what is your preferred zero distance

[allisji]

I am asking because my dad was telling me about his trip to the range and he zero'd his AR-15 at 36 yards because of this video.



He zero'd at 36 yards and then fired at 25 yards, 50 yards, and 100 yards.

I watched the video, but to me it looked more convincing to zero at 100 yards since I probably wouldn't be trying to shoot anything 250 or 300 yards out.

[Paladin]

I've tried a variety of zeros.

Tend to stick with the 25 or 100 yard zeros.

25 yards because I can shoot scaled targets without re-zeroing and 25 yards is a military zero that I'm familiar with.

100 yards for the ACOG and distance guns. If the top of your arc is 100 yards, you know everything afterwards hits low, which even if you don't compensate for it... hitting low is not always a bad thing. (Got that from Paul Howe)

SGM Lamb likes the 50 yard zero. It's good for likely distances... but I found it was more complicated for 400+ yard work

[srothstein]

I zero a rifle at 25 yards because that was the way I was trained in the Army. But, we did zero for it to hit an inch under the sighting point. That way you could hold on target out to about 300 yards and the arc of the bullet would keep it within an inch or so of the aim point all the way out. And I do try to check it at around 100 yards also to be safe.

[carlson1]

Eotech’s is what I use and the indoor range I visit is only 15 yards so it will have to do the trick.

[Deitz83]

I zero my 308 at 100 yards. I zero my AR15 at 50 yards.

[LTUME1978]

I have ACOGs on my "self defense ARs" so I zero at 100 yards. I have taken a lot of classes with Paul Howe and he advocates for a 100 yard zero. He explains why and has good reasons to support the 100 yard zero. Hard to argue with someone that has been though the combat that he has seen. I would go with the 100 yard zero even if I did not have ACOGs.

[powerboatr]

my 308 is set to zero at 25 yards
it works for me and i can dial up the scope for those 50 yard shoots

50 yards is all about as far as i want to shoot a critter


if i was in a combat area, then 100 yards .

when i first saw the post i thought it meant what is your preferred ZERO for folks coming towards me in an un friendly manner

[The Annoyed Man]

I zero all of my iron sights and RDSs for 50 yards. Scopes are zeroed according to the rifle/caliber/purpose. Increasingly, I’ve become a fan of MPBR.

(EDITED TO CORRECT A MISSPELLING)

[Greybeard]

I like what the man has to say and show about 7 yards and in. I prefer a 100 yard zero with 556 and '06. That still keeps anything within 200 yards plus or minus 2 or 3 inches. At 300 yards, it's time to drop down to the first mil dot. Bullet path don't change a bit with a red dot and vast majority of those shots, for me anyway, are 100 yards or less.

[RPBrown]

I zero my deer rifle at 100. I zeroed my 3oo mag at 200 because that is what I was and will still do an Alaskan hunt. My AR 15 is zeroed at 25

[Mike S]

Defensive carbines: 36 yds
Scoped rifles: 100 yds

[allisji]

I think that for my needs I may want to zero my optic at 100 yards and zero my iron sights at 25 or 50.

Sounds like 50 yd and 100 yd zero have quite a bit of support on this forum. I had always just assumed zero of iron sights and RDS at 25 yards, and scopes on a case by case basis. But I feel like if zeroing a red dot at 25 yards, then you will tend to miss high at distances over 25 yards. I would think that it will generally be better to tend 2 inches low at close range rather than 2 inches high at longer range.

[03Lightningrocks]

For my deer hunting rifles, I have always used 2" high at 100 yards as my zero. A white tailed deer has a 10-12 inch kill area so Aiming dead center I always hit the kill zone. All the way out to 400 yards. Which is a very rare shot for me. Most are 200 and under.

[clarionite]

I zero my AR's at 25 yards, because that's what I learned in basic. It's worked well for me. I test it at 100 yards. I don't use optics on the AR's. I have pop up peep sights that I really like. And I can't imagine shooting that small of a projectile out much further than 100 yards. My deer rifles, I zero at 100 yards. I have 4x20 scopes on my 270 and my 300wm. The furthest shot I've taken here in Texas with the 270 was 430 yards, and it dropped on the spot with a perfect kill shot. I shoot for heart and lungs for anything 250yds or less. Greater than that and I shoot for the spinal column about half way up the neck. My thought process (and I may be off but it's what I've always been taught) is that with a longer shot, I'd rather miss than get a hit that isn't immediately fatal, and have them crawl off somewhere and die where I can't find them. In my 40 or so years of hunting, it's served me well. And I haven't lost a deer in over 25 years.

I did shoot 3 times at one about 12 years ago, and after the 3rd shot I was flustered and was thinking... I never miss. What's going on. When I got the rifle back to the camp, I realized that the reticle was broken. The cross hair was dangling. I was shooting way high.

My first Texas deer, I was in a blind which as an Arkansas raised hunter was such a strange concept to me... And I shot a nice healthy doe about 10 minutes before sundown. The muzzle flash made me loose sight of her for a split second. When I could refocus, I saw her about 5 feet away, still grazing. So I shot again. This time when I regained focus, I could see her white belly exactly where she was when I shot. I waited about 10 minutes, got in the truck and drove out the 125 yards to where she was. Only to find two. One with her back towards me blending in, and another about 6 feet behind her with her belly towards me. Lots of good meat in the freezer that day.

[K.Mooneyham]

In regards to rifles firing 5.56mm/.223 (ARs and the like), I zero irons at 50 yards. The trajectory is almost flat out to 175 yards with common ammunition types/weights for the caliber. Generically speaking (yes, I know that bullets don't actually go up unless the rifle is fired in an elevated fashion), the greatest bullet "rise and fall" above/below the zero line is just over half an inch across that distance with 55 grain ammo, and just over an inch drop with 62 grain. If I needed to reach out further than that, I have other rifles in larger calibers that can do a better job at longer ranges, with optics on them. I will add a link to a ballistic trajectory calculator and you can graph it for yourselves.

http://gundata.org/ballistic-calculator/