Where do you long range shooters have your long range rifle zeroed at? And I do not mean 2 inches at 100 yds that don�t cut it . I mean ZERO not guessing. MY 300 min mag is 0 @ 25 yds; 3.25 @ 100; 4.25 @ 150; O @ 300; -10 @ 400; -26 @ 500

That is almost what my 300 RUM is. In fact, it's almost identical.

ZERO IS 100yds.
I shoot Shepherd scopes for hunting and
mildots for target, simply becasue a Shepherd is not desigened for shooting the "egg" at 1000yds.
http://www.shepherdscopes.com

Zero at whaever "home" range is convient (100, 200 etc). Adjust the turret to re-zero for the distance the shot is going to be made at (count clicks).
The actual # of clicks is determined by live fire at distance, than recorded for future use. The turret is returned to "home" zero after the shot.
Mid-range shooters (like myself) can use etched aiming points on the reticle (Shepherd, Mil-Dots, etc) or one of the adjustable cam systems. However all the settings/aiming points must still be verified by live fire at distance.
Mid and long range shooters also dial in our windage adjustments, and record the results under varing wind conditions.

Side note, staying in "tune" will cost the longrange shooters about 1 barrel every year or 2, while the midrange shooters can usualy make a barrel last for 5 years before it's toasted.

Doc:

Your zero means your bullet is 3.5 inches or higher all the way from 110 yards to 250, assuming 180 grains at 3300 fps.

From 130 to 230 it is 4 inches high, topping out at 4.5 inches at 180 yards.

Why on earth do you live with that?

My 7mmstw's are sighted in 2-3/4" high at 100 yards.They are 3-1/2" high at 200 yards,3/4" high at 300 yards,6" low at 400 yards and 18" low at 500 yards.
My 300 ultramags are 2-3/4" high at 100 yards.They are 3-1/2" high at 200 yards,almost dead on at 300 yards,7-3/4" low at 400 yards and 21" low at 500 yards.

i love this story so ill tell it again.. when i first moved to montana i bought a 300 mag, got it shooting under an inch and went hunting with a native american friend. i was very proud of my expnesive rifle. my friend had a 6.5 jap with airplane sights, a sight to behold.. we saw a decent 4x4 at what i though was about 400 yards, it must have been 600 or what ever i couldnt touch it without knowing the distance of haveing practiced at those ranges.,, it ran off and i put my rifle back and said darn.. he started up the ridge above the draw it ran into and a half hour later he came dragging the dear back with a small hole in the back of the head.. also some of the biggest bull elk is shot in archery season around here.. as to long range trajectory it depends on the game.. take elk for example if you sight in for elk at 400 yards with a 180grn hornady bullet, in 300 mag at 3100 fps,and you aim at the heart you will be +8.4inches at 100, +13.4 at 200, +11.5 at three hundred yards, on at 400 if you have a rangefinder and -24 inches at 500 or one half body high.. but with a one moa accurate rifle and some mountain or worse yet light plains wind it would probably come out to a 8 inch group at 400 yards with a darn good rest, not likely to be found with an elk in the hills.. but it makes good conversation.. the best hunters around here scope the feeding areas in the evening and find the heards or group of bulls with the bull they want.. then are downwind within a couple hundred yards of the place they were feeding the night before before daylight the next am.. yes sometimes there are more hunters than elk up there that morning, and sometimes they have skedattled. but thats hunting.. good luck out there, dave..

My rifle is zeroed for however far away the critter is.

No, I still hunt with the 3" high at 100 zero I have since my days growing up reading O'Connor. The difference is now I know that puts me exactly on at 300, -1.75 MOA at 400, -4 MOA at 500, etc.... The other difference is this wonderful invention they call a rangefinder.

I'm not a long range shooter, but I practice a lot at long range....

My 300 Jarrett shooting 200 gr bullets is nearly identical to yours. I'm dropping 27" at 500.

I zero at 200 and click from there. So I agree with DKing on this one.



I almost always zero from a sitting position with a shooting sling. So I agree with Allen and DKing on this one.



