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

For NE whitetails, a 50 yd zero puts me +1/3" at 100 and -1/2" at 150.
This is a 7-08 pushing 139 Interlocks at about 2850.

using standard leupold duplex... 165gr 308 2 inches high at 100 will get me out to 300 dropping it right in the the breathers if i put the crosshairs on top of the back

i use the SBC Ballistics calculator lite Iphone app to figure drop

but it depends on the cal and load

I'll throw this into the mix. I live in Oregon, but am from Virginia. I've hunted North Carolina, Virginia, West Va, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington and Oregon in my life time.. and Montana ONCE.

I am a Medical person, which is maybe where I get the logic for this from...

An adult antelope is 14 inches from Backbone to breast bone, regardless of body weight.

the average white tail is around 16 inches from backbone to breast bone, regardless of body weight..

an adult elk is 24 inches from backbone to breast bone.


My thoughts are to use the antelope size for my zeroing the rifle....so cut that number in half, and that gives me a target window of 7 inches.
Looking at trajectory charts many years ago, taking a look at a spitzer bullet, regardless of caliber.
If your muzzle velocity is 2250 fps, if zeroed 3.5 inches high at 100 yds, your bullet should be dead on at 200 yds.
and 3.5 inches LOW at between 230 to 240 yds.

Since 90% of all game is shot at less than 100 yds, and 95 to 99% shot at less than 200 yds, that gives me a point blank range just short of 250 yds.
and that is within the 30/30s specs, if the shooter can hold steady enough for that.. which most folks who shoot often can.

if one has a flatter shooting cartridge, that will give you a further out point blank range... to cover that last 1 to 5% of deer that sneak past that 95 to 99% Point Blank Range.

so a Whitetail is a little bigger, looking at the skeletal window of opportunity.. a mule deer a little more at 17 inches backbone to breast bone.
then an elk at 24 inches backbone to breast bone, it should be even easier.

I get enough practice shooting sage rats in the spring and summer, which are about as tall full grown as a 12 ounce water bottle.
After sending a couple thousand rounds down range at them each year, out to 200 yds.... come the fall.. a deer standing at 300 yds, looks the size of a dump truck in the scope set on 4 power.

Last part of this formula, is just trigger time at the range, getting your trigger finger pull synched with your hand to eye coordination..

This formula doesn't really matter if you and your rifle is a half inch shooter at 100 yds, or a 2 inch shooter...

just using your head, and practice time...

and if a deer is at 100 yds, regardless of your rifle being zeroed dead on at 100 or 3.5 inches high.. you will hit your target,
unless you get "buck fever" and jerk the trigger, or your hand to eye coordination needs work due to lack of practice.

as my granddad use to tell us boys, when we were kids... use your head, your ass will follow. West Virginia logic...

best of luck out there this season...

The range in my back yard is only 85 yards so 1" high at 85 for me. In over 35 years of hunting in Maine I have only shot two deer there were about 100 yards one with an open sighted Model 94 30/30 ( my first deer) and the other with a Ruger #1 30/06 with a Leupold 6x36. All the others have been under 50 yards.

100 yard zero usually. Sometimes 50 if I'm in a hurry. Longest poke I've taken at a critter is 70 yards, and the shortest is 15 feet.

Not to be a smarta$$, but is there a deer woods in RI where you can actually hunt with a scoped rifle? I’m stuck in SE MA for the foreseeable future, and I’m depressed with the hunting possibilities that exist here. Lord, get me back to the Green Mountain National Forest!

So New England hunters should base their zeroing range based on the vital zone size of an antelope? What does any of this have to do with hunting in New England?

Dead on at 100 or an inch high seems to be the two most common zeros in PA.

Mrchongo,
you might be surprised at the amount of people hunting RI with a high powered scope on their muzzleloaders and shotguns. I don’t. I run a red dot or peep sights. Very few places with shots over 60-70 yards on public land. Private land may have some 100 to 150 yard shots. However they’re rare.

Wherever I may be I'll take my little 1.5-4x20 scope set to 1.5x over iron sights anytime.

Actively chasing and tracking deer in blowing snow and thick cedars/hemlocks are where the Skinner setups shine.
Shots are close and fast. Gotta be ready.
Scopes with moisture all over the lenses hinder.

50yds dead on works well.

50 yards for irons
100 yards for scopes most shots are 75 yards or less by me 200 max on power lines

Pa, not New England.
Used to watch open fields out to "too damn far", hunted Colarado.
7mm/300 mags zeroed at 200 yards.

Gave up the trips, don't hunt fields as much. Missed a gimme at the
back if a does head off a solid rest, pretty sure it was because I forgot
to "aim low".

Now, 308, Swede, and yes, 760 '06, all hit dead on at 100.
Very little deviation over the 100 yard I'm likely to shoot, no need to
be concerned about drop out aways.

I hunt the Catskills in upstate NY. I think I've only killed one deer at over 100 yards. I sight in everything, 243, 30-30, 308, 30-06 & muzzleloader, dead-on at 100 yards. K.I.S.S.