30-06 Zeroing

exile29

exile29

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I have a 30-06 Parker Hale with a 4x scope. Using 150 gr. Any recommendations on what distance to zero at? 100? 200? I haven't hunted with it yet - any advice is appreciated
 
The 06 in reasonably flat out to 300 yards, what i do is set up for my natural style of shooting. I tend to hold high on game and if zero'd @ 200yards i tend to smoke out some fine t-bones if the animal is @ bout 100. Also a good point in my case is i'm hunting thicker forest, so i as soon as I can feel the gun on my shoulder I'm let'r buck. It's somethin to think about when deciding your zero. Been shooting the 06 for fifteen years and it's always got the job done, recently i've switch to premium bullets like barnes triple x and winchester xp3. Those bullets really brought my platform to the 21st century.
cheers
 
A 4X scope works fine out to 300, provided your target is a big game animal, big game is usually easy to see, at 300, even without magnification. I have a 2X scope on my .375, and I can squeeze decent groups out of it at a quarter mile, never mind 300. At 300 I can see and hit a pop can on a still day, and I'm half blind. The advantage of any scope is not it’s magnification; the advantage is that your target and aiming point are in simultaneous focus. There's not much wrong with the 3-9X, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with a fixed 4X either. In fact the fixed 4X will be smaller, stronger, and maybe even clearer.

I think sighting in 2" high at 100 is good advice. A fast pointy bullet like a 150 gr Ballistic Tip at 2900-3000 fps will reach out there, requiring little hold over at 300.
 
madluk18 said:
dead on at 25 yards is dead on at 200 yards and then a few inches high in between.

It works for me and all of my rifles.
Click to expand...


That is wildly vague.

A 200 yard zero with 150 gr factory ammo will be just under 2 inches high at 100 yards. A very sensible zero for a 30-06. The problem with the 25 yard thing is if you are off a bit, it will be off 8x that much at 200 yards. So if you follow the 25 yard zero thing but your group centre is actually 1/2 inch high, then that is 4 inches high at 200 yards which is a clean miss at 100 yards.

Shoot the gun at 100 and 200.
 
30-06 is the only calibre I use for hunting and I go +2 @ 100yds. Therefore anything out to 200yds, you put the crosshairs on the kill zone and squeeeeeeeze the trigger.
 
Several tons of big game have gone down in front of a few of my rifles that have 3X Leupolds on them. One of them was a huge Dall ram at well over 300 yd. :)

Your 4X will be plenty for any game at any reasonable 30-06 range.

Ted
 
According to Chuck Hawks, 150gr 3' high @ 100 will give you a MPBR of 285 yds (meaning it will hit 3' low at 285). Hence, until 285 the bullet flight path will not deviate more than +-3' from the line of sight.

165 gr have MPBR of 273 yds, while 180 are 269 yds.

Hope it helps.
 
For a general use 30-06 hunting rifle I would never sight in higher than 2" @ 100 yards and I have always sighted my 30-06's in @ 200 yards.

Other than for plinking I do not load 150gr bullets in a 30-06 and prefer 165gr or 180gr bullets.

I'm testing/working up loads using .475 BC 165gr Accubonds and .520 BC 180gr Scirroco's right now and will use which ever bullet gives me the best overall accuracy and it will be sighted in with a 200 yard zero.
 
Way back in pre-historic times, a noted gun writer named Warren Page propounded the "Rule of Threes". IIRC, it says that, for any modern reasonably flat-shooting cartridge, sight in 3" high at 100 yds and it will be 3" low at 300 yds. (and within +/- 3" at any point between muzzle and 300).

Hugh
 
This would take into account that you can shoot accurately everytime...

If sighted in 3" high at 100 yards if you squeeze/jerk the shot a bit high you risk shooting over the animal...

Talking from experience not just theory... :)
 
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