Can You REALLY Zero Your Rifle At 30 Yards?

can I do this system at 50?

I wonder what the payback is. Divide the cost of a bullet speed device by the cost of the reduced number of zeroing bullets and you have how long it will take to cover the cost of the speed device.

Love the video Ron, however there is a much more exact way to measure how high the scope is above the bore.
1) Measure the diameter of the bolt and the diameter of the ocular end of the scope and divide by 2. in other words take halve of both of those measurments.
2) Measure from top of bolt to bottom of ocular end of scope. this is easily accomplished by pulling bolt back and using a small 6 inch metal ruler.

What ever you do take a shot or two at Twentyfive . Thirty yards should things go pear shape during a hunt it is eazy to check in the bush veld or were ever you are On a resent hunt we arrived at our destination late afternoon it was blowing the mother of all gales one shot at at 25 yards confirmed we were all good to go had three good day with little or no wind

I was in Army and zeroed 308 at 1000 inches using Canadian Bull targets and was taught how to range field target

I use a 25 yard zero . Depending on caliber I usually set it an inch or two low at 25 . It is roughly 1-2 inch high at 100 yards and it gives me a 200 yard zero. 16 clicks per inch at 25 yards. Now my 300 win mag is way different than my 223 243 22-250 and my 270. But can all be done at 25 yards

all my rifles are zeroed to 50 yards. I guess I will just adjust my POA.

If 25yds is 4 clicks then 33yds would be 3 clicks, right? And at 20yds it would be 5 clicks.

Respectfully if you lift your cheek between shots variation will always creep in. Staying frozen on the gun during adjustment will allow the correction to be more accurate.

I zero at 50 my scope doesn’t sit high on my rifle at all I use the bushnell ballistic calculator for the scope I use it’s been pretty spot on

.223, 70 grains, SJSP, ------ 25 mts - 0----50 mts +4 ----- 75 mts + 5 -----100 mts + 7 ----- entre 125 y 150 mts + 8 -------175 mts + 6 ---- 200 mts + 4 ------ 225 mts 0 ------- 250 mts --5 (mts y cms)

RESUMO LO ANTERIOR, ENTRE 25 Y 250 METROS UNA ELEVACION MAXIMA DE 8 CMS Y UNA CAIDA MAXIMA DE 5 CMS, UNA TAZA DE CAFE DE BORDE A FONDO.

I have always just guessed at my sight height. Think I need to be more precise.

That 8 minute set up was painful to watch. Get to the flipping point. JC!!!

I zero all by rifles at 50 yards...a 50 yard zero will give me a zero at 200 yards....this is due to the height of scope over the bore. If want a 100 yard zero I just adjust cross hairs down 4 clicks

That was a good show . I have a ballistic calculator down loaded that I need to check can i re enter others

Critical ingredient to keep in mind too and if missing is probably where the confusion comes from… is the Maximum Point Blank Range / Vitals size.

It is one thing to zero on short range due to lack of space, and another to zero to something shorter than 100y/m zero for hunting purposes.

Nice video 👍

Hey Ron, just winging it to find the true scope center axis height above the centerline of the bore? Eyeballing a ruler rather than using a micrometer and a little simple math?

Sir ron spomer you are a great rifle man i wasted a lot of my .22 hornet ammo trying a 25 yards bore sighting thank you sir for sharing this precious rifleman knowledge live long sir ron.respects from eastern balochistan

May be a silly question but could you not enter a 100yard zero into the calculator and then see how low your bullet should be at the actual sight in distance you will be at then then shoot for that?

Wow... That scope is mounted high.

Hi Ron, I'm a fan, but less of a fan than I was 25 minutes ago. Could you possibly have made this video more complicated? I'm at a loss as to how but being as you're a professional you might...
The first error was mounting your scope 2+ inches above the bore; were you just using asst'd scope mounts you had laying around? Second was
chasing your bullet holes, when you admittedly didn't have your rifle locked down. The math would've been much simpler. 3/4" at 30? Move 9 clicks left (3 times for the same adjustment at 100). Your first and 2nd shots were level why in the heck did you ever consider changing the elevation? And now you try the math instead of chasing the hole... if I were a beginner I'd be really confused at this point, and your successive results only prove this out. You should've just quit when you were behind, in fact you should've scrapped this video and started again. Very disappointed.
There is a consensus out here that the 50yd zero results in (or near) a 200yd zero. While not an exact science it has always been within 3/4" with my .06 load, and always ballpark for any rifle I've shot, regardless of caliber or scope height. As you likely well know, you'll never please everyone and will always have detractors, but my advice is always make the process as simple as possible. It's always worked for me and it's always worked for those I've taught

Can use box velocity is not long as it is not a box of Hornady ammunition. They are liar heads.

You are a game changer sir

Nice video! What distance did you bore sight?

What kind of groups does this gun shoot? I've seen a lot of videos of Mossberg's shooting 4 and 5 inch groups at 100 yards. Could be why the 100 yard shot was 4 inches high.

Not a fan of the "maximum point blank range" theory.

