Do y'all sight in your rifles once you get to a new hunting elevation?

[HoughLePuff]

I am not sure if this is the correct forum to post this in.

I currently live at sea level in the Houston area and am looking into going on my first elk hunt in Idaho or Colorado next year. I will drastically be changing climates with factors of elevation and humidity as well as temperature. Do you guys sight in or go to a range when you arrive in a new hunting climate? If this topic has already been covered I apologize.

 

[Gdavis3rd]

I always confirm zero at hunt location before every hunt. Conditions could change zero but also gun could get bounced around in truck or plane.


George Davis
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wapiti1]

Always check zero at your destination. You can run some simulations on JBM Ballistics or another program to see what the difference will likely be between your local range and your destination. You can compensate with your initial sight in at home, then check at the destination, or the other way around.

Jeremy

 

[Broz]

This is why you zero at 100 yards. Closer zeros contain less environmental effects so elevation will do very little at 100 yards. Longer zero's like 300 yards include the effects of the environment that day and location the zero was set. Not to mention wind. So if you are zeroed at 100 you should be good. That said by all means check your zero when traveling. Truck vibrations or the gorillas at the airport may have caused a zero to shift. I always check zero after traveling any extended distance with my rifle.

 

[PAhunter58]

Broz, That's spot on info about adjusting for zero when coming from low elevation to high. I did last year coming from 1200 ft in PA and hunting at 10500-11000 on CO. The comment on keeping zero @ 100 couldn't be more right.

 

[Newtosavage]

I am not sure if this is the correct forum to post this in.

I currently live at sea level in the Houston area and am looking into going on my first elk hunt in Idaho or Colorado next year. I will drastically be changing climates with factors of elevation and humidity as well as temperature. Do you guys sight in or go to a range when you arrive in a new hunting climate? If this topic has already been covered I apologize.

I am in the same boat. Last year, I dialed in my scope as close as I could figure for the expected elevation and atmospheric conditions. Once I got there I found a 400 yard public range and tested my zero. It wasn't off by much, but I was about 4" high at 400 yards.

This year I'm just going to get it close at home and then during one of my scouting days, take a few shots at 400 yards. It will be something fun to look forward to in the middle of one of my scouting days anyway, and I'll be a lot more confident knowing the zero is set for the location.

 

[HoughLePuff]

I always confirm zero at hunt location before every hunt. Conditions could change zero but also gun could get bounced around in truck or plane.


George Davis
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reply! Being from Texas where there is not a lot of access to public land I am very new to the idea of hunting on public land. When people say "confirm zero at hunt location" are y'all suggesting that I bring a little paper target out to the public land I intend to hunt and fire off three rounds to confirm I am still grouping where I want? I am sure it varies state to state as far as rules and regulation go, but is this common? If people can freely go to public land and shoot, what is the point of shooting ranges near public land? Thanks!

 

[roadrunner]

I do not re-zero or sight in. I live at 5,500' and have killed elk with same "POI" within a few inches at 10,000' without any changes to my zero at 300 yds.

I have been using the Strelok app lately and have found it to be pretty close with changes in shooting conditions vs sight in conditions on how to change point of aim if needed.

Sea level to 7,500' may be a larger effect, air pressure and humidity will likely be a bigger contributor to POI.

 

[desertcj]

Why zero at 100yds? From looking at at my ballistic app, I know that I want to be just under 2" high at 100yds. If that's where I am at home and I'm still 2" high at my hunt area, I'm confident that I'm all set. I also wont have to dial my elevation knob unless I need to make a +400yd shot.

Yes take a target hunting with you. Its perfectly legal and normal to shoot on national forest land or BLM land. Good question on the shooting range? Some people just like to pay money I guess...or they feel more comfortable at a pay to play range?

 

[Kotaman]

I zero at 200. Only worry about if I travel by air where TSA or baggage monkeys could have affected something. Peace of mind really because I’ve never had a problem.

 

[wind gypsy]

Why zero at 100yds? From looking at at my ballistic app, I know that I want to be just under 2" high at 100yds. If that's where I am at home and I'm still 2" high at my hunt area, I'm confident that I'm all set. I also wont have to dial my elevation knob unless I need to make a +400yd shot.

Are you asking why to zero at 100 yards or explaining? Broz laid it out above.

