John,
I read your article on sighting in, and just the subject--and some of the types of stories--took me a step back in time...
I can recall just starting the learning curve of scope sighted center fires in the early 1970's.
Back then, Weaver scopes came in yellow boxes, and I recall one of them having an insert inside titled:
"No One Else Can Sight In A Rifle For You. Here's How You Can Do It."
The article was from Outdoor Life, October 1947, by Jack O'Connor.
In the article he recommends a preliminary sight in at 25 yards, striking the point of aim. Then, to move back to 100 yards and sight in 3 inches high. I tried that a time or two back then, but wasn't satisfied.
One cold, late October night back in 1973, I walked a couple miles out to Bill Beyl's home, carrying my rifle. When I arrived, he was eating supper, and his kid was in a high chair--arrayed in his Halloween costume! Bill was ready to sight it in for me. We drove out back with his truck, and set up a target at 50 yards. It was dark, so we used the headlights of his truck to accomplish the task. He zeroed the rig in three shots. At that point Bill told me, "you want that bullet to hit one half inch high at 50 yards." This was a practice I used for the next couple decades.
It was almost exactly 20 years later that I read an article in Outdoor Life by Jim Carmichael titled:
"A Short Cut To Sighting In" dated November 1993.
In the article, he stated that in testing many rifles and different bullet weights, he came to the general conclusion (me paraphrasing), that if a person were to sight in their rifle one half inch high at 50 yards, most big bore cartridges in most bullet weights will hit within 3 inches of where you aim at 200 yards...
It caught my eye because it was essentially what Bill taught me to do 20 years earlier. They both are, and were--amazing shooters...
Thanks for the info, and bringing back some of the memories!
