Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 3 " high @ 100 yards

Like some of you, I grew up almost memorizing every word that Jack O'Connor wrote. He told us western hunters to sight our rifles in to shoot 3 inches high at 100 yards. He told us that this would be best for most cartridges with muzzle velocities around and above 2700 fps. Of course there are exceptions but this was a very general rule. This would give many rifle/caliber combinations point blank range at about 250-280 yards. I see many ballistics tables using a 200 yard zero. I understand that there are many different factors. I also know that we have some wonderful optics that were not around in the forties, fifties, sixties and even in the 1970s. I really meant to ask a very simple question. Do most of you sight your rifles in to shoot 3" high at 100 yards?

Most of the hunters I know here, like gunsmithes, use to sight their rifles with an impact 4 cm (about 1,75 inch) high at 100 meters in order to have our rifles sighted at MRD which means optimal zero range.

Now a days many of us have chronographs and fairly precision rifles. Some of my rifles are zero'ed at 200 and some at 250. I've even sighted my rifle in so the post of my duplex cross hair was dead on at 400 - knowing I was going hunting where long shots were the norm.

I've never sighted my rifle in 3" high at 100. If you don't have the time or place to shoot longer distances then attempting to take game at long range is unethical in my opinion.

I believe one is best to sight his rifle in for the distance he is mostly like to shoot. Most of my game is shot at distances between 200 and 300 yards.

I'm generally no more than an 1" high at 100, often dead on.

Nice to thread a needle up close, which is where it is usually needed.

If you are going to have to use Kentucky holdover, it is easier to hold 3 inches low at 100 yards than to have it sighted in for 100 yards and try to hold 12 or 15 inches over at 250 yards.

O'Connor was hunting out West, for mule deer, blacktails, elk, sheep, mountain goat - where he was more likely to have a 250 yard shot than a 100-yard shot.

All my guns are sighted dead on at 100yds some of my guns have turrets to spin for longer distance others I dont shoot as far so 100 works for me.

Dead on at 200yds. That's where I zero all my rifles. I don't have to think about it, that's where it's at. Then I shoot them at 100 and 300yds and note how much over and under I am. This info is then taped to the rifle.

One exception, is the 6.5x55 carbine that I use for deep cover hunting. I sight it for 100yds dead on and check at 50yds and again at 200 and 300.

I like to zero my rifles to be spot on for 200 yards. Most of the time that puts my bullet are about 2 inches high at 100 yards. I like to keep my bullets as close to the line of sight as I can and still have reasonable zero. Snake river has it right, you need to shoot at different ranges once sighted to know were those bullets are going to hit. Been doing the ballistics taped to my rifle for years.

1" to 1.5" high at 100 generally puts most flat shooting rifles close to dead on at 200, while keeping the rifle close to dead on for closer shots - that's the way I like them.

With turrets or dots and LRF's, longer shots are pretty easy, and there's usually time on the long ones. If one needs to be precise and quick, it's usually up closer IME, so I don't want to be 3" or more off on closer shots.

I rattle a fair bit, and it's amazing how often I can see part of a deer at under 100 yards and may need to "thread the needle" as Steelhead said.

DJ

I used to go 2" high, but am going to change to dead on at 100 yards. Most of my shots are within 130 yards.

I guess I'm one of the only holdouts to the old JOC sight-in rule. I'm not quite old enough to have read much of JOC when he was in his prime, just a few of his last articles when he was writing for Petersen's Hunting right before he died. However, my Dad was (is) a big JOC fan and had many of his books which I also read. My Dad also saved a bunch of old Outdoor Life mags where I read O'Connor. My Dad always sights his rifles in for 3" high at 100 and I have done likewise for my near 30 year big game hunting career. For most of my rifles, this works out just fine. I don't like messing around with turrets or adjusting my scope in the field since the small variables I prefer are not that reliable in making accurate changes and won't necessarily return to zero just cause you moved the dial. I also don't like fooling with the new multi-marked reticles. Therefore, when sighted in at 3" high at 100 yards, I know I can hold dead on out to 300 yards without having to adjust my hold. I know that at 150 yards, I'll be a little high, but it's never caused me to lose an animal. I also know that at 400 yards, I'm going to be around 12" low, so can hold accordingly. This works well with my 270 Win, 30-06, 338, 375, etc. Now, I did just get a 300 Wby and that has me re-thinking this 3" high sight-in since that will put me over 4" high out around 150-180 yards, which might be a little too much. Bottom line, I guess, is there are a few of us "ol' timers" still out here using the tried and true.
Test

