Every season, hunters miss deer they should have killed because their rifle wasn’t zeroed. A scope gets bumped in the truck, ammunition changes, or the rifle was never sighted in properly to begin with. Here is how to do it right.
What you need
- A safe range with a solid bench or prone position
- Sandbags or a rest front and rear
- Targets with a clear aiming point and a 1-inch grid
- The exact ammunition you will hunt with
- Eye and ear protection
- A screwdriver or tool to adjust your scope, if needed
Step 1: Check the setup
Make sure the scope mounts and rings are tight, using the manufacturer’s torque specs. Set your eye relief so you see a full picture without the scope hitting you under recoil. A loose scope can never hold a zero.
Step 2: Bore sight
With a bolt-action rifle, you can remove the bolt, rest the rifle steady and look through the bore at a target about 25 yards away. Then adjust the scope until the crosshairs line up with what you see through the bore. A laser bore sighter works too. This gets you on paper and saves ammunition.
Step 3: Start close
Fire a three-shot group at 25 yards. Adjust the scope to bring the group to the center. Most scopes adjust in 1/4-MOA clicks, which is roughly a quarter inch at 100 yards, so at 25 yards each click moves impact only about 1/16 of an inch. Read your scope’s markings.
Step 4: Zero at 100 yards
Move to 100 yards and fire three-shot groups. Let the barrel cool between groups; a hot barrel can shift impact. Adjust until your group is where you want it. Many deer hunters zero 1.5 to 3 inches high at 100 yards with common cartridges, which keeps the bullet within a few inches of the line of sight out to about 200 to 250 yards. Check your ammunition maker’s ballistic chart for your specific load.
Step 5: Confirm
Shoot a final group from a cold barrel, the way your first shot on a deer will be. If it lands where it should, you are done.
Common mistakes
- Changing ammo. Different loads hit different places. If you switch brands or bullet weights, sight in again.
- Shooting off a bench only. The bench shows what the rifle can do. Then practice from the positions you will hunt from, like shooting sticks or a tree stand rail.
- Trusting last year’s zero. Confirm before every season and after any hard bump.
Safety at the range
Follow range commands, keep the action open when you are not shooting, and be certain of your backstop. The basics never change: muzzle in a safe direction, finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire, and always know what is beyond your target.
