Two shots to zero
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I showed this method to John McLenithan, an outdoor writer who lived in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. In the early 1960s, John wrote an article on it for Peterson's Hunting Magazine.
First of all, take 3 or 4 sandbags (you can use bread bags filled with sand), a large cardboard sheet, and a roll of black tape with you to the range.
Put up a target on the large cardboard sheet at 100 yards. Retire to the shooting bench and bore sight the rifle. To bore sight the rifle, remove the bolt, look through the bore and align the bore with the target, using the sand bags to steady the rifle. Then, when the bore is on target, move the cross hairs to center them on target. You may have to do this several times, to finally get the best match you can.
Replace the bolt, and fire one shot at the target. Open the bolt to safety the rifle, take the roll of black electrical tape, and walk down range to the target. PLACE A VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL PIECE OF TAPE, ABOUT 6 INCHES LONG, OVER THE HOLE WHERE THE BULLET HIT.
You then go back to the bench, and align the cross hairs on the TARGET. Sandbag the rifle with the cross hairs on the TARGET. Then, without disturbing the rifle, gently MOVE THE CROSS HAIRS SO THAT THEY ALIGN ON THE ELECTRICAL TAPE CROSS WHERE THE BULLET HIT.
Your cross hairs on the scope are now aligned to where the rifle shoots. Fire a second shot AT THE TARGET. If you have done your part, the bullet hole should be in the target very close to where you aimed. It is much more convenient if you have a second person available to move the cross hairs while you hold the rifle while the cross hairs are being moved to the black tape cross.
This probably takes more time to explain than to do. I do not claim to have "invented" this method, but the story John wrote was the first mention of it that I could find. Probably someone discovered this way of zeroing a rifle a long time before this.
As far a distances to zero a rifle, I have in the last 50 years or so, made sure that my hunting rifles were zeroed 3 inches high at 100 yards. My rimfire rifles were zeroed at 50 yards. A three inch high zero at 100 yards in a hunting rifle will (for the most calibres) give a plus 3 inch to minus 3 inch path out to about 250-275 yards. Thus, I can aim dead center on anything from a Coyote to a Moose, and if I do my part, the bullet will not be more than 3 inches above or below where I aim.
My target rifles are zeroed at the range of the target, and adjusted if I move back or forward on the range. With modern technology and the great advance of scope optics, especially in precise adjustments, it is feasible to adjust ranges for each target shot at. I still zero 3 inches high at 100 for varmint rifles, but have a range card taped to the stock with ACTUAL adjustments from firing, (not computer generated ones) for longer distances.
I have found that most big game is shot under 200 yards, even on the Prairies or Mountains, where I have spent the last 30 years, so the PLUS 3 INCH zero on my larger game rifles has not changed.
One of the funniest thing I have ever witnessed is a guy trying to adjust his scope to shoot a deer that was only about 80 yards away. He had one with two horizontal cross hairs inside it, that moved when you adjusted the power. By bracketing the deer within the cross hairs, you then (theroetically) had the distance and could aim accordingly. This guy was trying to hold the rifle with one hand, and twist the scope ring with the other, all the time trying to keep the rifle steady, and the deer in view. That deer walked across an opening for at least a half minute, and the guy never did take a shot at it. From where he was standing, the laser range finder gave a reading of 78 yards to where the deer walked in front of him. Now, that was a performance!
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