100 yard zero or 200 yard zero for M.O.A.

[clybnntt14]

Hello y'all. I'm new on here and I have a question about M.O.A. zero sight in. Figured it would be easier than going to the Internet and try and hunt down and read a bunch of articles. I'm trying to figure out the correct zero, if it's a 100 yd zero or a 200 yd zero. I have a 300 Weatherby mag. with a Vortex Viper PST II 5-25X50 FFP scope on it, with MOA. The local gunsmith said it has to be sighted in at 100 yrds, I can't remember what his explanation was. It is currently sighted in it at 200 yrds. I have a sig range finder and it gives me the yardage and the MOA adjustment. I set the parameters for the ammo and gun/scope setup on my phone that links to my range finder and it gives me the proper adjustment for the MOA. So I don't see why 100 yard at 200 yard zero would make that much of a difference. Thank you.

 

[Seeknelk]

Here we go
I zero dialing scopes at 100.
- easier to exactly shoot and check zero, no wind inputs,.easier to find range etc.
- you gain nothing zeroing at 200 except moving your zero stop to that point. You gain exactly zero scope travel or anything doing so.
- when I'm actively walking and hunting a tailor my zero to the terrain. Open country mulies, dial to 300.
-Brush county bull tracking, leave it at 100.
-If you want to do a max point blank range zero on your scope , just figure out what that is and dial to that for walking around. If long shots, dial accordingly.

 

[JFK]

I zero my rifles at 200 yards. It just means you end up dialing less, which is faster in the field.

Only downside is you’ll be a little high at 100, but not enough to make a difference.

 

[Seeknelk]

I was going to say trying searching that topic but don't. It's way more confusing.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Far from A rifle expert but I use a +2” zero at 100 yards. For my 300 WM that means:

100 = +2inches
200 = -.5 inches
300 = -6.5 inches
400 = -17.5 inches

that means I can take a 250-300 yard shot with minimal holdover and no dialing. For longer shots I need to dial my dope which is a whole other ball game.

 

[Longleaf]

Zero at 100, then in the field you can dial to whatever zero you want to have.

 

[EastHumboldt]

if you are currently sighted in at 200 yards, Shoot a box of ammo through it and see how it stacks up with your dial. If your groups are consistently high at 300 and 400 yards, then your zero is set wrong and you probably need to set it at 100 yards. If your groups match the indicated ticks on your dial, then leave it alone.

In the old days, prior to dial-able scopes, most of us set our zero at 200 yards. This meant the bullet would typically be one and a half inches or so high at 100 yards. And 3 to 6 inches low at 300 yard Depending on caliber of course. This meant you could just point and shoot at distances inside of 250 yards and you could often hold on the back line at distances of 300 to 400 yards Depending on caliber of course.

.I did a quick and dirty ballistics check on 300 Weatherby mag.180 grain bullet. At 400 yards the bullet is 23 inches below the crosshairs with 100 yard zero. With a 200 yard zero it’s 17 inches below The crosshairs. That’s a 6 inch difference, which in the field is the difference between hitting him in the heart, or shooting under the belly.

Might wanna read the manual on your particular scope. Chances are if your gunsmith told you to zero at 100 yards, it’s probably because the dial on your scope is set up that way. All other things being equal if you do what he told you to do, your bullet should impact at very nearly the Height that you dial. If you don’t do what he told you to do, it will not. Your dial is kind of useless. The longer your shot distance, the worse the problem becomes.

Of course you should check to see where your bullet actually impacts, because charts and dials are just that. Charts and dials.

 

[Gila]

I zero my rifles at 200 yards. It just means you end up dialing less, which is faster in the field.

Only downside is you’ll be a little high at 100, but not enough to make a difference.

Never heard of zeroing in at 100 yards for Western hunting...until recently with the long range hunting technology.

In the days before range finders we would time how long it took to walk so far or count fence posts. Then look at the ballistics table for my ammo (didn’t handload at the time) and figure out the drop for my load at 300, 400 yards. If you sight in at 200 yards your hold is going to be quite a bit less and you will be more accurate if you don’t have the time to dial in the shot. In this modern age, I have numbers on my reticles for hold. I bluetooth the load info to my rangefinder before I hunt so when I lase a target, the Ballistic solver in my range-finder will give the hold in MOA so I can hold without dialing in out to 450-500 yards anyway.

