Zeroing a scope

N

Nick9130White

New member
When a shot is let's say 11 o'clock 2 inches. You would go up two inches and then go to the left how ever far you would have to til the cross hairs are right where the bullet hit, right?

My buddy was saying the opposite. He's saying if it's high and to the right you would go down and to the left. It doesn't make sense but I could be wrong.
Whose right? And how do you do it?
 
With an American scope you adjust the the rifle to the group. If you are 2" eleven o'clock that would mean you adjust the scope 7 clicks to the right and 7 clicks down (for a 1/4 moa scope) and then shoot another group.

Just remember to adjust the point of impact to the point of aim and you should be fine.

Jimro
 
Two shot zero

Fire one shot at 25 yards to see if you are on the paper. If you are:

use a shooting support system, sandbags, etc. that is steady. Have a helper handy, and fire one shot at the bull. Now find that hole. Now have the helper and the sandbags or other device help to hold the rifle perfectly still.

Aim at the same point in the bull, now have the helper or you move the crosshairs while keeping the rifle stationary until the crosshairs are now on THAT ORIGINAL HOLE, THAT FIRST SHOT!

You are now bore-sighted at that range. YOU HAVE MATCHED THE BORE TO THE SCOPE AT 25 YARDS. Move to the 50 and try again. If it is still good, now decide your range at which you want to zero, 100, 200 or 300 yards. Out west I always zeroed at 200, so my shots where within the lungs from zero to 250 or more, depending on caliber, 300 weatheby or .308, etc. and you are good to go! Eastcoasters usually zero at 100 yards. A little tweaking is all that is needed now.

TWO SHOTS, ZEROED. A good start! GOOD HUNTING!
 
Your buddy is right.

For new scopes, I fire a shot at 25 yards, adjust, fire one more. Then shoot at 100, adjust and fire again. If that shot is close, I go ahead and fire a group to see if further adjustment is necessary.

To expand a little on what WildBill said, you can boresight a bolt action without firing a shot. Remove the bolt and look down the bore then move your eye up and look through the scope and adjust till the bore and the crosshairs line up on the target. This should get you reasonably close to start.
 
Clifford L. Hughes

Nick9130white:

When zeroing a riflle, except when moving an iron front sight, remember to move the the scope knobs in the direction that you want the bullet's strike to move. This goes for iron rear sights also. To zero by moving the iron front sight move it in the opposite direction of the required bullet move.

Semper Fi.
Gunnery Sergeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired
 
Last edited:
Red Cent

Guys, he is high and LEFT. 11:00
Click to expand...
My buddy was saying the opposite. He's saying if it's high and to the right you would go down and to the left. It doesn't make sense but I could be wrong.
Whose right? And how do you do it?
Click to expand...
He also uses the example of being high and right.
 
Nick .... It may not make sense but.......

Okay Nick, you're trying to make your point of aim (the place where your cross hairs lined up on) to your point of impact (the place where your bullet hits) MATCH.

In your original statement you said the bullet impacted at 11 o'clock (approximately 1 inch high and 1 inch LEFT. So you move your point of aim 1 inch DOWN and 1 inch RIGHT. After adjustment you should now be looking at the bullseye and your bullet will impact on the bullseye. The same rule holds true when you are adjusting a rear iron sight.

If you adjust the front iron sight or the pins on a compound bow sight, you do the opposite. That means you move toward the point of impact.

Hopefully, this explanation didn't add more confusion.
 
When you are adjusting iron sights you move the rear sight in the direction you want the groups to move verses moving the front sight in the opposite direction. American scopes are set up to adjust like rear sights.

If your groups are high and left, adjust the scope right and down to meet with your point of aim. If you were adjusting the point of impact to point of aim then you would adjust up and left.

Think about it this way by adjusting down and right you are equally moving the muzzle up and left to make point of aim equal point of impact at the zero distance.

The more you think about it the more confusing it is likely to get.

Jimro
 
Usually we don't describe the group in polar coordinates. Say:
1.75" high and .5" left
not:
11:00 and 2"

Then it is necessary to also specify the distance you were shooting at.

At 100 yards adjust 7 clicks down and 2 clicks right.
At 25 yards adjust 28 clicks down and 8 clicks right.

You can calculate the number of clicks needed at your specific shooting distance by converting from the 1/4" @ 100 yrds marked on your scope (by similar triangles the distances are proportional). Or you can convert your error in elevation and windage into minutes of angle (or mils) and dial the correction directly into your sighting system. Remember one MOA is very close to 1" at 100 yrds.
 
Jimro got it right on the nose.
I'm just more confused.
But I think I'm Gettin it.
Shooting high, bring crosshairs down thus shooting lower. Right you go left.
It's confusing if you think about it I think.
And for a 1MOA scope 1 click-1/4"?
 
WildBill45 has the answer. I've used this technique for years and it really works. If you're careful you can do it by yourself but I like his idea of helpers. Doing it this way you'll SEE your crosshairs move to the bullet hole and don't have to worry about knowing which way to move the dials.

The only thing I do different from WildBill45 is put a large target up at 100 yards backwards so only the white back is showing. Put a small target in the middle. If you've bore sighted your rifle properly you'll be somewhere on the paper at 100 yards. Now do what WildBill45 suggests.
 
Are we all having fun yet? If you really want something different in the scope dept., try sighting in with a Zeiss 4X mounted on a front adjustable dovetail claw mount...(windage adjusted with punch & hammer), on a circa 1914 German 7X57 sporter. You have to treat it like an adjustable front iron sight.
 
To use WildBill45's technique at the range, it helps to have a good steady gun vise at the range to hold that gun on target while you twirl the knobs. With sandbags, I find it hard to turn those adjustments without moving the gun slightly.
 
I've only tried it with my Outers "Varminter" rest and if I'm careful I don't move it. If I do move it while I'm turning the knobs I fire another shot.
 
11:00 would be to the left, 2:00 would be to the right on a target.

If the arrow says the right and up on your dials then you will have to move the opposite direction for left and down.
 
in laymans terms- if its high left, just put the cross hairs in equally opposite directions. use the lines on the scope to adjust accordingly for an easier time.

i was using a scope simulation and had a score of 60 or so at the start and came out with about 90 at the end. if i can find it again. ill post it.
 
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