3 high will work for most guns. I shoot 8mm rem mag for elk and bear with 200gn np works great.

Used to shoot my rifles 3" high at 100... untill I realized that 90% of the stuff I missed... I shot over. 200 yard zero for all my rifles now... even the ones with turrets. That makes me good out to 300... then the turrets (or dots... thanks Dober) take over.

Well... I've never liked the concept of PBR, I guess because I didn't start shooting high powered rifles until about 10 years ago. Likewise, I really have not read much of what the writers say about it so I didn't get 'branded' by anyone like JOC.

While I'm not the saltiest pretzel in the bag by any stretch, it seems to me that a 100-yard zero works best for the vast majority of game shooting, and, this being the new millenium and all, if a guy wants to shoot far there are MUCH more precise ways to do that then the crude concept of PBR, which just has our subject hunter putting a bullet "somewhere in the vitals". Well, I like to know more precisely than that where my bullet is going.

So I decided to zero dead nuts at 100 yards and that has worked very well for me for blacktail hunting. Keeps things really simple if I'm shooting through a hole in the brush.

If you run turrets, a dead-nuts 100 yard zero works fine because you are compensating anyway at longer ranges.

However, if you are running a ranging reticle you have to zero it such that the reticle works right... this puts me, normally, somewhere between 1.5 and 2" high. I don't like it, but in the end, it's OK... I guess <g>.

If a reticle required me to be 3" high at 100, I wouldn't use it. That's too high- IMHO, for how I hunt.

Problem is, 3" high is not the max when zeroed 3 high at 100.

My Dad was zeroed 3 high with 130 TSX's in his 270 last year, and missed some gimme meat shots (he usually breaks their necks when meat hunting) at the end of the season last year. Took him a couple to figure it out, down 8 or 10 clicks, and he killed the next 3 like usual.

He might have even been a hair over 3" high - worked fine on a 225 yard shot on his biggest whitetail ever and a 400+ yard shot on a hog; however, these shots were out west in the big country while the meat shots were in the cedar breaks near home.

Different country and hunting makes a difference on what works best.

DJ

Nuff said for me!!

I've been using 3" high for...well, since about 1969 or thereabouts.I still use it and it works just fine with the 30/06,7 mag with most bullets,270,300 Win,etc etc.

But these days with certain bullets and cartridges you have to watch it..the reason is VERY fast cartridges and super slick bullets will shoot too high at mid range.When this happens it usually also happens that you could still be high at 300 yards,so I drop my 100 yard impact to 2-2.5" high and this straightens everything out.Generally I get a 300 yard zero with the fast cartridges; a 270 is generally 2-3" low at 300;about a foot low at 400.

All this MUST be done precisely,and it's helpful if you are using an accurate rifle.T'is also a good idea to check all this out as far as you will shoot,not only from the bags to determine impact, but also FROM YOUR FIELD POSITIONS to be sure your rifle holds zero going from the bags to the alternative positions.

Repetetive practice is the key....

I use 3" high for my 35 whelen shooting 250 grain NPs.

I use 2 1/2" high for my 06, and various magnums.

It all works

I have never subscribed to the PBR. All mine are dead on at 100.

I have shot darn few animals over a 100,but aheck of alot at less than 100

Doing mostly big sky type country, I zero most speedy units to zero at 300. That's between 3 and 2.5" high at a 100 depending on the unit in hand. I don't even think about giving air over the back until range exceeds 400. Brush busters like 45-70's etc at dead on at 100.