Simple Question

M

MississippiDave

Inactive
To end a discussion between some of my buddies - when sighting a gun w/ scope, do you chase the bullet to zero it in?
meaning, if you're bullet is right of target , move scope X clicks to right.
I say yeah, others say opposite.
 
Assuming the knob of the scope's adjustment has a little arrow saying either "left" or "right": If the crosshairs are centered, and the bullet hits to the right of center, you turn the knob "left".
This basically moves the crosshairs to the right, inside the scope (although you don't notice any actual change in location in modern scopes), and thus moves the point of impact of the bullet to the left.

Left, right, up, down: Turn in the direction you want the bullet to go, with the crosshairs centered on the target.

If I've understood your question, your buddies are correct. :(

Best luck,

Art
 
Lets see if I understood you. If your rifle is locked into a shooting/sighting device, shoot one shot, then reset your scope crosshairs on the bullseye. Now take the windage knob and move the crosshair to the POI, then take the elevation knob and move it to the POI height. One more shot will prove you did it right............SO.........yes. After resetting on the bullseye, you "chase" the POI with the crosshairs.

This is a principle used by a number of scope mfg's by building this ability into the scope.
Your friends are wrong.
 
What you describe is sometimes referred to as the "Two Shot Zero". Your scope should be properly bore sighted. Sight on your target and shoot one shot. Remain absolutely still and have a friend move the scope crosshairs until they intersect the first bullet hole. Shoot your second shot. It should be very near the first, all else being equal. To verify, put up a clean target and shoot again. In over 30 years, I haven't had it fail me yet.
 
I was thinking about what Pierre said.
What confuses me it that if you're shooting say 2 inches to the right of the bulls-eye and move your scope 2 inches (X clicks) to the left then you'd be 4 inches off.

In my mind what you need to do is move scope same as gun shoots so that they match up, making the gun shoot at what you're looking at.

but thats just my idea.


The scope in question was a Swift Premier on a musket loader.
 
Yup. You have to move the crosshairs to intersect the original POI FROM the starting point of the bullseye again.

BTW..........If you have a Swift, you have an excellent but underrrated scope. I have a personal collection of Swift scopes from the 60s and 70s. All of them have metal internal parts.
 
Lordy!

Pierre, the original point was, "meaning, if you're bullet is right of target, move scope X clicks to right."

That is not correct. If you want the bullet's point of impact to move left to be aligned with the crosshairs, you turn the windage knob "left".

BAD said, "Remain absolutely still and have a friend move the scope crosshairs until they intersect the first bullet hole." Yes. But the friend will turn the knob to the left, given MS-D's example.

:), Art
 
so the windage on the scope are internally backwards?


sorry to keep kicking this around if ya'll are getting bored.


Pierre
Yeah , i like my Swift also. Forget model .. something like 675 or something . 3-9X40. Perfect for my musket loader.
 
Gotten a fair number of two shot zeros over the years. Shure glad I never stopped to think what I was doin. Just moved the cross hairs to the hole without movin the gun.

Sam, now that I know why, never be able to do it again.:D
 
Didn't mean to irritate you, Art. When I'm moving the crosshairs I do it while looking through the scope. Right, left on the knobs, who cares if you're moving the scope to POI? I never read the knobs anymore and haven't for some 30 years. POI is POI for moving crosshairs. Do you "chase" the POI? Absolutely.
 
Let's lay this out.

Ok, I have a Leupold target scope. Lets use that as an example. Scopes have adjustible knobs to adjust where your bullet hits. I know that my scope adjusts 1/4" at 100 yards for everytime I hear and watch it click. Now, I shoot at 3/4" target pasters at 100 yards. If my first shot is say 2 inches down and 3 inches left, I need to adjust my crosshairs. Not the scope, the crosshairs. I know that 2 inches down is 8 clicks. So I am currently hitting 2 inches low. I would move my target knob up 8 clicks. Then I know my bullet is hitting 3 inches left. I would move my target knob 12 clicks right. What this does is change the point of impact to where I want it. When you move the knob to the left, it changes the point of impact left. On quality scopes, you know when you move it so many clicks, it is going to move it exactly that number of inches. When I sight in, I know about how far I need to adjust and then I adjust it the way I need it to go. I move the bullet hole to the point on the target I want it to hit. Does that make sense? I move the bullet hole to where I want to shoot. I don't move my crosshair.

The two shot zero makes sense if you can hold the gun still and move your adjustment knob at the same time. In that case, you hold the gun still and then move your crosshairs to your bullet hole. In that case you would have to adjust the scope the opposite way of what you normally would think.

I personally just like to move the knobs the direction I want the bullet to go. If I want the bullet to move left to the 3/4" paster, I move the knob left. I think the best thing to do is just go out and do it. Take plenty of ammo and you will find the best way for you.
 
ER, if the initial POI is to the right, the knob is going to read left as you turn it, BUT, as viewed through the optics, the crosshairs move right toward the original POI.
 
Pierre, no biggie.

What I generally try to do is to answer a question as written, hoping I'm getting it all correct. (In this case, how the left/right stuff works on the knob)

After that, one can get into how one sights in a rifle with the minimum number of shots.

In the FWIW department, I usually shoot a 3-shot group at 100 yards, and then re-align the center of the group.

:), Art
 
I'm with Art on this one (I'm sure that means a lot to him :rolleyes: ) His comment on adjusting the average point of impact is VERY valid. With ammo that goups poorly, you can chase your tail all over the target and think yourself an idiot if you try to adjust based on the results of one shot. I have a scope that I do not store or transport on the rifle. To zero that one, I had to shoot several groups ... unmounting and remounting the scope between each group ... to take the mounting error into account. I then looked at the average POI of the groups and adjusted the scope based on that. It was only about 1 extra moa of error, but this way I don't have to worry that I was sighting in under an extreme mounting condition.

Saands
 
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