What zero for 800 yards?

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Scott Bear

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I have a Savage Model 10 (.308, that shoots like a laser) with a fixed 10X mil dot scope. I've been using the drop chart on the Vortex website and was wondering what range people zero their rifle at for 800-1000 yard shooting?

As far as I can tell the bullet drop will go beyond the limit of the scope (5 mils) if I zero at 100 yards so I need to zero at a longer range or get a 20 MOA scope rail.

This is all hypothetical since I can clover leaf at 100 yards and have only just begun to get 'er out to 300 yards.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

SB.
 
Scott Bear said:
I have a Savage Model 10 (.308, that shoots like a laser) with a fixed 10X mil dot scope. I've been using the drop chart on the Vortex website and was wondering what range people zero their rifle at for 800-1000 yard shooting?

As far as I can tell the bullet drop will go beyond the limit of the scope (5 mils) if I zero at 100 yards so I need to zero at a longer range or get a 20 MOA scope rail.

This is all hypothetical since I can clover leaf at 100 yards and have only just begun to get 'er out to 300 yards.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

SB.
Click to expand...

Have you ever shot out at longer distance? I'm going to assume the 5 mils you are talking about are in the reticle. Keep in mind you're mixing mils and moa are different measurements.

Usually you're going to be using the internal adjustment of the scope and dialing a distance. For a typical scope you're talking 1/4 inch at 100 yds per click. That means 4 clicks to an inch or 1 moa. If your going to be dialing in 42 moa of elevation for the 1000 yard shot, you're talking about counting clicks, 168 to be exact. Depending on the cartridge you're using it will drop a known amount at a known distance. Dial in the elevation and go shooting. The 20 moa base is only there to enable you to reach a further distance than what you've got adjustment in the scope for. Typically 1000 on a normal .308 load you're going to require ~38-43 moa of total adjustment from a 100 yard zero. Do you know what adjustment you've got in the scope? keep in mind you'll normally only get half the total adjustment in elevation. Because of the small field of view in the scope and the relatively large amount of bullet drop you're not going to get there by zeroing at 300 and just holding over. You're talking about a vertical drop of ~35 feet.

This is a very poor explanation of it but there are a lot of good websites to help you learn. I'll try to find something decent.
 
The manual says that it should be marked on the scope if it is mil or MOA adjustment, but I don't see anything stating this on the scope. From what I can tell it is an MOA adjustment??? I think I have 160 clicks so 80 clicks from the zero.
 
It should be marked on your turrets, if not it will be in the manual.

I would get a 20 moa rail and zero at 200 or 300.
I have a Savage model 10 and I have a weaver 20moa rail and a Sightron S3 zeroed at 200yds. I'm still doing load development so I haven't tried it beyond 300yds yet but I do plan to stretch it out to 800yds later this summer once I find a load I'm happy with.
Download a ballistics calculator for you phone like iSnipe if you have an iphone or Strelok+ if you are on something else. It will get you in the ballpark on how much you will need to dial up your scope as long as you enter the correct info like BC, scope height and muzzle velocity.
 
If the rifle is now zeroed at 100, count how many UP clicks you have left. You will need around 100 more to reach 800. You may have enough left in the scope for 800.

I have a note book that shows how many minutes I need for each distance I have shot. Each revolution of the turret is noted as a number, like 1, 2 or 3. Each rev is 15 minutes. The second number I note is the number of the turret. For 800 I just set my scope to 3-11 and carry on.

I think your question was "How big is the come up for 800?" I would come up 25 minutes from 100yds, and shoot (with my 308).
 
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IMO, you should always zero your (longer range rifle) scopes at 100 yds. That way you are always dialling up, and anything within 100 yds is easy, you just point/shoot.
 
at 100y the distance between 1 mil is 3.62"

x that by your distance. 3.62 x 8 = 28.96. we will round that to 29" per 1 mil at 800y.

