How Are You REALLY Supposed To Zero?

S

Single Six

New member
Some years back I read an article entitled "How To Zero Like A Sniper". The preferred method for sighting in a rifle {according to this article} was to start with a clean rifle, fire one shot, swab the bore, fire another shot, swab the bore...you get the idea. Now, I'm no newbie to firearms by any stretch of the imagination, but I am on fairly new ground when it comes to rifles, handguns being my lifelong forte'. So I need some experienced rifle guys to tell me: Is this "sniper method" valid, and if not, how do YOU guys go about zeroing in?
 
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I'm no sniper, but I worked with several over the years. Those guys were magnificent marksmen, but when I was on the range with them, I don't ever remember seeing a cleaning rod.

Our police marksmen carry a rod in their rifle cases, but they don't take them out on the line as a normal part of the firing sequence.

Most of those guys zero their rifles like I zero mine. After they discover the ammo (or load) the rifle likes best, they adjust the sights so that the point of aim coincides with the point of impact.
 
If I put a new scope on I bore sight the rifle. I then take it to the range and fire a shot. If I'm on paper I'll fire two more, if I'm not on paper I'll adjust the necessary clicks to move the shot onto paper. Once I'm on paper I fire a three shot group, and draw a triangle on paper. Once I've drawn my triangle I estimate the center of the triangle and make my scope adjustments from that point to the bullseye.

If I'm checking zero with a previously zeroed rifle and known load I usually just fire a group of three and adjust the same as above. However I'll adjust for MPBR of my load. Usually somewhere between 2-3" above the bullseye at 100 yards.
 
What or how you shoot can effect how you zero. ie... Hunters will always shoot from a cold bore. So for them they rifle needs to cool down in between shots. Now some hunters will zero from a clean barrel and some will zero from a barrel with two or three rounds down it. The theroy is that oil in the barrel will effect how the bullet point of impact(POI). For those guys the barrel has to be clean. For the rest of them they zero with a fouled barrel but cold barrel. After they have what is believed to be a good zero they clean the gun and shoot 1-3 fouling shots. Let the barrel cool to ambient temp, then shoot one round then let the barrel cool to ambient temp, and repeat till they have shoot 5 rounds on target.

Non-hunters do it too many ways to count, myself included. My hunting guns I use the fouled barrel method. For my range or varmit guns I zero with a slightly fouled warm barrel, as thats the way they are most fequently shot.

I always put them on paper at 25 yards then move out to 50yards. Next I shoot at 100 yards and then I'll shoot at what ever range I intend to shoot each gun at. ie... My Savage .270 deer rifle I zero at 250 yards. Why, because the max point blank range(bullet path will be +/-3" afrom 25-295 yards) is 295 yards when zero at 250yards. My varmit rifles are zero at what ever there Max point blank range is too. Some guys will zero at 100, 150, 200 or what ever range they think is best for their situation.
 
Rcinit said:
Hunters will always shoot from a cold bore. So for them they rifle needs to cool down in between shots. Now some hunters will zero from a clean barrel and some will zero from a barrel with two or three rounds down it. The theroy is that oil in the barrel will effect how the bullet point of impact(POI). For those guys the barrel has to be clean. For the rest of them they zero with a fouled barrel but cold barrel.
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That's true. As a hunter, I always zero my hunting rifle for that first, cold-barrel shot. Sometime toward the end of July or early August, I'll give my hunting rifle a good cleaning, then I'll start the process of taking it out twice or three times a month and firing one shot. One shot only. I'll leave the barrel fouled until the end of the hunting season. Between the start of the process until the end of the hunting season, I'll probably not shoot 20 rounds through the rifle, but the rifle will be absolutely zeroed for that ammo.

I have no doubt that I could take the ammo and rifle I used last year and put one cold shot within 4 inches of my aiming point at 200 yards. As a hunter, that's what I'm striving for.
 
First off, I've never done this one-shot-clean, one-shot-clean thing. I'll run a patch through the bore of a new rifle, just to get any grunge out, and then start the sight-in process.

I've bore-sighted rifles by stacking books on the dining table and looking at something outside the window at some reasonable distance, as well as using the bench rest. It's a weather thing. :)

For any rifle with a scope mounted low to the bore, I start at 25 yards, and get dead-center. A target with some lines on typing paper on a cardboard box does just fine. If I did the bore-sighting anywhere near righteously, that takes maybe three shots.

For an AR, around two, maybe three inches low, mas o menos.

I'm usually within two to three inches high at 100 yards, then, and within an inch or two of the vertical centerline.

For hunting, I do the "set it and forget it" thing. Two inches high at 100 yards is generally near dead-on at 200 and maybe six inches low at 300. That holds for the great majority of all deer cartridges, omitting the magnums and the hotshot .22s.
 
Never cleaned after each shot. I am interested where my rifle shoots the first shot from a cold barrel, but am just as interested where the next two or three go.

I am not in the same league as snipers doing what they do, but for a hunting rifle just shoot it, sight it in, and clean after the hunt. It has worked for me for over half a century.

