Benjamin Marauder .25 cal Sight in distance?

[Austintatious]

Hi everyone. I am not new to firearms but I just got a BJ marauder in .25 cal. It is my first PCP rifle and I will be using it for backyard plinking and pest control. Which means I wont be shooting at fixed ranges. I was wondering however what would be the best range to sight in at for elevation? I know the pellet comes UP to meet the scope height, but then drops, so Ideally I only want that trajectory crossing one time. That way I am only ever aiming high for targets closer or further away.... In other words, if I sight in too close, the pellet will rise up and then past the scope height meaning for some shots I would have to aim low. That's just too much for my little head to handle.



So what is the apex distance roughly for a .25 marauder shooting at 800 fps?



any help greatly appreciated

 

[John "spysir" Blount]

Hurry up while "chairgun" still exists & download a copy, all your answers are right there and you can print it all out if you like.



John

 

[bandg]

It depends on scope height above bore. As noted, you can use a program or just a little actual shooting to determine the ideal distance for your desired setup. Probably would be about 30 yards give a take a few. If you allow it to rise just slightly above point of aim you can also slightly extend maximum point blank range. Seems many field target users don't like this method for the exact reasons you mentioned but for plinking and pest control it should work fine. I always zeroed my hunting rifles that way, always keeping the rise just enough to stay in the kill zone without holding under and I still tend to set up my airguns that way since I don't shoot competition with them.

 

[JimNM]

Are you familiar with "point blank zero"? For one of my guns, the height difference is less than. 1/4 inch above and below the cross hairs from 15 to 45 yards.

For your needs, I suggest a scope that has adjustable objective, so it can focus down to 10-15 yards. The 40 fpe for Mrod be a bit heavy for your backyard - go carefully. You can tune the gun to shoot less power and more shots, or more power and fewer shots. The .25 can really whack pests, even at lower power.



Welcome to AGN, the rabbit hole awaits.

 

[acs]

I read a long time ago a 800 fps rifle zeroed at 20 yards will be 1" low at 10 yards and second zero falls in @ 30yds, with less then 1/4" rise between 20-30yds, which seems to be where most pesting is done in a backyard. I've used that advice and found it very true.. For a 950fps gun still zero at 20 yards, it will stretch everything out. The second zero for my 980fps gun falls in at 40 yards with just a little rise in between. Try it, see if it works for your guns... For all around backyard pesting I like 20 yards primary zero.

I've got a Mrod also, love that gun. Seems like I can't miss with it. Its dead accurate even with a fast shot I probably shouldn't have taken, it still hits dead nut,, or should I say dead nutter... lol

jmo

 

[Phildog59]

No better way to learn than by shooting paper till you learn how it shoots.

 

[Phildog59]

O By the way make sure you have a good back stop.

 

[Jonah]

I have found that my Marauder .25 zeroed at 25 yards with the JSB 25.4 pellets works for almost all distances around the yard out to 50 yards. At 50 yards, I hold one mil dot up. I shoot anywhere from 17 yards out to 50 with that zero. I only have to hold high past about 40 yards out to 50 yards. Set up a target every 5 yards from about 10 yards to 50 yards and you can determine any hold over or under you may need for backyard shooting. Have fun.

 

[addertooth]

Austintacious,

You were given the best advice from SpySir. I found that Hawke Chairgun Pro (a free program) very accurately calculates my ballistics for my Marauder .25 which is shooting JSB rounds. I have found it's calculations to be within 1/4 in for targets between 10 and 100 yards. I tend to zero at a longer distance than some (I zero at 50 yards), but then, I don't like having ridiculous holdover values for 100 yard shots. This does require modest "hold under" for shots which are very close.

A basic trick which some people use is to put how much holdover/holdunder is needed for a given distance on their scope's side parallax wheel (or how many clicks up/down for the turrets on their scope).

Ultimately, some time on the range, at various distance, with good notes will be your friend.

 

[Austintatious]

Thank you everyone for the advice

 

[nathancharris]

I sight zero at 50 yards. So a 30 yard shot is 1ish mil dots hold over. A 50 yard zero means no guess work if you have a steady shot at 40-60 yds, the pellet is going to be ~1/4"either side of zero. And when your hunting you are just trying to hold as still as possible, so perfectly still shots are close to impossible anyway.

 

[Cherokee140]

I would say you got some good answers already....for what it is worth I set mine for 30, but mine flings pellets a tad faster. Then I have a card on the rifle, I am old have a few guns and don't remember what does what....that tells me if it is this far hold here, that far hold there. I would also say double check your settings with each new tin, I would say it is not uncommon to see things shift from time to time. On my mrod, it is also very picky about the baffles in the end being clean, if they get yucky....shoot a few hundred and you will know what I mean...if you see things start to go sideways.

You also say pesting, not sure on your pests but I can tell you a 22 mrod will punch clean through mice and starlings, so if you are working in barns or something know where your pellets are going or you will dent your brand new kubota tractor....not that I would know anything about that naturally.

25 will put a thump on most critters, my 25 is a Kral but I imagine they all hit about the same, and it lets me reach out a little farther. Inside buildings for mice and small critters I like the 17 best, not a lot of mass, enough to get the job done, and not so much power to poke holes in things you don't want to....or put good dents...again I would not know about that....my wife might be reading this. For bigger critters in the barn, raccoon opossum, and groundhogs I still like to use a fire arm, It just lets me know of a good clean ethical kill, and I do get on my high horse on taking animals in an ethical manner. I had a skunk that was living in my barn and coming out each night to kill my chickens, finally tracked him to the barn, it never smelled. Shot him with the 22 pellet gun at like 20 feet....was a bit shy as I did not want him to explode, but a good clean front on head shot bounced off....as in bounced the pellet hit the roof, and he went running.....now I feel like poo, as I have wounded him and he is suffering....did I crack his skull, do brain damage....did not know, Tracked him down...he was bleeding, and finished him with 32 acp. to the skull....was it a fluke that shot....heck a 22 pellet moving at 900ish should have done him in, but that made me shy of taking larger animals then rats with a pellet gun.....this is just me now, I do know what they can do.



eh got wordy, sorry.