100 vs 200 yd zero?

[Stinky Coyote]

My hunting rifles are sighted 3 inches high and 1 inch left at 100 yards.

perfectly acceptable for 6-8 lb trigger pull rifles chucking low bc porkies in the mid 2000's lol, is it 1985 again? haha

 

[SDHNTR]

My guns live most of the time with 1.5 to 1.75 moa on the dial now. No need to think for most hunting situations 300ish and in. Just point and shoot. Take a glance every once in a while to double check I’m where I want to be. In essence, it’s the same way I’ve hunted for 25+ years, long before hunting scopes had dials. I just have another tool at my disposal, if needed. It’s usually not, point and bang-flop.

 

[david2duck]

Can 98% of people shoot a better group at 100 than at 2/3/or 400y? If yes then it makes sense to zero at 100 and walk around with it dialed at whatever number you want. Simply to know that your setup/data are as close to perfect as you can get.

If someone has a 1 moa gun at 100 why don’t they shot 1 moa at every yardage? Many factors but one of the biggest, if not the biggest, is the environment. You’ve shown you can shoot an moa at 100 and maybe even a further but why does that fall apart for many at 600 or farther?

My 7 saum with a 180gr Berger has a 1.66 moa difference in elevation if I have a 100 yard zero or 200 yard zero. Why is that important? If my 1 moa group at 200 isn’t perfectly centered around my aiming point then I’m guessing as to where “true” center is. Every bit I’m off in any direction makes my data wrong, especially at longer distances. 1 moa or more off on a coues deer at 750 more than likely means a miss or wounded deer.

 

[JCMCUBIC]

I've done both 100 and 200 yard zero's in the past. Either will work. After going back and forth for years, now I zero most of my rifles at 100 yards. Some of them are short range only guns and some are dialers for longer range shooting. The 100 yard zero gives me a common zero on all of them. I should note that 90% of my hunting shots are under 200 yards....but that 10% is important for me.

An option to consider, and one that I do specifically with the only SFP BDC scopes I use...... I use the NXS 2.5-10 scopes with Velocity 600 reticles on several rifles. These reticles are based on velocity ranges and 200 yard zero's. The NXS's zero stop is set up so you can set the hard stop below 0 on the dial. I zero it at 200 yards so the reticle matches, then set the hard stop below zero. I can dial down to the hard stop in woods, then a few clicks up to the 0'd dial mark to be set at 200 yards in ag fields so drops match. The reticle actually has a 100 yard hash above the center of the crosshair....but in woods I'm often on 4x or 6x and the SFP can be off a bit. On smaller game like coyotes and fox it's nice to be right on in the woods, especially when threading a needle between limbs, etc.

Same idea as others mentioned...set the zero then dial to the walking around circumstance. The dial's zero mark and hard zero stop can give you extra options on how you implement this, especially with a BDC.

All that said, I prefer a FFP generic mil based reticle....but make due with the SFP and reticle trade off to gain other pro's of said scope.

 

[Tmac]

Depends on what I’m doing, in a way I use both, like a number of others have said.

Sighting in with a known accurate rifle/ammo combo at sea level pre-hunt, zero turret at 100, then raise it a few clicks for a 200-225 shot impact at hunt site is how I roll. Effectively makes a 100 zero rifle dead on at 200-225 at say 8k+, without changing zero. With that sight in I know where to hold to 400, no worries about having to dial or calc drop dope for a quick 325 yard shot.

I watched a long range shooter/competitor who always zero’s at 100 yards and hunts with the same zero let a large bull walk because he did not know where his bullet landed for a 350 ish shot. Buy the time he ranged, entered his stuff, the Bull had walked. The Bull was available to him for over 20 seconds I’d guess.

The zero is really a personal choice for hunting. A 100 yard zero is a nice and easy baseline to come back to & adjust off of, easy to verify pretty much anywhere. Say you drop your rifle hunting, easy to dial back to zero at 100, find a rock and fire one off. Adjust if needed and dial back to that 200-225 yard hunting impact point offers some advantages while hunting in the field imo.

 

[Overdrive]

perfectly acceptable for 6-8 lb trigger pull rifles chucking low bc porkies in the mid 2000's lol, is it 1985 again? haha

I always thought the 1985 standard was, if you can hit a 9" pie plate at a 100 yards you're good to go hunting. Hahaha

 

[Stinky Coyote]

100 yards is the most practical for my needs.

So if a guy zeros at 25 or 50 yards do you develop your load there too?? Or do you develop a load at 100, then re-zero? Sounds dumb to me.


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Well I left a little something out that could be of interest, my buddy that competes and everything is custom only group checks and load develops at 300m...he doesn't get excited until 5 shots are in the 1" range. He can't see what he wants to see until he gets out that far. He zero's at 200m as his main range is in meters and his rangefinder. So for ease I think it's safe to say most of us mortals do this load/group check work at 100 yards...but not seeing if you set at 200 before hunting why wouldn't zero check there, at least for those who run reticles or speed dial turrets and no in field ballistic programs taking live atmospheric etc. I guess if one has all the technology along it doesn't matter where you zero and maybe 100 makes more sense...we need to be able to differentiate this stuff, will limit the arguments.

