What Yardage

For one of my deer/elk rifles @ 100yds I shoot appr 2" high then I move over to the 200/300yd range of course this won't happen on the same day. I fine tune everything so I'm dead on at 300yds.

I find sometimes the good load at 100yds may be so-so at 200/300yds. After I shoot the loads again see how they do from a cold barrel then the load is ready to be chronographed plus the work up loads.

I load for accuracy first then comes velocity so for my style of reloading balistic tables won't work.

My gunsmith has a range back of his shop to 600yds for target/steel plates. We paint the square steel plates there appr 12"x12" so it's nice to see my loads at 400/500/600yds plus groups.

I have couple rifles that I'll use for elk I call them my cow elk rifles I'll hunt around the timber long shot be 200yds so those are sightin dead on at 100yds. I'll run those rifle out to 400yds just to see what the drop is.

Leaving in the morning set up camp for elk season starts this coming sat.
 
50 yards - scoped 10/22, and iron sights M48A
50/100 yards - No4 MK1* ghost ring/lob
100 yards - iron sights 458WM
150 yards - scoped 7.5x55, 9.3x62
200 yards - scoped 308 and 270s
 
KISS, is the right thing to do here,

so sight-in for 200yds. everything short is yours.

Did Hunter sight-in for club and used the standard 100yd for the dudes.
Always put up a 200yd target and got a couple dudes to take a shot.
REALLY brought home the concept of DROP.

Re-sighted for 200, they were happy!

Except one guy that sighted in using 150gr 30/30 and then bought 170's.

guess what he missed.
 
lot of variables to consider. Bullet type, velocity, bbl length etc. Reload .270 for Rem 700 CDL with 130 gr Sierra BT and nearly shoots flat at 200 meters. I generally zero at 100 and chrono the loads and calculate trajectory with JBM then check calcultions at the range out to 300. Generally close enough for hunting. Adjusting turrets for distance works great at the range but not always practical when hunting. Most of our shots in NM are in the 300 yard range but still zero at 100 and practice holding over at that distance. When it is all said and done just a matter of personal preference.
 
my 45/70 CB has a scope that is made for the leverevolution bullets. It has yard markers for 100 yard 200 yards and 300 yards. So I sight the top rectical in at 100 yards and the other 2 are very close.

I sight in most my guns at 100 yards.
 
I think it depends more on your sights than your rifle/cartridge combo, except for a dangerous game rifle. They should be sighted dead-on for the expected range.

With irons or a standard duplex or dot reticle, I sight for a 2" PBR radius on smaller game, 3" PBR radius on deer size animals, and 4" radius on bigger stuff like moose. This gives the best long-range sighting without intermediate misses shooting over the animal. Center of mass hold should be good for modern cartridges out to 275-300 yds. If you shoot farther than that, make a chart with the additional yardage drops in 50 yd increments and tape it to your buttstock for an instant reminder. Whatever program you use to calculate the chart, make sure you put in the correct scope height from center of bore for your rifle/scope combo, or your drops will be off.

With a BDC or mil-dot reticle, sight for 100 or 200 with the center crosswire, and use the other crosswires as indicated by their spacing. Again, a chart taped to your rifle is a great convenience.
 
Sighting In

Like most have said depends on rifle my .308's are sighted in at a 100 and every 100 after that out to 1200 yards. My .338 WM is the same but goes out to 1800 yards. I have a card for every shot I have ever taken from every rifle I own from day one. The only time it changes is if I happen to run out of the powder I'm using or I change bullets either in weight or type. I also have records for all of those I have reloaded.
 
black mamba wrote:
I think it depends more on your sights than your rifle/cartridge combo, except for a dangerous game rifle. They should be sighted dead-on for the expected range.
Click to expand...

Regarding your comment on DGRs - I agree with you in principle!

My practice to sight in my 458 at 100 yards doesn't violate that principle. I work from 25 yds to 50 and then to 100 to increase precision. Once zeroed at 100, I then return to the 50 and 25 yard targets. I find that I'm actually back on zero at 25 and less than 1/2" high at 50 yards. Plus using bal cals they show this load to be only down 1" at 125 yards.

This process combines both getting to a precise zero and affords me practice time shooting this beast.
 
I've been mostly a deer and varmint hunter since I first got into centerfires. I've always zeroed for 200 yards with all of my deer cartridges, and I guess about 250 for such as a .220 Swift.

Generally, 2" high at 100 works out nicely. Dead-on at 200; five to six inches low at 300 for .243 through .30-'06, excepting magnums. Fairly close for .223, for that matter. I like to minimize thinking when I'm killing, because I'm lazy.

That's all been working pretty good since 1950, anyway. :)
 
IME, elevation can be done ok at 100, but windage needs to be done at 200, if you will shoot out to 500 or so. At 200, you will need to know how to shoot with the wind to set it right. . .or have 0 wind!
 
1-2" high st a hundred is good for deer and elk game type hunting. Even if your shot is only 75 yards the animal is not going to know if you hit him an inch high.
 
I want my rifles zeroed at 200 yards. From there, my 270 drops 7 @300 and 20 @400. The 220 is down 5 @ 300 and 30 @ 400. The 223 and 260 still need some range 'test shooting' done. I've had those first two rifles in action for so many years that I hardly have to think about where to put the crosshairs once I know the range. And if I'm off a couple of inches, it rarely matters. I don't yet have that same 'been doing it for years' comfort factor with the 223 and the 260, but I"m getting there with the 260 and plan to keep using it a lot.
 
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