Sight in height

[H2oPumper]

I've been debating how high to sight in my deer rifles for awhile now. The classic standard seems to be 3" at 100 yards, but the bullet is still rising at that point. I've been contemplating moving out to 150 yards and do a 3" high sight in. That should put me in about a 7-9 inch vertical rise/fall out to 300 yards. The rifles I have are 7mm-08(140gr), 280 Rem(140gr), 270(130gr), and 30-06(150gr). What are your thoughts? Pros/cons to going that route with the calibers I'm working with.

The biggest question of interest is: What's your caliber, grain and sight in height for deer hunting?

 

[Sheepdog1968]

I like to go to a range where I can shoot at 200 yards. I then set point of aim and point of impact to be the same at 200 yards. That often comes out to be about 3 inches high at 100 yards. I usually shoot either 30-30 lever action or a 30-06 bolt action.

 

[RPRNY]

You guys out West have different conditions and experiences for deer hunting.

Here in NY and New England, 100 yards is a LONG shot. In rifle states (CT and VT, I hunt with a Marlin 336 carbine in 30-30 150 grs, sighted in (open sights) for 50 yards. I have just built a "long range" rifle for next season, break action single shot 20" barrel in 45LC/454. That's a 100 yard rifle and it will be throwing either 250 gr SSTs or 300 gr XTPs. In Southeast NY where we are confined to slugs, I sight in for 50 yards, but that's pretty much the outside of the envelope (3/4oz or 1 oz Brenekke). I have a 30-06 (again 150 grs) sighted in for 150 yards, but haven't ever had cause to use it in the field...

 

[jmr40]

Unless you plan on doing all your shooting at over 300 yards a 100 yard zero is still best.

You are just about right, with a 200 yard zero you will be 7-9" low at 300 yards with those rounds depending on the exact load. But with a 100 yard zero you will only be about 11" low at 300. Not much difference!!! So why complicate things at 50-150 yards, where you will do 90%-99% of your shooting to gain such a small advantage at extreme ranges where you may never shoot.

If I am smart enough to compensate for 7-9" of drop at that range, I can figure out another 2-4". The biggest problem with the 200 yard zero is that if you hace to shoot through openings in brush at closer ranges. I may have branches 25 yards from my muzzle, others at 50 yards, 75 yards and more at 100 while the deer is 125 yards away. With a 200 yard zero you have to figure out which branches the bullet will travel over, and which it will travel under since it will start out about 1.5" below your line of sight and end up 3" or more high by the time it gets to the deer. With a 100 yard zero your bullet will never be more than 1" above, or below your line of sight between 30-130 yards. Much simpler.

If you need, or want to shoot farther a scope with long range dots works better anyway. Just zero at 100 and use the correct dot for ranges out to 500-600 yards.

 

[rcmodel]

3" high at 100 is about a 250 yard zero.
Bullet path will be within 4" of line of sight out to 300.

11" low at 350.
19" low at 400.

rc

 

[H2oPumper]

The range I typically use has 100-150-200 yard ranges. It's looking like the 30-06 and 7mm-08 might be best suited to be set 3" high at 100, and the 280 and 270 would be best suited to be 3" high at 150 yards. The ballistic charts I'm using show that there is still about .5" of bullet rise between the 100 and 150 yard range before it begins to drop. (250 yard zero). I could possibly get some 300 yard shots off, but most will be 100 or less. Too much can go wrong beyond 300 in the real world hunting scene.

If I would zero at 100, I'd give away too much potential that these rifles have available. If it takes 800 ft lbs of energy to take a deer, the 7mm-08 has that at about 600 yards and the 280 has that at 800 yards, the other two fall in the middle of that. I don't have enough scope or ability to pull that off though.

One thing I become concerned about with the BDC or mil-dot scopes is cant. Whether it's a scope mounted slightly off level or the hold. It wouldn't take much as the ranges increase to be off target.

 

[mshootnit]

I have found it handy in the areas where I shoot, to be able to hit out to 300 yds. I shoot 257 weatherby now so I am about 1" high at 200 meters and no hold over is necessary for as far as I care to shoot.

Second hand info is to sight in 4" high at 100 if you plan to shoot long range with a 30-06. I believe the source.

 

[LoonWulf]

My longer range guns are sighted 3"s high at 100, my mid range guns are 1.5"s at 100, and my short range guns are dead on at 100. Honestly if you know build accurate drop tables for your rifles, then you can sight how ever you want.

 

[Art Eatman]

For some sixty years, now, I've sighted almost all of my scoped rifles for two inches high at 100 yards. That's close enough to right on at 200 as makes no nevermind, and mostly about six inches low at 300. That pretty much holds true for almost all "deer cartridges" above .30-30 velocities and below the magnums or hotshot .22 centerfires.

Since relatively few deer are shot out beyond 200 yards, that works well enough for me. I've only had one kill at 350 and one at 450, and I was okay enough for holdover that they were one-shot kills.