Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Fitting the target to the reticle

I shot these targets Saturday to show fitting the target to the reticle works quite well even at low magnification. The scope I used has a relatively fine reticle and with it set to 4x I can nicely line up on these targets at 100 yards. I kept the scope on 4x, dialed in some elevation, and shot the blank sheet of paper at 300 yards. All groups were five shots each.

100 yards:





Same groups covered by dimes:




300 yards:

I've been using a smaller aiming point and or lower magnification for years.

A few days ago I was out shooting my NULA 22 RF as I had swapped scopes. The rifle had shot pretty well but not where I thought it should. This after a fair bit using all versions of SK and many others. That said I decided to shoot at an open area and use that hole as my target. Routine 1/4" 5 shot groups, yeah nearly one hole, happened with SK Semi Auto. The scope I swapped from was one of the coveted VXII 3-9x Rimfire PA that came with the rifle to a much brighter and equally precise, it appears, new VX Freedom 3-9 PA rimfire scope.

Iron sights on an AR15:

4 shots at 100 yards:


22LR iron sights with proper size bullseye for the aperture at 50 yards:


10 shots^^

Different 22lr:



Savage Mk2 22LR with proper size target:


10 shots^^

Yote at 400 yards:



1" orange pastie at 400 yards. Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/j7BsTtV.jpg[/img]

1" orange pastie at 400 yards. Tikka 22-250:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ebVP86B.jpg[/img]

A good example of this is the Hunter Benchrest class in IBS and NBRSA. Scopes are 6 power and the scores put up are amazing. -Al

Sometimes a higher magnification coupled with extremely fine simple crosshairs is just the ticket. I couldn't have done this over the last weekend with a low magnification hunting scope with a thick reticle. Being able to quarter the aiming point, in this case the 3/4" white 25-ring on the ASSRA 100yd. smallbore BR Score target, was made infinitely easier with a 16x Fecker fitted with .0005" tungsten wire crosshairs.

BSA Martini International MK I, Eley Tenex ammo. Fairly steady 5-6mph wind from 12:00 which I (mostly) doped pretty well, except for one shot in each group when my mind said "don't shoot" and my trigger finger disobeyed. Still not bad. These and similar targets cinched a victory at our local ASSRA Schuetzenverein meet.

Sure, but that's a case where you have to use a particular target.

another type of target is just use the cardboard from a frozen pizza " i save mine for targets " i have people just shoot at the center of the pizza cardboard with no markings on this cardboard. all the shooters i help seem to understand this type of target better than a bulleyes ,i tell them its more like shooting at a animal . you would be surprised how well those groups are with a 4x scope at 100 yards . i agree for hunting 4x -6x works just fine and for many on targets too. > Mathman nice shooting ! Pete53

BSA, In one of the above photos, I see some Federal Auto Match on the bench...your honest opinion of it when fired in SAAMI style mass production chamber?

The aiming black on those iron sight targets is gigantic. Why so large BSA?

Very good shooting men!

I'll suppose that the front sight aperture matched the large black bullseye.

I believe that's how one of the front sight inserts for my father's old match rifle is sized. He competed shooting a Winchester 52 in smallbore before I was born.

Yep, There's a myriad of front sight apertures to be had for every mass produced globe front sight out there. If a fella only owns one or two apertures he would be wise to select a bullseye that fits one or the other - a very thin sliver of light should show around the b'eye when viewed through the front aperture. Basically when you see nothing but black through the sight you give the final squeeze to the trigger. That whole process can be equated to the original premise of the thread. (Sorry for applying it bass-ackwards earlier!)

Thanks for the responses guys. My posting was a bit of tongue in cheek humor for BSA. He once posted a picture of a 1000 yard NRA target commenting that it was huge. With a 44" black they are smaller in proportion to what he posted above.

The aperture/iris definitely needs to be sized for the aiming black or vice versa. Current practice, for NRA long range at least, is to leave quite a bit of white ring around the bull when sighting. There can be optical "illusions" and/or light refraction issues with a narrow sliver of white resulting in a bad shot that looks perfect through the sights. 33%, 33%, 33% of white,black,white is a good starting point.

Good post, mathman. The title of the thread is fitting?

I like having the reticle cover almost all of the aiming point, but have no idea what that looks like to someone else! So what works for me might not work for someone else. However, it seems like a lot of shooters select bigger targets the lower the magnification, without giving it much thought.

I had a Leupold 1.75-6x32 with a heavy duplex reticle. The thin parts of the reticle were right at one moa thick. So I made large plus symbol targets with bars 1" thick and they were just right for that scope at 100 yards. With the scope on one of my 308s I had no problem printing five shot groups well under moa.

It's a good thread, Mathman.

My preference places the reticle against a white background, bracketed by black squares for alignment. The bottom target uses one inch squares which, at 100 yds, works well for scopes with magnification of about 6x and higher. The top target uses two inch squares, which is useful for magnification less than 6x. An added benefit is that measurements are on the paper, so sight-in for "set and forget" sights can be accomplished through a spotting scope.

I use "bracketing squares" targets too when I haven't got around to making a reticle specific version.

Bracketing is good especially if you have a spotter when the target is round… and they call clock face this so you can adjust.