Sight-in choices?

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Triggernosis

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Jul 12, 2021
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North Carolina, United States
How do you prefer to sight-in (i.e. "zero") your air rifles?
Do you try to 1) optimize your maximum point blank range or 2) zero at the distance you most often shoot at and then dial/click or use mil-dot ranging for other distances?
I optimize my MPBR on powder burning rifles, but haven't yet decided how I'm going to go with my air rifle for the back yard for a combination of close range pesting (5 yards) and 25 yard target shooting. Just wondering how others are doing it.
 
When I moved to my new house I realized almost all of my pest shots were going to be well within the 1/4" low distance of my MPBR.

I swapped the barrel to 25 cal in my Leshiy Classic & set it up to shoot Polymags slow. Kept some power & my new MPBR now covered all of the practical distances in my backyard. While I do get occasional close shots that require some holdover, none of them are as close as five yards.

If I did I'd use a gooseneck picatinny rail & mount a laser tight up under the shroud like I've seen others do. Heck, I might do that anyways.
 
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I don't hunt........I shoot rings only.
For 100 meters I sight in my .25 Impact for 100 meters and use Strelok.
For 50 meters I sight in my .22 Leshiy2 for 50 meters and use Strelok.
but for short distances / pesting?
Green laser... I sighted in to a bore laser just anywhere between 5 to 10 meters, the difference is less then 10mm=1/2" and I don't even look through a scope but handheld pointing the green laser...clearly visible at short distances even at noon or bright sunlight, and I tried in half shade visible at 50 meters as well.

green laser.JPG
 
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Most of my pesting is inside 35 yards, so it really doesn't make much difference. But, if I'm shooting at varying distances, I like to zero the rifle to be dead on at it's maximum trajectory, so every hold for a shorter or longer than the zero range, is a hold over, never hold under, which I find counterintuitive. Since longer distances may require considerable hold over, a scope with suitable hash marks helps a lot.
 
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elh0102 said:
Most of my pesting is inside 35 yards, so it really doesn't make much difference. But, if I'm shooting at varying distances, I like to zero the rifle to be dead on at it's maximum trajectory, so every hold for a shorter or longer than the zero range, is a hold over, never hold under, which I find counterintuitive. Since longer distances may require considerable hold over, a scope with suitable hash marks helps a lot.
Click to expand...
Yes! Holding under at whatever distance just messes with my brain. Even if I have a trajectory card taped to my stock, holding under just doesn't compute.
 
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I do maximum point blank but close up shots run into the problem of the old scope over bore issue. I either hold under or in the case of my condor I put a cheap Lazer on it. Occasionally I get a raccoon at 4 yards that I just point out the sliding glass door and pop it when it's eating my cats food. It's not intuitive at all to hold under so the Lazer does help.
 
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🔹Method A:
A gun for target shooting I zero at the range of my most common targets.


🔹Method B:
If I have a gun I shoot in a variety of hunting shooting scenarios I try to get the longest point blank range (PBR) — for a given kill zone (KZ).
The kill zone is of course different for pigeon headshots, or for bodyshots on larger critters. I might assume the smallest common KZ.
Tools: ChairGun for Windows, or the "PBR Calc" app of the GPC Ballistics Applications suite.


🔹Method C:
If I have a gun I shoot in a certain hunting scenario that has most targets in a fairly limited sector of ranges I try to zero the gun within about the last third of that sector of ranges — and figure out what PBR my typical KZ size will give me — and tweak it from there a bit.

Matthias
 
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Triggernosis,
I agree with Matthias' methods listed above, but I mostly set up my gun/scope combos to shoot at different distances(10 to 200 yards) and I don't like to hold under, so I zero at the projectile's trajectory apex, usually between 18yards(12 ft/lb guns) to 35yards(screaming fast "lighter" slugs), depending on speed and weight of slug/pellet. I use scopes which have enough vertical travel to accomplish the required vertical click range and use adjustable mounts to keep this range as close to optical center as possible. I check that the vertical crosshair is centered to the bore(mirror method) then install a bubble level on the scope(plumb bob method).
After zeroing, I verify that scope isn't canted by shooting at distances closer(10 yards) and farther(50 to 100yards) than zero, aiming at dot on top of a vertical line on a target. Both close AND far distance should be pretty much straight below my holdpoint(if one, or both, are off to the right or left, then I repeat scope leveling procedure). I also verify Strelock Pro infomation at those distances.
If you don't have access to chronograph(I highly recommend you invest in one), then set out targets at distances between 15, 20, 25, and 35 yards, then shoot 3 shot groups at each target. It should become evident where your trajectory apex is. Zero at that distance, then everything closer or farther will be a holdOVER shot. Shoot targets at different distances to figure out your holdover points for different distances.
Good luck,
Ghostranger169
 
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I use my cheap chinese chronograph to give me a good idea how fast I am pushing an accurate pellet in that rifle and then look at chairgun to see how much the rise will be with different zeros. I don't want more than 1/4 inch so that determines my zero point. For my bullpups it is about 40 yards. Their issue is the first ~20 yards where they shoot low due to the really high scope. I cannot shoot at 40 yards in my backyard so I sight in at 25 or 33 and use the chairgun trajectory to tell me where I want to impact. I accept that this isn't going to be perfect. I also like to check POI at 5 yard intervals to back up chairgun.

I don't dial for greater distance unless I have a bunch of time and am target shooting. My $100-300 scopes just are not super at moving exactly the amount I click them. For hunting or plinking I just hold over.
 
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