Software.....



I'm not sure that everyone wants to get into the mechanics of shooting, but let's just say that we need a stable rest (bipod and rear bag helps here), a neutral straight body position behind the rifle, correct hand and trigger finger placement, no torque on the grip, good cheekweld, etc. Then we must get a smooth break on the trigger with no disturbance. Doing this will let us get a good zero and hit targets. Doing the above correctly with practice will let us spot our own trace/hits through the scope during recoil....



Zeroing:


All guns fire in a "cone". Some fire in bigger cones and some smaller, but they all fire in a cone. 3 rounds are not enough to show where the center of the cone will be. If you don't believe this fire five, 3 round groups on five separate, but identical targets and then overlay all 15 shots. You'll see that your ".5MOA all day long" guns, aren't. Or you can just shoot 10 round groups and it will show the same thing. Doing so (yes, even with normal hunting rifles), will show you what the gun really will do, and it ensures that when we zero we are actually zeroing to the center of the "cone". All rounds fired count. There aren't any "fliers", "pulled shots", or "off days" BS. Those are all excuses for why a gun that we think is .5MOA or whatever, isn't. Guess what- it's not. SInce we are trying to actually hit things, we need to know what the mechanical accuracy of the gun is and where every single round fired will land.



This what we are looking for-

[Linked Image]



POA was the tip of the diamond that used to be there.





Zero at 100 yards. Not 2 inches high at 100, or zeroing for 300 yards at 100, or anything else. Zero point of aim, point of impact at 100 yards. We want to know that at a set range that our bullets are impacting where the crosshairs are. This allows us to check zero correctly. Yes, you could zero at 300 yards if you had a 300 yard range, however at 300 you're dealing with the environment, winds, etc. Also how many places have 300 yard ranges? With a 100 yard zero there is less than a quarter of an inch difference in impact between 60 to 120 yards or so. A 100 yard zero allows you to check it almost anywhere.

Also there is a benefit in use of always dialing "up". It's simpler, easier and removes a variable.





When you're zeroing and need to make a correction, you do it by "reading" the reticle in the scope or spotter. Place the reticle on the target or bullet hole and read how many mils that you need to adjust to bring it to center. Do not think in inches. If you are doing it right, your spotter will just say- "up .7 and right .8". Just like that. Corrections are given in direction then distance, in that order. It cuts down confusion and speeds the process up. Avoid telling the shooter (or thinking to yourself) where he missed, ie. "you were 1 foot low". Telling someone that they missed by "looks like a foot and a half, maybe two feet" doesn't help him hit the target. Telling him- "left 1.7" does.

In use it becomes painfully obvious to those without why the shooter and spotter working in the same units with both having reticles is SO superior to guessing. Doing this even when zeroing makes it easier and quicker to do it when shooting longer.


When you start shooting past 100 yards the whole process becomes critical. Mistakes add up fast and it doesn't take much to miss the vitals of a deer (or an elk facing you...).






Shot setup:


This is the process I go through for every shot-



Shooter:

See target (animal)
Range
Get into the best position available
Dial elevation
Turn scope power up
Check parallax (if available and range is far enough to matter)
Find NPA
Tell spotter your elevation and that you are ready and wait for the wind call...



Spotter:

While the shooter is getting ready you get the spotting scope on the target and start making a wind call.

Once you have the wind you give the correction. IE. "left .4"



As the shooter you have to be ready to fire as soon as you say "ready" and get the wind call. It's a command, not permission. When the spotter says "left .4" you need to fire NOW. You have to get the round off before the spotter needs to blink. No more then 5-8 seconds.


At the shot the shooter follows through, and chambers another round, and the spotter watches for trace and splash. If you do it correctly it'll be a hit and the spotter says "hit". If not the spotter gives a correction by reading the trace or splash with the reticle and immediately tells the shooter. Lets say the shot landed .3 to the right from center. All the spotter does is add .3 to his last call. So the only thing that the shooter would hear is "left .7", and he would hold left .7 and send it. This works even if it's a hit but not center. Say the hit was too far back on a coyote, just give the correction to bring them to center.



Now what if you don't have a spotter with a reticle. Well first off that sucks. However all is not lost. I overcome it by asking the shooter how big the target is. As an example if we're hunting he can tell me that from back to brisket on the deer is 1 mil. This gives me a ruler in my mind and actually works better than you think that it would. If neither of you have reticles in the scope or spotter shame on you, but you can still work it. You can say that from back to brisket is "1 unit" and then break it down from there. If you tell him "down .5 unit" then he can see that you want to him to come down half the distance of the chest. It works for wind calls as well, though without a reticle I try to stay in "favors and edge holds".












All of this may seem over the top, or "snipery", but it's not. A lot of this stuff you do already and you just don't know it. While maybe hard to understand it all from reading, it is really quite simple and it works. This is how the best shooters on the planet shoot.



Hope it made some sense or at least gave you an idea of where some of us are coming from as I'm tired and going to sleep.