Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting New England Deer Hunters. Do you zero at 100 yards? 150 yards? 200 yards?

I've read where a lot of still hunters say their average shot in harvesting deer is 60 yards (or way less than 100 yards in general). Just wondering what you guys recommend based on your experiences.

I’m 1” high at 100 yd on my Eastern rifles. I pretty much shoot for my exit in most cases. I hunt in Vermont, New Hampshire & Maine.

I only add the inch to my trajectory to enable me to tacks the rare ‘power line’ shot with my short barreled tracking guns.

I’m the same as PintsofCraft.

I zero dead on at 75 yards. I have had to “thread the needle” on numerous shots on deer. This means taking into account limbs that may be between me and the deer. I have seen pencil thick limbs deflect a 180 grain round nose 30 caliber bullet enough to go from a perfect center of the chest shot to a clean miss at 75 yards away. It’s rare to ever have a clear path between you and the deer. Good clear optics, and knowing the exact path of your bullet helps a lot.

My Maine hunting rifle is a rem 7600 in 358 win and I sight in at 40 yards that puts it .22”high at 100 and 5.5” low at 200.

Below is a comparison for one of my most common loads in a .308 bolt gun. Most of my rifles are zero'd at 100 yards for threading the needle like miguel mentioned. That said, in most cases it's not going to make a difference.

200 yard zero
Range Trajectory
0 -1.5
50 0.6
100 1.6
150 1.4
200 0


100 yard zero
Range Trajectory
0 -1.5
50 -0.2
100 0
150 -1
200 -3.2

I keep a Remington 760 in 30-06 cached in Etna, NH, that is zeroed at 100 yards with 180 grain Hornady American Whitetail factory ammo.

Reguardless of where I'm still-hunting or what I'm still-hunting for, more of those shots presented themselves under 60 yards than over.

I zero at 200 if it has a scope. Then you're able to hold on the lungs from 0-300 with no problems at all.

With my 2 open site rifles, I zero at 100.

I used to sight everything in dead on at 50. Even scoped rifles. They were about 1.5" high at 100, pretty close at 200. At that time I never considered a shot at 300. Have been hunting west a bit over the last few years. So, 250-300 is very possible.

I sight all my family's rifles dead on at 100yds, has seemed to work for 20yrs. Woods with small clearings. Calibers .243 win through Aught 6.

100 yard zero hunting in VT, ME and CT. In over 40 years of hunting, I had 1 opportunity over 100 yards, that was in Maine on a Powerline right of way. At 50 yards with most cartridges, the +/- is usually less than .5

I am not in the New England area (anymore), after a career in the US Coast Guard. I'm originally from Upstate New York (Poughkeepsie area), and have friends & relatives all over NY, NH, and southern VT.

After I retired from the USCG, my wife and I decided to settle down here in Richmond, VA. Now, now, now.... Virginia is okay. It's hot & humid in the summers, but it's manageable. The winters are sometimes cold with temps in the 20's at night, on the coldest of nights. Snow brings the state to a halt, as everyone loses their freakin' minds...

Anyway, getting to the point: The heavy woods in the western part of VA out in the George Washington National Forest, (i.e. along I-81, Blue Ridge Pkwy, Skyline Drive, etc...) can get really thick with timber. I keep my Savage .308 sighted at 1" high at 100 yards. No more than that, as it's all I need. I know some old timers around VA who still hunt with an old Winchester 30-30 with open sights, and they bag deer every single season!

Not a New Englander here, either. I'm from Virginia, too. I zero my .308s and .30-06s at 25 yards. They will hit about 2.5 inches high at 100 yards. I zero my .270s at 50 yards. Likewise, they will hit a couple inches high at 100 yards. All of them will hit within 6 inches out to about 250 yards - way further than I have ever taken a deer.

I zero 1 inch high at 50yds muzzle loader 270 don’t matter

I am a Wyomingite, but I do zero some of my rifles at 100. My flintlock is zeroed at 75 and 150 (2 blade rear sight)
Rifles I have zeroed at 100 are:
30-30.
One of my two 300 Savages (loaded with 180 grain bullets)
My 303 Brit (also has 2 other blad3es for 200 and 300 yd zeros)
One of my 9.3X57s
My 6.5X54 M/S (also has a 200 yard blade)
my 35 Remington

I use these all for killing whitetails in the river bottoms but I have also killed antelope with 4 of them too, out in the open prairies.
I want to kill an elk with the Remington M81 in 300 Savage, but have not done that yet.

That is exactly what my father did. Sighted in at 25 and then checked out further. He used a 270.

I hunt in NE KY. I normally hunt with 30-somethings (30-06, 308 WIN, etc). However, the method I use works with a whole range of chamberings.

I sight in at 100 yards and set the zero 2 inches high. I can then put the crosshairs where I want on a whitetail at any practical range and be assured I'm shooting somewhere within 4 inches without worrying about elevation. For my 30-06, that means well out past 200 yards , which is the furthest range I'm going to shoot.

Not a New Englander but I probably hunt somewhat similar forested terrain here in Michigan. I zero my deer rifles for 100 yards. I realize that a 200 yard zero is more efficient but my average shooting distance has been about 60 yards with several inside of 30 yards.

Going the chorus above, zero at 100 with scoped rifle, 75 yds for open sight levers, hunt in CT, RI and VT.

I zero at 25 because it is easy and I don't hold over, I don't hold under, I just point and shoot and kill deer. If I lived in the West, it may be a different story but not here. People seem to forget the power of these rifles and the damage they do. An inch or twe one way or the other means nothing but dead game.

Up here in Maine where the woods are thick I zero at 50yds very rarely do you get a shot over that.