What I really have a hard time dealing with is the so-called "point blank range" - David Tubb has written that when the vital area of an animal is 10 inches, you should zero so that your bullet is a maximum of 5 inches high. Well, this puts half your bullets above 5 inches, since no rifle shoots one hole groups - they are an ever expanding cone.



Why no other writer (except sometimes Jim Carmichel) ever writes about this is beyond me. Tubb is the greatest shot today, but I don't see him posing with many game animals, although I have no doubt he can do it. But his advice on zeroing 5 inches high is bad news.



One more thing - at ranges of 700 yards or greater, I have to make a click for every 5 or 10 yards of range, depending on the caliber. How do you guys adjust for that with holdover lines that are so coarse as to only get within 50 or 100 yards?



The only holdover scope I have used that even comes close to clicking is the Horus Vision, but it is so clutered it is very slow to use.



If you really are hung up about max point blank, zero for 400 yards and put the crosshairs on the bottom of the belly. You won't miss out to 375 or so if you have a very flat shooting rifle.

Point blank works for those who do not feel the need to know their ballistics beyond certain distances. Holding on the "kill zone" is good enough for most hunters in most situations. I don't like the "5 inch" high or 10 inch vital area example, but a 6 inch vital area and 2 inches high will work for most hunters.
For the beginners I have helped introduce to the sport I have setup their rifles for 2 inches high at 100 or dead on at 200 depending on the gun. Usually they are still holding on hair at 300 and it is fairly intuitive when they have every other thing to think about that has become instinctive to me (good rest, round in chamber, safety off, clear shot, good backstop etc.).
I have used the click it method and holdovers. Holdovers work just fine but as stated are limited in their accuracy at longer distances. Ballistic-Plex works great and effectively runs out of room at 600 yards which is more than adequate for almost any medium range scenario. I have a mil-dot that I can use to holdover out to 850 yards but I limit myself on game to 600. I would try for varmints past 600 using the mil-dot holdover but would not be surprised if I missed.
For effective shooting past 600 you really need to click it. Know the range, have all the conditions right and accounted for and have a shot presentation that is optimal. If the situation is not right you need to get closer, wait until it is right or wait for another opportunity.
My personal big game kills so far this year:
Antelope - 241 yards
Antelope - 497 yards
Mule Deer - 360 yards
Elk - ~ 125 yards (rangefinders don't work in aspen groves)

I have guided or helped out numerous others from 110 to 375 yards. Nothing got away once the decision was made to shoot.

Quiet Hunter, I agree with you on the 200yd zero. I took a dozen different rifles from 308, 7 & 300 Mags up to a 375 H&H and sighted them all in dead on at 200yds. At 300 they ranged from 5" to 12" low at 300. All could have "held on hair" at 300yds. I once shot over a deer with a long range zero and for me it's a lot more intuitive to hold over than it is to hold under I think this holds true for most people.
For me the TDS reticle and a good laser rangefinder is the best solution for mid-range shooting. I try and load for known distances on the lower bars. For me the long distance limit is 500-600 yards or so since that's the longest distance that I shoot regularly in competition. Although I think I'm prouder of hitting them at bow-hunting distance I have made a couple over 500yd shots when they were necessary.........DJ

dj:

I took out one of my .300 RUMs this am. It has a Horus Vison on it (I am reveiwing the scope for a story).

That rifle has been death, but my first shot this am at 700 was way low. I noticed it landed exactly one major grid line (the Horus Vision has a huge grid reticle) below my aiming dot. My next two shots touched either side of the 3 inch circle I was shooting at. I took one shot at 850 and missed that circle by an inch. I was shooting sitting with a bipod. There was no wind.

The HV scope has a line every 1/10 mil. It is very effective when one has an orange cirlce to aim at (I actually bracket the circle at 700 yards), but it is easy to get lost in. My first shot was out of a clean barrel, but that usually makes no difference. I probably lined up the wrong holdover line - easy enough to do when you have a lot of them.

It is my observation that when game is past 200 yards, you generally have time to make adjustments, measure the wind, etc. Under 200 yards you better shoot pretty quickly, unles you are in a tree stand.

Doc:

a 400 yd zero means an almost certain miss at 200 yards.