Lets use a general 308 dope @ 228" drop 800y from a 100y zero.

228" devided by 29" = 7.8 mils drop.

general 308 drop @ 800y from a 450y zero is 145"

145" \ 29" = 5

If you zero at 450y you can use the flat bar 5th mil at 800y.


Your belistics may be different. I have no idea what bullet and velocity ur shooting. The numbers I used are general 308 and should have u in the right area but it will be up to you oviously to fine tune.
 
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I would be zeroing my scope at 500 y. And using the mil dots on the top half of my scope as "hold unders" for 400 down to 100 y. This way your "hold overs" and bottom recital can be used out to 825 yards.
This is set up for 175 grain, 308. My scope is a Vortex 6.5x20x44
 
I usually zero the 10x bushnell at 100, with the scope adjusted to the bottom (or as near as I can get) of its range. Depending on what cartridge I am working with, this can be achieved with a 10 or 20 moa mount. Then I have as all the come up adjustment for use at whatever ranges I want (within the max of the scope). All depends on whether you like to use come ups or not. If you just want to use the mildots, adjust accordingly. - dan
 
I was shooting 800 yards on Sunday with a 10x Vortex scope using 77gr 223Rem by holding at 4 mil on the reticle and dialling in 5 mil to get my full drop. Zeroed at 50 yards.
 
I have that same scope on a .308 and I like to zero at 100 yards. I've only shot out to 500 yards but there is plenty if travel on the adjustments for that. The clicks on that scope are in 1/4 MOA.

Anyone who "zeros" further away than than 200 doesn't have a zero when the temp or wind changes.
 
I would look in my notebook and set it for my 800 elevation, if I don't have one I would shoot it at 800 to get one. Learn to read the knobs on the scope and work in minutes, don't be a click counter because when you get lost you won't know where to go.
 
Scott Bear said:
The scope is a Bushnell Elite Tactical 10X40.
Click to expand...

I also have a bushnell tactical and the manual is best used as toilet paper as not just is it vague, certain parts are also incorrect. I emailed Bushnell twice but they do not respond (this was my last Bushnell scope).

To answer your question:


It does not say on the turrets but how you can tell is as follows:

- there are 4 marks between each number, you have moa turrets.

- there are 10 marks between each number, you have mil turrets

since the reticle is most likely mils, you hopefully have mils turrets as well.

What the scope should have are half mil turrets as the mil are way too coarse. Admittedly I dont shoot past 200m but the biggest adjustment I need is 5 clicks. It wouldnt be a big deal to do 10 clicks and even further out it is hardly an issue.
 
zero where you want, really. make it so it works for your use.

If you shoot 0-200, zero 100....
no point having a 600 yards zero if you shoot 300 yards max.
Whatever works for you is fine.

If you shoot 1000 yards all the time, zero at 1000 yards....
 
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Ian Robertson said:
I would look in my notebook and set it for my 800 elevation, if I don't have one I would shoot it at 800 to get one. Learn to read the knobs on the scope and
work in minutes
Click to expand...
, don't be a click counter because when you get lost you won't know where to go.
Click to expand...

4 lines to the minute ... 15 min. to a full revolution.
Example: the 6.5x55 is zeroed at 200, turrets are reset to the same, a dot of white-out is on the horizontal hash mark that is return to zero(so I don't lose track of where the turret gets wound back to after the shot).
Say this next shot, it ranges to 950. Dope says 18.5moa come up needed. Wind 'er up a full rev plus 3.5moa. Suss the atmospherics, hold the horizontal mil-dot into whatever your best guess of the wind value is .... let fly. Repeat till you hear that faint 'clang' (a good spotter really helps). Return turret to zero. Look for something a little farther out. Have a lot of fun.

The lower in its rev range the turret is at zero, the farther you can reach before topping it out. 15moa Burris Signature insert rings, or a 20moa rail, will get most scope/.308 load combos out past 1000yds.
 
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