If you are going to consistently have shots beyond 500 yards and use the solver to dial-up the target then zero at 100 yards will give you a better solution and you will be more accurate. Long range shooting (beyond 500 yards) is new to me and I am learning but hopefully I explained it right. I am not a good enough shot to be competent (or ethical) beyond 500 yards (maybe someday) so I zero my rifles in at 200 yard when hunting.

 

[Gila]

First thing to do regardless if the rig is new or used is to bore sight at 50 yards and reset the scope to zero. Then sight 1.5“ high at 100. Then sight in at 200 yards for zero.

 

[MuleyFever]

 

[JFK]

Your zero is a baseline. You can verify a 100 yard zero AND a 200 yard zero. Then verify POI out to whatever distance you deem necessary all while using your 200 yard zero.

Zero at 100, then in the field you can dial to whatever zero you want to have.

So zero at 100 then just arbitrarily change it day to day based on what? How does this lend itself to good practice at the range? What if you forgot what it was set to that morning? This seems like chaos.

 

[dieselchessy]

I zero my rifles for longest point blank range . Usually end up with a zero between 200 and 250.
That way I can quickly set up and take shots at game inside 300 or so without doing anything to adjust.
For longer shots I need to take time to make adjustments.

I have friends that zero at 100. Works for them.

You can zero where ever, and how ever. Most ballistic programs have input for a zero offset and I assume they all have a zero range input.
I often check my zero by shooting at 100 and knowing the zero offset at that range.

If your going to say you have a 200 yard zero, then that should mean you’ve shot at 200 yards and your group or pattern is centered on the bullseye.

 

[Longleaf]

Your zero is a baseline. You can verify a 100 yard zero AND a 200 yard zero. Then verify POI out to whatever distance you deem necessary all while using your 200 yard zero.




So zero at 100 then just arbitrarily change it day to day based on what? How does this lend itself to good practice at the range? What if you forgot what it was set to that morning? This seems like chaos.

There is a shooting process that involves checking your turrets, if you don’t know that process I can’t help you.

Another reason for having a 100yd zero is that it’s a lot easier to find 100 yard to re check zero if you need, also less environmental factors come into play.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Here is is again… I’ll copy my post from another thread.


You are sighting in to a single “yardage” where the projectile trajectory crosses the path of the target at a determined range. The same forces of nature that are being applied in the y axis also apply to the x axis and effect “windage”.

These forces get exaggerated with distance, temperature, and especially wind (rifle world we think of “windage”’and x axis but wind greatly affects y axis as well). The further distance you travel from a target sight in point, the more exaggerated human error becomes as well.

What does all this mean? You need to do what I call a “cost benefit analysis” for your sight in distance. Getting far enough away for a more accurate representation of the trajectory without going so far you just introduce more errors. What distance are most of your killing shots? How proficient of a shooter are you at certain yardages? What’s the weather like on your site in day?

100 yards tends to land in a bit of a sweet spot for eliminating outside effects on the trajectory. It’s also a repeatable distance for a lot of shooters with modern rifles and scopes. It also makes the math fairly easy for “hold overs” and dialing with several cartridges.

For me personally, I’ve sighted my rifles in at 200 yards for about 20 years now. 200 yards allows me to more accurately correct in the x axis of the trajectory, especially since most of my killing shots are in the 200-400 yard range (10’s of thousands of squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, and hundreds of big game animals). I am proficient and repeatable at 200 yards, but I have to wait for days with basically zero wind.

I’ve never seen a scope and rifle combination that didn’t need slight corrections in the x axis and of course y axis, after a 100 yard “sight in” when moving out to 200 yards and rechecking. Same with 50 yards and moving out to 100, and on and on and on…. It’s how single point to single point alignment and trajectories just work in nature.