You are saying a perfect shot with pinpoint accuracy is 2.9" high at 150 yards, but that's not the whole story.
The gun is probably capable of shooting 1.5 MOA groups, meaning 1/2 of the shots will be between dead on and 1.1high. (1.1" is 0.75 MOA at 150 yd)
In a hunting situation, the shooter probably has a 2 MOA wobble (at best) meaning 1/2 of the shots will be between dead on and 1.5" high. (1.5" is 1 MOA at 150 yd)
Certainly, there are other factors like animal movement, aerodynamic jump, wind, updrafts, temperature, etc., but let's not even worry about those.
Based on the above info, you can only confidently say at 150 yards that your bullet will hit within 2.9" + 1.1" + 1.5" = 5.5" high of the point you are aiming. That is a lot different than the sub 3" that you first proclaimed.

Note: This gets even worse when you look at the longer range, low side of the "within 3 inches" zone because the 1.5 MOA rifle and 2 MOA wobble angular measurements result in larger linear inch measurements on target. Total math comes out to confidently saying within 8" low at 300 yards, not the 2.7" the chart shows.

However, if you zero your rifle dead on, and memorize even a few bullet drop data points, you can dramatically reduce that to not much more than the 1.1" + 1.5" and be closer to feeling confident that your bullet hits at 150yd within 2.6" high at of where you are aiming (and the low side 300yd is still 5.25" down)

25 yards 556 300 you are dead on

If you shoot a bottle neck high velocity cartridge. Go to JBLM ballistics and put in your data for velocity, caliber, ballistic coefficient, and height of sites above boreline. As a general rule. : Iron sites less than 1" above center bore (30-30) zero at 10M with the cheapest ammo and then shoot 3 rounds of hunting ammo at 100M and adjust sites to correct for left/right and the correct holdover per JBLM ballistics. With a scoped rifle repeat procedures, but zero at 30M instead of 10M............This will give you a zero similar to military rifles so that when you aim at a target less than 18" in diameter you will hit it to 250+M. -R.

I have a Lead Sled rig, it has a great strap the olds the rifle in place and I also use weighted bags. There is no movement. Maybe with your rig, use some velcro straps to cinch that sucker down.

Army "zeroes" at 25yds

Marines "zero" at 36yds

I all ways zero at 1 in low at 25 yards then you are dead nuts at 100 yards .

With my eyes today I couldn't use open sights at 100 yards consistantly. Great video!

I zero at 25 yards for my .270 (150g & 130g) Remington 783 with a Leupold VX-2 scope and am just a hair high (1.75" consistently) at 100 yards.

Theoretically, it should hit back at zero at 200 yards.

Ron you always do great videos and this is one all shooters should watch! Thank you and hope you have a great hunting season!

Great video. You are an excellent orator/instructor.

I paid for Hornady's reloading manual online. I figured that I would always have access to that manual. I would have if I would have purchased the actual printed manual. Hornady now says that the online manual is no longer supported and I cannot view the data I used to load my cartridges. I will never purchase another product made by Hornady. Which is a shame because I purchased a lot.

Thanks for doing this presentation. I can identify with the initial results for sure. I use a 7mm STW for elk, a 243 for deer as well as a 45/70 so the zeroing game can get frustrating if one doesn't consider the factors you relay. As you can imagine there is a HUGE difference in ballistics between the 3 calibers I have. I hope a lot of people watch this presentation.

Whatever you start at move out to 100 you see where it really hits.

For a precise bore sight, on a bolt action I remove the firing pin assembly, insert the bolt body and look thru the pin hole. Centers the muzzle precisely.

In the military, we zeroed our M16A2s at 25 meters(~27+yards) and are good to go all the way to 800 meters with the rear sight elevation thumbscrew settings. I qualified EXPERT RIFLEMAN all the way to 500 meters with this sight-in method.

A very important thing learned from this:
GET YOUR SCOPE MOUNTED AS LOW AS POSSIBLE!

The most important thing is to have a very steady rest for the rifle.

This isn’t hard to calc out, but you so HAVE to do the math for your individual rifle and can’t rely on rules of thumb since any and all deviations are levered when you only zero in close. Know the whole arc/trajectory and you’re good, but you can’t “good enough” it with a close-range zero.

we always zero at 30yds and dead on at 300yds

I sight mine in at 25 yards than check it at 100, usually only slight adjustments are required

Come on Ron, don’t you think that 100 y. Would be better than just guessing…. I know you’re just trying to make videos, but don’t you think it would be much easier to zero in as 100 and adjust your sites accordingly to what your hunting. I find a 200 yard zero to fit most applications on what you’re hunting, and also know your ballistics chart as far as drop. Hey Ron, keep it simple stupid.

My favorite target to zero a scoped rifle is this diamond red target!

I have been zero at 27 yds with my rifle 7mm for ever and made 400 plus shots on deer

Yes, because every rifle will shoot higher at 100 even zeroed there. Might actually limit yourself, 30-06 example, shoots 2.4 inches high at 100 on zero. Making 200yds true zero. And drop from there. I sight mine, 2.5 inches high at 100, leaving it 4.9 at 100 on true spec. Eliminates the 2 and 300yd drop. At 200 I'm still 2.5 high. Making 400yd much easier if need be.