the nuances of sighting in...

[robertg]

Here is the information about Douglas Ridge Rifle Club hunter sight in.

The cost is $5.00 per gun. (Each shooter is responsible for their own ammo. We provide the targets.)

2016 Hunter's Sight-In Schedule
Gates open 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Shooting to be complete by 4:00 PM
Saturdays and Sundays
September 10th & 11th
September 17th & 18th
September 24th & 25th
October 8th & 9th

 

[clearconscience]

I feel you. My accuracy sucks. I only shoot a couple times a year usually.
So I have a few bad habits and when I sight in a rifle I feel like it takes me twice the ammo it would someone else.

I have a 24" AR I sighted in on 50yds then went to 100yds. First few rounds were great, then all over. Then off. Wtf

Dang scope loosened up.
Blue loctite is needed.

 

[Joe13]

Dang scope loosened up.
Blue locti

Or really good scope rings - the Leupold quick disconnect rings never loosened on my .308 when I had it and I didn't locktite it for obvious reasons.

If your going to keep the scope on the gun for awhile though I would add the locktite.

 

[Koda]

The un fun exception is the walk. having no spotting scope able to see clean holes @ 150 yards each check needs travel to review which is not without difficulty.
On the positive side, the time it takes to check the target allows the barrel to cool.

those are some of the nuances of what can make it feel like work. One of my spots is against a hillside in a clearcut... walking back and forth thru a clearcut is not fun, especially carrying target stands and targets, staple gun etc. and I don't like leaving my rifle at the truck. Before I bought the cheap laser range finder it was even more work estimating distance you couldn't just tag a stump and then set up a target stand there you have to try an pace it out... in a clear cut good luck. I made a "100yd string" (it was actually 50 yds...) but it sucked stringing that along thru a clearcut and reeling it back in. It was crude but it worked, especially in more ideal locations than a clearcut.

good times.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

At least you guys sight in.
Once had a guy come into the pawn shop where I worked about 3 days before deer season , looking for a rifle.
He found a Ruger he liked and as we were doing the paperwork / BGC , I said that I hoped he had time to sight his rifle in.
The buyers response : " Sight it in? Why? it has a scope."
The really sad part , he was serious.
Andy

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Andy, that is sad. I've heard the same thing from guys coming out to the range. They say, "the gunshop said I should probably check zero" and then go on to say, "why, it should be good they just bore sighted it"? Just saw that last Saturday at the range. The guy didn't understand until he actually shot the rifle. It was about a foot low and 9" to the left. I tried to stay out of it and let the RSO help him to sight in his rifle. They waste a lot of time in my opinion. First starting off at 25 yards, then move the target to 50 yards, and then finally to 100, where the owner of the rifle is getting frustrated by that time. He shoots 1, 3 shot group close to the center and then packs up and leaves..

I will admit, I have been guilty of shooting at 25 yards to get an initial dial in. This consists of 1 quick offhand shot at the 25 yard target, then dialing in for center of the target. Keep in mind when you are at 25 yards, you have to quadruple the amount of clicks when you adjust the scope. For example, you need to go up 4 inches, so it's going to take 16x4= 64 clicks up on a scope that adjusts 1/4" at 100 yards.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Andy, that is sad. I've heard the same thing from guys coming out to the range. They say, "the gunshop said I should probably check zero" and then go on to say, "why, it should be good they just bore sighted it"? Just saw that last Saturday at the range. The guy didn't understand until he actually shot the rifle. It was about a foot low and 9" to the left. I tried to stay out of it and let the RSO help him to sight in his rifle. They waste a lot of time in my opinion. First starting off at 25 yards, then move the target to 50 yards, and then finally to 100, where the owner of the rifle is getting frustrated by that time. He shoots 1, 3 shot group close to the center and then packs up and leaves..

It is indeed difficult to "stay out of it" as you say.
Especially if you are serious about hunting.
You owe it to yourself and more importantly to the animal to know where you hit at a given range.
And to always to stick with where you are as sure as you can be in making a hit. Not being tempted into a "iffy" shot.
Andy

 

[bsa1917hunter]

I totally agree with you Andy. We owe it to the animal to make a clean humane kill. This cow was trotting along with other cows single file when I took her out of the group. I would have never tried to make the shot if I didn't feel comfortable in the rifles accuracy or my abilities. One thing we should never have to question is whether or not the rifle is "zeroed". We better damn well know it's zeroed and for what range. Know your trajectories and your equipment like the back of your hand.:





She was 90 yards off and I did have to thread the needle a bit .


This is where I was standing when I made the shot and what I saw. Except the cow was in the crosshairs when I pulled the trigger...

 

[Andy54Hawken]

For my hunting, When using my Hawken rifle , I am comfortable shooting out to 100 yards.
( closer is always better )
I have and make hits fairly often out to 200 yards on the target line , but not near enough to use that as my range for hunting.
No sense of shame about it . 100 yards is just where my skill level ends.
It is always good to verily your zero before hunting.
Sights can shift , knobs on scopes can work loose etc ...
Andy

 

[Koda]

Especially if you are serious about hunting.
You owe it to yourself and more importantly to the animal to know where you hit at a given range.

this is exactly why Im going to keep going back until I get the results I want. I shoot 1, 2, and 300.... has been plenty for me, the important thing is to know for a fact I will hit my target a the distance I practice.
(someday I want to fgo further but I really have to work hard to hit 300...)

people have asked me, why 300. I say clearcuts. Most shots are under 100 but I had to pass on an elk once many years ago because I had no idea if I could place the shot when the rifle was capaple.... went home empty that year too (notice I said "place" the shot and not "make" the shot) . Since them Ive taken 1 small buck about 250yds, 1 shot. I find it funny how so many people boast how you need at least a certain minimum caliber like 3006 but never practice beyond 100yds
because its work...

