How to zero your rifle in 2 shots.

Firehoser

Firehoser

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How to zero your rifle in 2 shots.
To some this may be common knowledge. To others it may not. Best done with a buddy.

1- Using a bag or other means to stabilize the rifle as much as possible aim at the bulls eye of your target and squeeze off one shot. Best to make your firearm safe before proceeding to step 2. I would not attempt this standing or kneeling. A good bag or other gun rest is essential for an accurate result.

2- Line up your scope on the bulls eye again holding the rifle as steady as possible. Do not move until steps 3 & 4 are complete. This is where the buddy comes in.

3- Have your buddy adjust vertical correction until lined up with first shot. Do not move the rifle!

4- Have your buddy adjust horizontal correction until centre of first shot. Then and only then you relax.

5- Reload then line up the bulls eye and take the second shot. It should be in the bulls eye.
 
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In addition, you can adjust your scope by the appropriate number of clicks after 1 shot. Of course your rifle will be zeroed with some random error, since you only have one shot from a larger group.
 
As long as the scope tracks, you can do this alone.

rifle well supported.

For a bolt action, take the bolt out and look down the bore to sight on the target. This is truly what BORE SIGHTING is all about.

Without moving rifle, see where the scope is looking. Adjust as necessary to get cross hairs into center of target as viewed by bore.

Fire 1 shot. From the impact see how many minutes of adjustment you need. Dial as needed to correct. This shot should be near or in the center.

Done.

Jerry
 
Well that's a pretty fancy pants way of zeroing. I've always thought it was done like this:

2 days before hunting season, go to the gun store and buy 2 boxes of whatever ammo is cheapest. Then hit the beer store for a dozen BOTTLES of beer. Can't use cans for this. But get a cardboard flat to use as a target. Just jiffy marker a bullseye on the back of it.

Get to the shooting spot and lay the case of beer on the table/hood of pickup or whatever stable platform you are using. Crack your second beer. (First was drank as a road pop)

Set up your target around 175 yards because "that's about how far I will shoot the moose from."

Balance the rifle on the beer box and start shooting. You gotta shoot fast because each time you empty another beer, your rest is getting lighter and less stable. It's good to have a buddy along to spot where the bullet hits the dirt/stump/bush and call left or right. If it's too far left, twist those dials to the right! Okay, it's too far right now? Gotta go back a bit!

Repeat that until you hit the beer flat a few times. By this time you will be about half way through your second box of bullets. Hitting the beer flat a few times is good enough, cause moose are big, and besides, everyone knows that shooting paper is for wussies and I'm poison on game.

Make sure you save your last beer for the drive home, too. ;)
 
Great idea in theory, not so much in practice. Having helped out many folks at the range the major problem is everyone that needed help sighting in can't put two bullets into the same area.

I always suggest they take two shots and adjust only if the shots are closer than their acceptable precision. If still no decent groupings by the fifth shot the advice is to get shooting lessons.

Recall several fellows with a RFB arguing about sighting in. By the end of two boxes they weren't even on paper.
 
That sounds like alot of messing about to stabilize the rifle. When sighting in an new optic it takes me about 10 rounds. I walk up 10 yards from the target, shoulder the rifle and fire one round at the bull then adjust turrets. I repeat this again at 25, 50, and 75 yds from a good sitting position. Now when I set up prone at 100 it is pretty close, one more round down range (5th one) and adjust turrets. Then I fire a five shot group to check zero.
You probably can't do this at most ranges since you are ahead of the firing point but out in the bush its quick and easy.
 
You can zero in 2 shots without the help of a buddy if you have a ranging reticle.

[youtube]cR90q4p103M[/youtube]

He says 3 shots, but he's counting a rough zeroing shot at 25 to ensure that he will at least be on paper at 100 (which you would also do before doing the method above).

The actual firing starts at 18:35. You get better results with a more stable setup. His setup is not very stable...

FFP shooters use the same technique for shot correction at any distance, which is why they don't need to think about how many inches or cm the miss is. Whatever you measure with the reticle, just gets dialed into the turrets directly.

Edit: here's a graphic that shows the scope view.

 
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That's pretty much what I do...
I bore sight
put the rifle in the lead sled that's bolted to the bench
fire 1 round
move center of reticule to bullet hole in target

after that it's fine tuning as needed...
 
kombayotch said:
You can zero in 2 shots without the help of a buddy if you have a ranging reticle.

[youtube]cR90q4p103M[/youtube]

He says 3 shots, but he's counting a rough zeroing shot at 25 to ensure that he will at least be on paper at 100 (which you would also do before doing the method above).

The actual firing starts at 18:35. You get better results with a more stable setup. His setup is not very stable...

FFP shooters use the same technique for shot correction at any distance, which is why they don't need to think about how many inches or cm the miss is. Whatever you measure with the reticle, just gets dialed into the turrets directly.
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same thing, I bought an ffp scope and never need more then 2 rounds to sight and without the buddy.
 
Gatehouse said:
Well that's a pretty fancy pants way of zeroing. I've always thought it was done like this:

2 days before hunting season, go to the gun store and buy 2 boxes of whatever ammo is cheapest. Then hit the beer store for a dozen BOTTLES of beer. Can't use cans for this. But get a cardboard flat to use as a target. Just jiffy marker a bullseye on the back of it.