 

[Lawnboi]

Well I left a little something out that could be of interest, my buddy that competes and everything is custom only group checks and load develops at 300m...he doesn't get excited until 5 shots are in the 1" range. He can't see what he wants to see until he gets out that far. He zero's at 200m as his main range is in meters and his rangefinder. So for ease I think it's safe to say most of us mortals do this load/group check work at 100 yards...but not seeing if you set at 200 before hunting why wouldn't zero check there, at least for those who run reticles or speed dial turrets and no in field ballistic programs taking live atmospheric etc. I guess if one has all the technology along it doesn't matter where you zero and maybe 100 makes more sense...we need to be able to differentiate this stuff, will limit the arguments.

I don’t give a flip about what your buddy that competes does. And if I did I’d want to hear his experience from him. I don’t sit here and list others experience as if it were my own.

Your almighty Grendel at 200 yards has .5moa of wind drift in 3mph. 3mph is a mouse fart. .5moa zero offset is an unacceptable amount of error for me even on my 400 yard deer gun. Again 3mph is nothing. I can see most people not being able to tell if their zero is off a click but 2 can be seen pretty quickly at distance.

Errors compound.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

I don’t give a flip about what your buddy that competes does. And if I did I’d want to hear his experience from him. I don’t sit here and list others experience as if it were my own.

Your almighty Grendel at 200 yards has .5moa of wind drift in 3mph. 3mph is a mouse fart. .5moa zero offset is an unacceptable amount of error for me even on my 400 yard deer gun. Again 3mph is nothing. I can see most people not being able to tell if their zero is off a click but 2 can be seen pretty quickly at distance.

Errors compound.

what went wrong for you today?

lol, can't shoot like my buddy so you hate him? don't worry though you can still kill like either one of us with either of our set ups, or yours lmao

did we really have to caveat the zero check at 200 would be sans wind? or directly into/tail? oh and totally agree with 'errors compound' that's why my zero checks will be at 200, has worked well, it's cocktail time, cheers, make yours a double mr grumpy pants

 

[Lawnboi]

what went wrong for you today?

lol, can't shoot like my buddy so you hate him? don't worry though you can still kill like either one of us with either of our set ups, or yours lmao

did we really have to caveat the zero check at 200 would be sans wind? or directly into/tail? oh and totally agree with 'errors compound' that's why my zero checks will be at 200, has worked well, it's cocktail time, cheers, make yours a double mr grumpy pants

I said I hate him? Not grumpy at all. More words in my mouth. Are you here to learn about shooting like a lot of us or just here to argue?

I dislike when people use others experiences as their own. That’s the source of the condescending tone.

Sure a no wind situation, have fun checking it, we don’t have many days it’s not blowing 3mph. And you saying only in a head or tailwind shows your true experience with shooting in the wind.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

I said I hate him? Not grumpy at all. More words in my mouth. Are you here to learn about shooting like a lot of us or just here to argue?

I dislike when people use others experiences as their own. That’s the source of the condescending tone.

Sure a no wind situation, have fun checking it, we don’t have many days it’s not blowing 3mph. And you saying only in a head or tailwind shows your true experience with shooting in the wind.

They are my experiences also as I've been on the bench beside him while we do this, spot each other while taking turns, while he shoots the same size groups at 300m as I do at 100m so shadap. We are equally deadly on game afield outside running coyotes and 70-100 yard archery as I quit at about 65, and he likes shooting runners, that read as envy to me. He kicks my ass on the range, most of the 'steel warriors' here will...where you will struggle to kick my ass however is on fur, that's the only world I set up for and everyone else can set up for that too. With 200 yard zero's and still go long lol.

If you can read wind afield in the .5 moa range good for you, you're elite af. Not sure what you're trying to do on game out there, like shoot groups or something, but kill zone is still moa at 1000 yards.

We're beating a dead horse now...your turn.

 

[Lawnboi]

They are my experiences also as I've been on the bench beside him while we do this, spot each other while taking turns, while he shoots the same size groups at 300m as I do at 100m so shadap. We are equally deadly on game afield outside running coyotes and 70-100 yard archery as I quit at about 65, and he likes shooting runners, that read as envy to me. He kicks my ass on the range, most of the 'steel warriors' here will...where you will struggle to kick my ass however is on fur, that's the only world I set up for and everyone else can set up for that too. With 200 yard zero's and still go long lol.

If you can read wind afield in the .5 moa range good for you, you're elite af. Not sure what you're trying to do on game out there, like shoot groups or something, but kill zone is still moa at 1000 yards.

We're beating a dead horse now...your turn.

Your cool. I should have known better. Let’s make another simple conversation about zero range and turn it into a measuring contest that has nothing to do with zero range.

This will be my last message, you will have to find someone else to argue with.

 

[intohunting]

100 yd zero here. I have the Leupold CDS (Custom Dial System) turrets on a couple of rifles. It takes all of the guesswork out of it. I asked the Leupold tech how many yards I would gain (on the max distance range) if I started with a 200 yd zero? His reply was that I would only gain about 25 yards.

 

[Loggerdude]

My nightforce has been on the rocks twice and still lights out. It’s a killing tool not a safe queen on a custom 28 Nosler by LPR

 

[MaraviaDave]

I zERo aT 2o0 YarDS wiTh my LeAD sleD.

 

[Tyler Holderby]

100 yard zero. It's easy to remember, easy to shoot in a pinch to verify for myself.

Then while hunting turret is dialed/set up for 250yds (.7 mils) for a fast shot opportunity.