Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 26 yard zero??

i've been zero'ing at 25 yards for all my life. thats the way i was shown and it works for almost all calibers out to my reasonable shooting ranges. but theres no substitute for banging away at 200 yards to make sure.

While in theory the 25yd zero is good, there are some practical reasons that one should shoot at least to 100 when zeroing a scope.

Let's say you fire 3 rounds at 25 yds and assume the center of that group is really the true average center of the point of impact for the gun. Let's also say you have some parallax to the mix and say they stack up for a 1/2" error at 25 yds. That equates to a 2" error at 100 yds, and a 4" error at 200 yds. Let's say we're using factory ammo with a real world 2 moa accuracy. At 200 yds the 4" error plus the 4" grouping of the ammo means even without wind the shot could be 8" off the aiming point. That's enough to through the shot out of the vitals.

I can't imagine being too lazy to walk to the 100yd berm to set up a target, and I've found by pulling the bolt and lining up the bore with the target then zeroing the scope I'll be on paper and able to zero the scope in 10 rounds or less.

have always used 25 yards as a start when dialing in a newly mounted scope. if its where those cross hair thingy's meet I then go out to 100 and get it where I want it.