Get to the shooting spot and lay the case of beer on the table/hood of pickup or whatever stable platform you are using. Crack your second beer. (First was drank as a road pop)

Set up your target around 175 yards because "that's about how far I will shoot the moose from."

Balance the rifle on the beer box and start shooting. You gotta shoot fast because each time you empty another beer, your rest is getting lighter and less stable. It's good to have a buddy along to spot where the bullet hits the dirt/stump/bush and call left or right. If it's too far left, twist those dials to the right! Okay, it's too far right now? Gotta go back a bit!

Repeat that until you hit the beer flat a few times. By this time you will be about half way through your second box of bullets. Hitting the beer flat a few times is good enough, cause moose are big, and besides, everyone knows that shooting paper is for wussies and I'm poison on game.

Make sure you save your last beer for the drive home, too. ;)
Click to expand...

You spyin' on me at the range?
 
Gatehouse said:
Well that's a pretty fancy pants way of zeroing. I've always thought it was done like this:

2 days before hunting season, go to the gun store and buy 2 boxes of whatever ammo is cheapest. Then hit the beer store for a dozen BOTTLES of beer. Can't use cans for this. But get a cardboard flat to use as a target. Just jiffy marker a bullseye on the back of it.

Get to the shooting spot and lay the case of beer on the table/hood of pickup or whatever stable platform you are using. Crack your second beer. (First was drank as a road pop)

Set up your target around 175 yards because "that's about how far I will shoot the moose from."

Balance the rifle on the beer box and start shooting. You gotta shoot fast because each time you empty another beer, your rest is getting lighter and less stable. It's good to have a buddy along to spot where the bullet hits the dirt/stump/bush and call left or right. If it's too far left, twist those dials to the right! Okay, it's too far right now? Gotta go back a bit!

Repeat that until you hit the beer flat a few times. By this time you will be about half way through your second box of bullets. Hitting the beer flat a few times is good enough, cause moose are big, and besides, everyone knows that shooting paper is for wussies and I'm poison on game.

Make sure you save your last beer for the drive home, too. ;)
Click to expand...

This.
 
Firehoser said:
How to zero your rifle in 2 shots.
To some this may be common knowledge. To others it may not. Best done with a buddy.

1- Using a bag or other means to stabilize the rifle as much as possible aim at the bulls eye of your target and squeeze off one shot. Best to make your firearm safe before proceeding to step 2. I would not attempt this standing or kneeling. A good bag or other gun rest is essential for an accurate result.

2- Line up your scope on the bulls eye again holding the rifle as steady as possible. Do not move until steps 3 & 4 are complete. This is where the buddy comes in.

3- Have your buddy adjust vertical correction until lined up with first shot. Do not move the rifle!

4- Have your buddy adjust horizontal correction until centre of first shot. Then and only then you relax.

5- Reload then line up the bulls eye and take the second shot. It should be in the bulls eye.
Click to expand...

Been doing it this way for some time and it works really well.
 
I have seen a couple of zeroings where the guy just chases the bullet holes all over the paper. Scope/rifle/shooter/factory ammo means it is a 2.5moa combination, but guy wants to be zeroed in on the dot. Makes adjustments after every shot and then bitterly complains how his "POS" rifle won't zero.
 
Gatehouse said:
Well that's a pretty fancy pants way of zeroing. I've always thought it was done like this:

2 days before hunting season, go to the gun store and buy 2 boxes of whatever ammo is cheapest. Then hit the beer store for a dozen BOTTLES of beer. Can't use cans for this. But get a cardboard flat to use as a target. Just jiffy marker a bullseye on the back of it.

Get to the shooting spot and lay the case of beer on the table/hood of pickup or whatever stable platform you are using. Crack your second beer. (First was drank as a road pop)

Set up your target around 175 yards because "that's about how far I will shoot the moose from."

Balance the rifle on the beer box and start shooting. You gotta shoot fast because each time you empty another beer, your rest is getting lighter and less stable. It's good to have a buddy along to spot where the bullet hits the dirt/stump/bush and call left or right. If it's too far left, twist those dials to the right! Okay, it's too far right now? Gotta go back a bit!

Repeat that until you hit the beer flat a few times. By this time you will be about half way through your second box of bullets. Hitting the beer flat a few times is good enough, cause moose are big, and besides, everyone knows that shooting paper is for wussies and I'm poison on game.

Make sure you save your last beer for the drive home, too. ;)
Click to expand...

Two days before the season? What about the opening day, after hunting all morning? And I thought a pie plate was needed? Or, is that for sighting in for deer hunting. Darn, I'm all confused now.
 
kombayotch said:
And you can do it at any distance, without any kind of grid on the targets.
Click to expand...

Definitely hash mark reticle with matching scope clicks makes life so much easier but the vast majority of scopes out there use the basic duplex crosshair.

I like the first NSSF vid. Simple and easy to understand and works for the vast majority out there in the shooting community.

BUT shooters have to account for the mechanical accuracy of their rifle, ammo and skill. If the rifle used in that NSSF vid could only group 2MOA, then that first shot was IN THE GROUP. Adjusting would just move the entire group somewhere else. This is why shooters fight adjusting their scope a bit here and a bit there and sometimes, never seem to get things centered.

They are expecting 1 hole accuracy when their set ups will not do that. Here taking 2 or 3 shot groups helps. Moving the group center to the center of the target works best.... you are moving the average of where your shots will land into the center of the desired target.

Jerry
 
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