How To Zero A Rifle Scope

You’ve just got yourself a new rifle scope, fitted it and let me guess…for some reason your shots are landing nowhere near the crosshairs?

Sadly there’s more to rifle scope sharp shooting than just plonking the scope on the rifle and forever after shooting like an SAS sniper! You have to “zero” it.

Think about it. It’s like a bike wheel. If you tighten the bolts wrong, too much on one side for example, it spins wrong and rubs the brake pads. It’s the same with a Rifle scope. If it’s not set up correctly it will be offline and even at short air rifle, airsoft and paintball ranges this is going to throw your accuracy right off. At longer ranges you’ll miss by a mile (well figuratively anyway!)

What Does “Zero a scope” mean?

Zeroing a sight or scope means getting the crosshair in position so that when you shoot. Ground zero if you like. The point of impact.There’s a lot of discussion amongst shooters on the best way to zero a scope or sight. What I’ve written below is what I’ve been sending out to my ebay scope buyers for the last year or so and received a lot of good comments back about it so I know it’s OK!

How to Zero a Rifle Scope

First of all you need to set a firm foundation by fitting the scope mounts well.

  1. Put the scope mounts on the rifle first with the top brackets removed.
  2. Tighten them into place using 1/2 turns at the time so that they sit solid and level as best as is possible, i.e., the downward pressure is as equal as possible. At this stage don’t tighten them fully as you might want to slide them up and down a little.
  3. Now take scope and place it on top of the open rifle mounts.
    • Make sure the windage and elevation turrets are one up and one to the right (these are the “turrets” on the sight. You use them later to make micro adjustments and in the field adjustments for wind)
  4. Then put the top mount brackets on and tighten – Again use partial turns to tighten up.
    • Don’t tighten fully at this stage, you may yet need to adjust a little.

Zero the scope

  1. Lie in your normal shooting position and check that you can see through the scope well…
    • The distance between your eye and the rear scope lens is called Eye Relief.
    • Unlike cartoons you do not use a scope by pressing your eye up against the scope lens!
  2. Once comfortable complete the screwing down of all mounts so that your set up is solid –
    • take care at this stage to keep the final turns partial and one by one to ensure pressure is equal.

Now it’s time to zero the scope for shooting:

  1. Load the rifle
  2. Adopt your standard prone/lie down shooting position.
    • Prone is the best way as if you test shoot from standing or kneeling positions you waver more and it’s harder to do a “true test”.
  3. Put some sort of target in place at say 20 yards – or whatever you think your “standard” range will be.
  4. Using cross hair on target centre – Take 2-3 shots – Where do do they fall in relation to where you want them to? Right, left, up, down – dead on (lucky you!)

  • 2-3 shots is best as it will average out shooter inaccuracy and give you a more “significant” feel for how far or close you are from true zero.

Now it’s time to use the windage and elevation turrets to get it zeroed dead on. These are the 2 turrets on the top and right side of the scope. See my website for pictures.

  1. Models vary, you’ll probably screw a cap off and expose either a coin twist or finger knurled type of dial.
  2. The top turret adjusts up and down. The right one left and right.
  3. If you have your scopes instructions they should have a table with figures to tell you what each click adjustment means in terms of cross hair movement at “x” distance, e.g., 1/8 inch at 100 metres.

Use single click turns and each time take a new shot to gauge where the shot now falls – the dials basically adjust the cross hair position up-down and left-right.

It’s trial and error basically but with testing you’ll get to where you need to be and be able to trust that your shots will go where it says they will! This may take some time and a lot of shots. Be patient!

I sell rifle scopes and laser sights on ebay for a living. After getting asked repeatedly for instructions on how to zero scopes I wrote a text file guide to send to people. This had some really good comments back so I decided to use it as the basis for a new website which is about, funnily enough, how to zero rifle scopes (and zero in laser sights, how to go about choosing a new scope and more) See it at http://www.zeroriflescope.co.uk/ and my ebay shop at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Hunting-Shooting-Fishing

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Moseley

Basics Of Ballistics

Anything that is worth doing is worth doing well. The same applies to hunting. Nobody wants to be just an average hunter; everyone wants to be a great hunter. Telling the story about the monster mounted on the wall rather that the big one that got away. A ballistics chart is just one of the tools you can use to become a great hunter.

Whether you hunt with a rifle, bow, muzzle-loader or shotgun slug you all have one thing in common, ballistic motion. Ballistic motion defines the path a projectile follows as it is affected by gravity and wind resistance.

While ballistic motion is governed by the laws of physics and is defined by complicated engineering equations; ballistic motion is all around us. Every football that is thrown, every satellite that orbits the earth providing HD programming on your TV all rely on ballistic motion.

Everybody has watched a movie where a sniper is hidden in his Ghillie Suit getting ready for his shot, his sniper buddy is ranging the target and referencing a chart telling the marksman what adjustments to make to his scope to accommodate the range. This is all great, but most hunters don’t have a scope that lends itself well to making these adjustments nor do we want to make adjustments to the scope in the field.

Fortunately most hunters do have access to Microsoft Excel and a printer. This is all you need to make shots you never thought possible. Next season you can brag about the trophy buck or bull you bagged at 800 yards. Yes, just shy of half a mile.

When you site in your rifle, say for 100 yards don’t pack up and leave when you have 4 shots inside a quarter pattern. Stick around and fire a few more rounds, specifically at ranges above and below 200 yards. Fire 3 shots at 50, 100 and 150 yards as well as 200. Record the data in 2 columns in Excel. Record your yardage on the left hand column, and height on the right. If you hit above your mark the height value is positive, below is negative. A typical example would read as follows. Left hand column from top to bottom 50,100, 150, 200. Right hand column from top to bottom 1, 0, -1.5, -3.5. Insert an “xy scatter” plot. Right click the plot line and choose “Add Trendline” create a 3rd order polynomial and on the options tab check display equation and display R squared value. If the R-squared value is between .99 and 1 you are ready to proceed.

Create two new columns. The left column is yardage and should range from 0 to 1000 in 20 yard increments. The right hand column should have the equation from the previous graph and should use the yardage cell to the left in place of “X” in the equation.

Print this chart, trim it and stick it to the cheek side of you gun stock and you have a quick reference that is custom matched to your gun and ammo telling you exactly how high you need to aim at any range up to 1000 yards.

Apply this tool with knowledge of big game hunting and species vital zones and you are sure to become a great hunter too.

Happy hunting.

Scott is the owner of Ghillie Suit Source http://www.ghilliesuitsource.com and has been hunting and fishing the Dakotas and Canada for over 20 years.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_LaCoe