Good tips on sighting in your rifle.

[kenneth Griffiths]

How far should you be away from target?

How to use a scope?

What not to do?

Where to do it?

[Fred Woodman]

A lot of good points coming up in this discussion. And I agree wholeheartedly. Remember sighting in is what it is. Sighting in> once you get your gun sighted in then you can practice. When I say I sight my guns in for 200 yds, its because the targets were at 200 yds.Not because a sheet of paper says if this, or if that.

I always read about guns that are sighted at 25 yds will be dead on at 200. I can only speak from experience.... when tested I have never seen that to be true. People get too hung up on what they read on ammo boxes and manufactures specs. For the most part its never correct

Unless you are shooting the EXACT same gun as they did in the EXACT same place as they did. Your results will differ. And the difference increase with range.Temps, altitude,barrel lengths, make of gun etc etc will all vary.

[Fred Woodman]

Thats all it is, it will put you on paper. Of course accuracy means different things to different people. These guns we are buying for coyotes ( 223,22-250, 204,220 swift ect) are capable of outstanding( sub moa) accuracy. If fact with custom handloaded ammo most will produce 1/2 MOA or better.The challenge most face is the cost of ammo, personally I think it takes a minimum of 100 rounds to "break in" a new gun.And the break in should be meticulous.Most will buy a box of bullets and sight in and settle on whatever that ammo produces.

FYI

MOA is 1 inch at 100 yds , 2 inches at 200 yds etc.

[Fred Woodman]

and thats the lesson to be learned. For whatever reason certain guns prefer certain ammo and price often will have nothing to do with it.

I reload and I have seen where just changing the brand of the primer, while leaving the same powder and bullet will open or close group

 

I suggest that you buy as cheap ammo as you can get, run a hundred or so rounds thru the gun then go and get several brands to test.

[Shane Pinsent]

Using a balistic chart , can get on line,makes it easy to sight in for the distance you want to shoot. It will give you the first place it hits zero on the trajectory and the the next at what you want. I sighted my 233 in at 18 yards which enabled me to shoot 250 yards. I printed of the chart and taped to the stock of my gun, this tells me how high it is between the two and how much it falls after 250 yards, works really well, no guessing. Have the same done for my 30-06. Another trick I use is to clamp my gun in a work bench and fire at bull, then reline gun with bull and move cross hairs to bullet hole, sights in with one bullet.

[Fred Woodman]

have you actually placed a target at 250 yds ( 3 inch bulls eye) and shot at it? There are two issues that I think will become apparent.

I am betting your elevation( up and down) will too low ( bullet will hit low) Dollars to donuts that chart was drawn up shooting at sea level but inland somewhere. You will find that our sea level ocean air is denser and will create more drag on your bullet. Causing it to hit lower than printed on your chart. Also unless you are shooting the same barrel a whole bunch of things will come into play. Unless you use a chrony to test your muzzle velocity the chart will be off some.( granted not much at only 250 yds.) Barrel length alone can take as much as 50 fps per on or off the muzzle velocity

 

One of the beauties of working up loads is that you can test all this stuff. Heres a whacky one I have a 22-250 with a 26 inch barrel. Using H 380 powder muzzle velocity will vary by over 150 fps between July and December. Just based on air temps.

 

Windage ( left and right)

Most likely if you have an issue with sighting at 18 and shooting at 250 will be your windage adjustment.Keeping in mind the rules of MOA if you zero at 18 yds if may seem that your windage is fine but keep in mind that at 250 yds your margin of error will be exaggerated about 13 times. That is to say if your bullet is printing an inch left at 18 yds if probably more than a  foot to the left when you shoot at that 250 yd target.

 

For my thinking, theres one way to sight in at 250 yds and it requires walking 250 yds to stick up a target. And I would never shoot at an animal at 250 yds if I hadnt shot that distance with the gun

 

Ive seen enough quirks to teach me that the only way to know is to test it

 

 

 

[Shane Pinsent]

Fred,

 I have actually shot 250 yards and beyond with this chart and have determined it to be very accurate for the different range's. Your windage of course plays affect on the bullett especialy on a small 22 cal. Shooting 300 yards the chart tells me that the bullet drops 6 inches, if I remember right, so I tried it with a bear bottle at 306, GPS distance, and fired 6 shots at the top of the bottle. The result was a hole about 3 inches around and 1 inch below the bottom, not bad a that distance. At the same time I used my buddys 22-250 with a better scope and his chart and with 4 shots broke 2 bottles. To get the chart I had to enter Bullet type, weight, brand, barrow length, scope height, bore(twists per inch), and a few more I can't remember. Testing with a 223 is fairly cheep to, so I have put a few hundred rounds through. But like you said testing is key, but the chart do take some guessing out. There is also a chart that gives you the drift of your bullet due to windage.

[Fred Woodman]

agreed ans as I say everyone will have an expectation at to whats acceptable accuracy. And that why I use MOA.as a standard for measuring accuracy. A gun with accuracy of MOA would put all six bullets in a 3 inch group at 300 yds.

Many factors will affect this and we could have a whole discussion on accurizing a rifle.

[kenneth Griffiths]

I am going to sight in my 22-250 easter weekend and all that i have read is all good. I never did it before and want to do it myself. Nobody noes how my gun realy works or feels but me. I heard that sighting in your ouw rifel is the best thing to do.

 

Thanks All.

[Fred Woodman]

sighting in your own gun instills confidence and thats half the battle.Knowing what your gun is capable of before you pull the trigger usually means you will hit your target more often. Also installing your scope is a good idea as its installed to fit you

[Fred Woodman]

Heres a group I shot with my 204 Ruger when I was working up a coyote load ( its the load i used to kill the three coyotes this winter. One was at 327 yds and the other two at about 85 yds.)

It was shot at 300 yds when gun was zeroed for 200 yds. The dot is  1 inch and you can cover this 5 shot group with it making this a 1/3 moa group. And yes I picked the best group I shot but the other were close.Gun was shot of a harris bi pod and heel sandbag. Lying prone

The ammo was handloaded and the gun is a Tikka T3 that is bone stock except I lightened the trigger to 2.5 lbs.

Most of these coyote guns are capable of this kind of accuracy. Excuse the poor scan but it was a drizzly day and target got wet.

[Fred Woodman]

I have accurized a lot of rifles and this little 204 is the most accurate gun I have ever shot. You cam mix and match almost any components and it will still shoot less than MOA. Ballistically its as good as a 22-250 without the barrel wear and powder appetite.

I hope to use it later in May for some Ground hogs in Ontario and see what it can do out to about 500 yds.Its a bit of a pain to reload due the small diameter but at the range its a smile maker.

 

also recoil is so light you can watch the bullet punch the hole thru the scope which is pretty cool. At 300 yds you can see the bullet path thru the air.