22LR Zero
- Thread starter Furlan1098R
- Start date
What matches are more common in your area?
I've gone to a different system, where my turrets aren't zeroed at any specific distance. I just tell Strelok where my bullets hit at one distance (100m in my case, by fairly arbitrary choice), and true it for other factors, and it tells me where to dial/hold for any distance in any environmental condition. For elevation, I go with about 2.6 mil Up on the turret at 100m, for one certain atmospheric condition.
There had been a pretty lengthy discussion regarding this on SH somewhat recently.
https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...ust-zero-now-expanded-to-other-areas.6990027/
For what its worth, after reading it all I changed from zeroing my rifle at 50m to zeroing it at 32m. All adjustments are up, zero is very minimally (if any) affected by environment/spin drift.
Seems strange advice to zero at 100m. Not sure what benefit that would offer unless you have so much cant built into your rail/mount for ELR purposes that you can't zero closer - and even then the extra ~1.8 mil you'd gain only gets you another 15-20m of range at ELR distances.
https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...ust-zero-now-expanded-to-other-areas.6990027/
For what its worth, after reading it all I changed from zeroing my rifle at 50m to zeroing it at 32m. All adjustments are up, zero is very minimally (if any) affected by environment/spin drift.
Seems strange advice to zero at 100m. Not sure what benefit that would offer unless you have so much cant built into your rail/mount for ELR purposes that you can't zero closer - and even then the extra ~1.8 mil you'd gain only gets you another 15-20m of range at ELR distances.
What advantage is there to zeroing at 32m?
Zeroing at 50yds makes the drop for 25 and 75yds the same. ORPS is only shot at 25, 50, 75 and 100yds. This makes remembering dope really easy. 0.7, zero, 0.7, 2.0.
And zeroing at 100yds for longer range matches means I can reach 350yds on the first rotation of my turret.
And zeroing at 100yds for longer range matches means I can reach 350yds on the first rotation of my turret.
*At 32m (for my guns velocity/height of scope - varies depending on setup)* your zero is minimally affected by environmental conditions and at all other ranges, you are dialing up (or holding over), never holding under or dialing down.
In the PRS game, where you zero doesn't really matter, because we are always shooting different distances and dialing or holding over from our zero for every shot. What matters is having a very accurate zero.
As a test, on 10 different days with varying weather conditions, take a previously zeroed 100m rifle and shoot 10 different groups without adjusting for the environment of that day. If zero day had a 5mph left to right wind, and the next day had a 2mph tail wind, and another had a 10mph 3/4 value wind, (and on and on) .. a 100m "zero" is going to be covering most of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper.
At 25-30m, no matter the condition you might shift 1/2" in any direction.
Its the same reason that in centerfire PRS, despite almost all targets being in the 300m-1000m ranges, we still zero our rifles almost exclusively at 100m
- all adjustments up, zero minimally affected by conditions.
More important to spend your time developing DOPE and learning wind to adjust for the further shots than to constantly have to modify your zero to fit the conditions of that particular day/hour/minute.
In the PRS game, where you zero doesn't really matter, because we are always shooting different distances and dialing or holding over from our zero for every shot. What matters is having a very accurate zero.
As a test, on 10 different days with varying weather conditions, take a previously zeroed 100m rifle and shoot 10 different groups without adjusting for the environment of that day. If zero day had a 5mph left to right wind, and the next day had a 2mph tail wind, and another had a 10mph 3/4 value wind, (and on and on) .. a 100m "zero" is going to be covering most of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper.
At 25-30m, no matter the condition you might shift 1/2" in any direction.
Its the same reason that in centerfire PRS, despite almost all targets being in the 300m-1000m ranges, we still zero our rifles almost exclusively at 100m
- all adjustments up, zero minimally affected by conditions. More important to spend your time developing DOPE and learning wind to adjust for the further shots than to constantly have to modify your zero to fit the conditions of that particular day/hour/minute.
Last edited:
So you need to re zero everytime you shoot based off of atmospheric conditions?
I like and can appreciate the reasons for zeroing at a closer distance as indicated by the others above. Less chance of environmental shift and always dialing up if you use a zero stop that won't allow you to go below 0.