 

[TuckTruck]

I think it really depends on your style of hunting. I’ve done both, but I’ve settled on a 200 yd zero. I think if you’re hunting the plains or wide open areas where you’re just about always dialing and you have ample time to set up, 100 yd zero works great. But if you’re doing a mix of timber hunting/open country hunting, 200yd is the way to go. I consider anything from 0-300 “close” I like to be able to pull up, point and shoot. Last year, I was still on 100 yd zero, and I had an antelope pop out at 330, and the drop at that range with 100 zero was just too large for an accurate holdover, so I had to pull out the range finder, dial up and then try to shoot, and I lost the opportunity. This year the same thing happened but I had a 200 zero, at that range, it was just a 6” hold and I got it done.
In the end, I think both ways work, it just depends on your style of hunting and what works best for you.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

I'm sure that most of us know this but it hasn't been said explicitly.
There are (sort of) two kinds of scopes and the best way to "zero' a scope depends on that difference.

Non-dialing scopes that are set at the range and then left alone in the field (maybe call these hunting scopes), can be zeroed at whatever range provides the maximum point blank range (MPBR) like @Desk Jockey explains (100 = +2inches ect.), and then the hunter uses known holdovers or a ballistic drop compensator (BDC) reticle to deal with ranges longer than the MPBR. Use a ballistics calculator to estimate the MPBR and corresponding zero distance.

Dialing scopes with actively used turrets (fancy-pants sniper scopes) can be sighted in at 100 yards (for all the reasons that @Seeknelk explained in #2) so hits are centered when the dials are set at zero. Then (after proving the ballistics) the sniper adjusts the scope at the beginning of the operation to achieve center holds out to MPBR or adjusts as needed in the field for a new center-hold setting at other ranges.

 

[EastHumboldt]

It appears the OP has left us to conduct this learned discussion amongst ourselves. Maybe he went hunting?

BTW I looked at the scope he mentioned and it looks like a fancy pants sniper scope.

 

[cliffy109]

Here we go
I zero dialing scopes at 100.
- easier to exactly shoot and check zero, no wind inputs,.easier to find range etc.
- you gain nothing zeroing at 200 except moving your zero stop to that point. You gain exactly zero scope travel or anything doing so.
- when I'm actively walking and hunting a tailor my zero to the terrain. Open country mulies, dial to 300.
-Brush county bull tracking, leave it at 100.
-If you want to do a max point blank range zero on your scope , just figure out what that is and dial to that for walking around. If long shots, dial accordingly.

This is the answer.

If you're turret isn't a target style and you're going to leave it in place, use a 200 yard zero. That will get you pretty close to your "maximum point blank range" which means you're never more than about 2.5" above or below the line of sight out to about 250ish yards. Some flatter shooting rifles will be better and a 16" barrel .308 a little less but that gets you to a point where you don't have to mess with anything at normal hunting ranges.

If you have a target turret and you plan on spinning the thing in the field, then a 100 yard zero makes more sense since you have a consistent reference point.

 

[KoolBreeze]

Like most things, it depends. A few years ago I spent 80% of my time hunting bean fields with lots of opportunities for 200+ yard shots. Although I didn't take many of those shots, my rifle was zeroed at 200 yards. The last couple years I've spent 90% of my time in the thick timber where the longest shot is maybe 80 yards, so I switched back to a 100 yard zero.

Probably just need to have multiple guns with different 0s for different situations. I think I'll try to convince my wife that I need a new Springfield Waypoint for that very purpose.

 

[Seeknelk]

I think it really depends on your style of hunting. I’ve done both, but I’ve settled on a 200 yd zero. I think if you’re hunting the plains or wide open areas where you’re just about always dialing and you have ample time to set up, 100 yd zero works great. But if you’re doing a mix of timber hunting/open country hunting, 200yd is the way to go. I consider anything from 0-300 “close” I like to be able to pull up, point and shoot. Last year, I was still on 100 yd zero, and I had an antelope pop out at 330, and the drop at that range with 100 zero was just too large for an accurate holdover, so I had to pull out the range finder, dial up and then try to shoot, and I lost the opportunity. This year the same thing happened but I had a 200 zero, at that range, it was just a 6” hold and I got it done.
In the end, I think both ways work, it just depends on your style of hunting and what works best for you.

So ,.next time, you could set your turret to a 200 or whatever zero gets you to the point and shoot range you want when you start your day walking around. This is what I do.
But, you also still need to know if the critter is 300 or 450 yards away! Don't laugh, some country or situations are incredibly deceptive.
Certainly, multiple ways work, the main thing is practice and REMEMBER what your way is