I cant tell you how many times Ive heard over the years "thats good enough"

because its work

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Awesome post Koda. I give you kudos for not taking the shot when you knew you weren't comfortable with it. I've had to pass on a couple nice bulls myself. Too narrow of a sight window, not enough time etc...etc.. It happens to the best of us.

 

[bsa1917hunter]

For my hunting, When using my Hawken rifle , I am comfortable shooting out to 100 yards.
( closer is always better )
I have and make hits fairly often out to 200 yards on the target line , but not near enough to use that as my range for hunting.
No sense of shame about it . 100 yards is just where my skill level ends.
It is always good to verily your zero before hunting.
Sights can shift , knobs on scopes can work loose etc ...
Andy

Andy, when I was younger I shot a lot of black powder because it was cheap and fun. I lived in Northern Nevada where the jackrabbits were thick and you could walk for miles and miles and days on end without ever running into anyone. My buddy used a 54 cal Thompson and I used a 50 cal Hawkins. We also had our 44cal cap and balls strapped to our sides. I agree with you about setting a 100 yard limit on shots taken on game animals with a black powder rifle. The furthest I ever hit a jackrabbit was about 150 yards with the ol Hawkins and that was probably blind luck.... Don't laugh, but we always carried a roll of tp for our wadding. Thank god we never caught the desert on fire..

 

[Koda]

was able to get out today, made better results I'm happy with.

I had been using Hornandy "Superformance" (#81453) 117g SST bullets to sight in.... These shoot roughly about 120 fps faster than most other brands in roughly the same class (as advertised), I figured this would be an advantage for both accuracy and terminally especially on elk. I don't know about the latter, but I was wrong about the prior, my rifle does not like the extra velocity take a look:


Then I went out to 200 yds... you can see the Hornandy Interlock (#8144) holds a way better group than the Hornandy "Superfusion" (#81453), although my group with the Interlock is a little low and right (I can work on that another day)


I was not able to shoot out to 300 yds today from time and location but I'm ok with this sight in for now. If you look at the pics you will see I'm about 2" high at 100yds and about 2" low at 200 yds, this is with the same point of aim in the scope using the Hornandy Interlock ammo. (I decided to discard using the "Superformance"). I can work with this for hunting this year because I know that virtually my point of aim from 0-200 yds is the same... gotta love the flat trajectory of the 25-06. ( I cant decide if I want to make the 100yd zero exact which will lower my point of impact at 200yds the same which should be about 4" with this ammo. )

 

[Koda]

in between barrel coolings I brought my old Marlin levergun 3030 to play with and learned something more. Hornandy has a the newish "FTX" bullet for the 3030 in 160grain thats supposed to improve accuracy. From what I found today this seems to be.

(Hornandy "Interlock" 150g traditional round nose soft point on the left, Hornandy "FTX" pointed bullet on the right)

I made a minor adjustment to zero the FTX at 100yds which made the Interlocks group shoot a bit low.



below two more final targets one out to 200yds. I dont know why there are two of the same pics I even tried deleting one of them...

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Very nice shooting with your 30-30 buddy...

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Koda, here's a target you might enjoy for your 25-06. It's based off of MPBR. Something a lot of the old timers used to use back in the day. Still a great way to sight your rifle in now days too:

 

[Koda]

Koda, here's a target you might enjoy for your 25-06. It's based off of MPBR. Something a lot of the old timers used to use back in the day. Still a great way to sight your rifle in now days too:

thats an interesting target zero, so basically everything 300yds and under falls within 3" from point of aim. I can see how that would work very well especially with older scopes that have plain or maybe multi-X reticle like my old scope was... with that I would zero at 200yds and it shot 3" high at 100yds, I would aim at the bottom reticle thickness change at 300 and would hit paper, most times.

My new scope is a Vortex with those elevation tick marks. I didn't spend the money to have it calibrated to my caliber but I'm close on the first tick mark down at 300 yds. Since my tick marks aren't set to my cartridge Im wondering if I want to zero at 200 like I did in the past or zero at 100 and see how close they come... Im thinking I dont want to have to "bracket" any tick marks on an animal at 300 yds though but I wont know how they line up if I dont try.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Here is the information about Douglas Ridge Rifle Club hunter sight in.

The cost is $5.00 per gun. (Each shooter is responsible for their own ammo. We provide the targets.)

2016 Hunter's Sight-In Schedule
Gates open 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Shooting to be complete by 4:00 PM
Saturdays and Sundays
September 10th & 11th
September 17th & 18th
September 24th & 25th
October 8th & 9th

Estacada Rod and Gun Club is just a little further down the road than DRRC and they have the same sighting in deal for deer season. They only have a 100 yd range though, but their facility is top notch.

 

[AMProducts]

So hey, let me interject a few things here.

Shooting position matters, if you don't have sandbags, use a backpack. Bipods are great and all, but if you're on most hard surfaces, the rifle is going to bounce on each shot under recoil and it requires constant repositioning of the shooter/rifle to get back on target.

From what I can see in your .30-30 target, you have good fundamentals, however if you have fancier equipment that might be getting in your way. (the bipod)

 

[Koda]

to clarify Im shooting prone with a led sled, the groups Ive shown are barely mine but mostly the rifles.
At the end my rifle is grouping about 1.5MOA and mostly centered... I need to spend more time now to see where my cold 1st shot lands and if other ammo brands can improve my group size. I think there was a little bit of luck with those 3 rounds of 3030 the second photo was more realistic.
after I find out what my rifle shoots best and can do then I need to work on MY skills shooting prone with and without a bipod and standing free hand lime the vast majority of my hunting shots.