The important part is to know exactly how your POI compares to POA at 100 yards, not necessarily that they match perfectly.

 

[desertcj]

Are you asking why to zero at 100 yards or explaining? Broz laid it out above.

The important part is to know exactly how your POI compares to POA at 100 yards, not necessarily that they match perfectly.

Yeah, I would never zero at 100yds. Makes no sense to me. Shoot at 100yds to check your poi, absolutely.

 

[Idaho Sandman]

I am not sure if this is the correct forum to post this in.

I currently live at sea level in the Houston area and am looking into going on my first elk hunt in Idaho or Colorado next year. I will drastically be changing climates with factors of elevation and humidity as well as temperature. Do you guys sight in or go to a range when you arrive in a new hunting climate? If this topic has already been covered I apologize.

I check my zero upon arrival at my hunting destination. Zero @250yds. My dope chart is set for 5k feet. I live at 2200. My poi changes only 1.3” @10kft @500yds. Not enough for me to worry about. Dial my scope to 500 and pull the trigger.
I hunt WY as often as I can and my buddy has 8” steel @300,500,600,700 out the back yard. I verify all those ranges when I show up just for fun.
I ran my load through my app and it has a poi diff @500 with a 250 zero from sea level/0 elevation to 10kft of +1.7 so it shoots a touch flatter at 10kft.

 

[wind gypsy]

Yeah, I would never zero at 100yds. Makes no sense to me. Shoot at 100yds to check your poi, absolutely.

I see, I guess it was just a difference in how we use the term zero. To me “zero” is a baseline for all data to reference even if my POA doesn’t match POI. It’s why ballistic apps give you zero offset to enter with your data. To the point of this thread, as long as your baseline POI reference (zero) is at 100 yards, I wouldn’t worry about said zero (at 100 yards) changing with elevation. As others stated, checking zero would be more to verify nothing mechanically happened than measuring a change in how the atmosphere impacted zero.

Personally I like POI and POA to be as close as possible at 100 yards with turrets at zero. It is nice to measure corrections from that 100 yard baseline rather than some other correction already made from the baseline. If want a longer MPBR I hunt with that elevation dialed in. That said, good data is good data and it’s personal preference.

“That rifle must be a laser beam, how many minutes does it take to get to 1000?”

“Yeah, it only takes 20 minutes from my 325 yard zero”

“Oh, so 23ish minutes in normal talk?”

 

[desertcj]

I see where you're coming from, I just don't want to have to dial for a 300 yard shot.

 

[ChrisAU]

Temperature, elevation, humidity, etc all have minimal effect at 100 yards. At 200, the difference is small, but there is a difference. For me, zeroing at 100 yards at 95* with 70% humidity at 300 ft elevation leaves me spot on at 100 yards at 30* with 35% humidity at 12,500 ft. Then, at the first set of environmental factors, I am 44.8" low at 500. Move to the 2nd set and I am 40.4" low at 500. That is close to a full MOA. IF I zero at 200, my zero will be 1/4 MOA low at the 2nd set, and then that has a ripple effect throughout the calculations. Yeah sure, I could re-zero, but why? Just shoot and verify that nothing was bumped and then bam, I've trued my ballistics up at my home conditions for a 100 yard zero, and if I'm on at 100 at my hunt location, then I simply input those new environmental specs into the calculator.

 

[Reburn]

Temperature, elevation, humidity, etc all have minimal effect at 100 yards. At 200, the difference is small, but there is a difference. For me, zeroing at 100 yards at 95* with 70% humidity at 300 ft elevation leaves me spot on at 100 yards at 30* with 35% humidity at 12,500 ft. Then, at the first set of environmental factors, I am 44.8" low at 500. Move to the 2nd set and I am 40.4" low at 500. That is close to a full MOA. IF I zero at 200, my zero will be 1/4 MOA low at the 2nd set, and then that has a ripple effect throughout the calculations. Yeah sure, I could re-zero, but why? Just shoot and verify that nothing was bumped and then bam, I've trued my ballistics up at my home conditions for a 100 yard zero, and if I'm on at 100 at my hunt location, then I simply input those new environmental specs into the calculator.

Thanks for writing this. I wanted to but I wasn't that motivated.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I sight all my rifles in at 200 yards at home. I confirm zero when I get to my destination. Works perfectly for me.