At the end of the day I don't think it matters as long as you know what it is, its accurate/consistent and you get trigger time to document data in different conditions and distances.
Is there a specific reason for 32 meters/35 yards vs 25 meters or yards?
50 does seem like a long way for 22 LR as it is affected by environmental factors.
I guess I should be less lazy and just read the thread posted by rlaunay...
Edited, found the reason...
"Yeah. At 35 or 40 yard zero, everything from 10y and out, is all UP. But at 30y zero, 35 and 40y is a tenth down.
Since a common yardage for nrl22 stages seems to be 35y (particularly paper stages), a 35 or 40y zero works perfect."
At the end of the day I don't think it matters as long as you know what it is, its accurate/consistent and you get trigger time to document data in different conditions and distances.
Is there a specific reason for 32 meters/35 yards vs 25 meters or yards?
50 does seem like a long way for 22 LR as it is affected by environmental factors.
I guess I should be less lazy and just read the thread posted by rlaunay...
Edited, found the reason...
"Yeah. At 35 or 40 yard zero, everything from 10y and out, is all UP. But at 30y zero, 35 and 40y is a tenth down.
Since a common yardage for nrl22 stages seems to be 35y (particularly paper stages), a 35 or 40y zero works perfect."
Last edited:
Another perk to the closer zero is that minor variations in MV between standard velocity rounds of various types won't make meaningful differences in your zero.
For instance, when I practice with cci sv or sk standard at MV around 1070, I don't need to adjust my zero from my SK LRM zero i shoot in matches at ~1120 fps. I just run different setups in my calculator for the different velocities for dope out further and it works great.
For instance, when I practice with cci sv or sk standard at MV around 1070, I don't need to adjust my zero from my SK LRM zero i shoot in matches at ~1120 fps. I just run different setups in my calculator for the different velocities for dope out further and it works great.
No, I just change the environmental parameters in my calculator and it tells me the solution for each distance in those conditions.
Your zero shifts with these parameters every time you go out (sometimes every hour while you are at the range if weather is changing). So you'd have to chase it and be tweaking your turrets to do it any other way.
Reading the messages here about zeroing at 25/35/50m because it is less affected by environmental changes, I do see some validity to that. I ran the numbers in my calculator and it says that at 30m, from a 10degC to 30degC, my 25m elevation and windage are the same 0.x mil result.
I had previously gone away from 25m zeroes because of the sensitivity it brings to exact target distance, target angle relative to line of shot, and the way the bullet holes obscure the target.
But isn't that the point of a zero? Isn't it supposed to be the one constant that doesn't change, so we can enter in all the other varying conditions and produce solutions that adjust off of that one constant to fit the atmosphere/wind/distance for our current shot? If minor changes in atmosphere throughout the same day result in significant POI changes, can it really be called zero?
I may be misunderstanding, but what I get from your description is that you not only need to input and account for the current conditions, but also the varying conditions you're constantly entering for your new zero?
I may be misunderstanding, but what I get from your description is that you not only need to input and account for the current conditions, but also the varying conditions you're constantly entering for your new zero?
The way these ballistic calculators work, you tell them a zeroing distance, what your turrets are dialed to to hit dead on at that distance, and the zeroing conditions (though they assume dead calm wind for the zeroing input). Then after that, you put in _current_ conditions and it moves the solution as dictated by the wind and environmentals.
My personal choice for my 22 is to use 25 and 50 yards as my zero, first because they are both the same for me, but that might change depending on your scope height.
The reason I like a short range zero are so that I am only dialing up from my base zero... never down. I just find it confusing to dial up for this and down for that as you would need with a longer zero.
It also depends on if you have a zero stop scope... If you do, then you cannot dial below your zero distance and that can create hold under problems for you at short range.
The reason I like a short range zero are so that I am only dialing up from my base zero... never down. I just find it confusing to dial up for this and down for that as you would need with a longer zero.
It also depends on if you have a zero stop scope... If you do, then you cannot dial below your zero distance and that can create hold under problems for you at short range.
