" without actual validation is wreckless.

I found out that if you build your kid a sling shot, they'll be gone for hours....

I've damn near emptied a bottle of 2500 BB's in the past 1 1/2 months.

Worked for Jack O'Connor and it still works for me.

Dead on at 25, 2.5-3 inches high at 100 equals max point blank range.