Regards,
Jerry
 
the only swabbing between shots ive ever heard of was when youre zeroing a black powder rifle, or if you were breaking in a new barrel.
 
That's true. As a hunter, I always zero my hunting rifle for that first, cold-barrel shot. Sometime toward the end of July or early August, I'll give my hunting rifle a good cleaning, then I'll start the process of taking it out twice or three times a month and firing one shot. One shot only. I'll leave the barrel fouled until the end of the hunting season. Between the start of the process until the end of the hunting season, I'll probably not shoot 20 rounds through the rifle, but the rifle will be absolutely zeroed for that ammo.

I have no doubt that I could take the ammo and rifle I used last year and put one cold shot within 4 inches of my aiming point at 200 yards. As a hunter, that's what I'm striving for.
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This. And for my wood stocked finer rifles, like my Sako, I wipe them down with an oily rag, just because the climate I live in is extremely humid.
 
The only time I ever did the shoot & swab was in testing a .30-caliber ArmaLite AR variant.
It had a match barrel, the company recommended that break-in process, I did it to give the gun its best chance at accuracy.

Wasted over 45 minutes with that alone before canceling the test because the gun was starting to misfeed regularly.

I won't do it again. :)
There are many things snipers do that I don't.
Denis
 
Wow!,,, I'm pretty sloppy I guess,,,,,

Sunday I took my H&R Handi-Rifle out to shoot,,,
I bought a bunch of 125 grain .357 Mag to use in it,,,
So I figured I would see how much the scope would be off.

I had to raise the elevation about 2 clicks,,,
To get it back inside of a 2" circle at 100 yards.

I shot it cold and hot and didn't see a difference in point of impact.

Maybe I'm not a good enough rifle shot to know the difference.

Aarond
 
I zero with a cold clean barrel. and there my zero adjustments stay. No matter how much shooting I do afterwards the gun gets cleaned and when I go hunting my first shot is from a cold clean barrel that I am already zeroed for so clean and zero and leave the sights alone.

Shooting a match is different, you will be adjusting for distance, light conditions, wind conditions and fine tuning after your sighting in shots so that is a different ball game.
 
Some years back I read an article entitled "How To Zero Like A Sniper". The preferred method for sighting in a rifle {according to this article} was to start with a clean rifle, fire one shot, swab the bore, fire another shot, swab the bore...you get the idea.
Click to expand...

They only reason I would zero like that is if I was going to shoot like that. I don't shoot like that.
 
Back in my USMC days after you cleaned your rifle you fired three or four shots to foul it and hunting you would go. When the outing was over and you had some slack time you repeated this process. There were times that your bore wasn’t cleaned for weeks. These shots were cold bore also. In garrison not being used your rifle was kept spotless.

For zeroing in with a scoped bolt rifle I always sandbagged it in place while centering a target, about 100 yards away, down the bore. Then adjusted the scopes crosshairs to the target without moving the rifle. After this you can usually get it zeroed in with a minimum of shots. Levers, pumps or autos present a different set of problems.

The above methods have worked well for my deer rifles also.
 
Sighting in one at a time...

If you plan to actually hit each target the first shot then this will sight you in for your cold-bore shot. All other methods sight-in for the second and so on "hot-bore" shots. If your barrel is free-floated this will be more distinct than a non-floated barrel. Also just so you know a true precision marksmen will know the adjustments of hold and the adjustments of turrets for both hot and cold bore shots.

Mike

P.S. a true hunter should need only his first shot one most rifle's, varmit and other rapid-fire pursuits excluded.
 
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Single Six:

I'm going to assume that you are sighted in at twenty yards and your bullets are hitting at point of aim. Now, you must consider how far that you'll be shooting. Now, use a computer program or the trajectory tables located in the back of the major reloading manuals. They will reveal that with 30/06 class of calibers that print at point of aim at twenty-five yards will be on target at 300 pluss yards. The vital area of deer sized game in ten inches in diameter. So, by sighting in at twenty-five yards your bullet will never rise above or drop below the ten inch vital area. After you sight at twenty five yards you must check you rifle's impact at 200 and 300 yards.

I'm not certin how far snipers in the Mid East zero their rifles; but in Vietnam the sniper rifle was zeroed at 600 Yards.

Semper Fi.

Gunnery sergeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired
 
I keep a dirty bore in my rifle for all shooting that matters. It's more predictable than a clean-bore shot.

After the rifles are cleaned, they aren't hunted with until I fire 3-5 shots.
 
Just so there's no misconceptions, I have no delusions of trying to emulate our nation's Military/LE snipers. Nor do I plan on buying a dedicated sniper rifle. I'm really just interested in what everyone on TFL thinks of this method. Thanks to all for the responses thus far...as usual, I'm mainly trying to be quiet and learn something!
 
There you go singlesix. Most guys zero from a cool, fouled barrel and hunt with one too. Thats the way I do it.
 
I agree with double checking zero when the barrel is cold and fouled. If you clean a barrel the first few shots will usually not hit at the same point as subsequent shots. Same applies if you change your load especially with different powders and primers or bullet weights. rc
 
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