Hi guys,

I am getting in a new scope for my trip to POW Island, and was wondering about where I should set my zero. We will be mainly after deer, but if a bear shows up then�I�m told that the cover is thick. Would a zero at 150 yards be too short or should I look to 200 yards? Thanks for input.

Hi bro,

I know not the most exotic reply but I thought you looked lonely here

From the times I've been there there are really about three different types of terrain, and shots that you can expect.

(1) the most likely in August-September-First half of October, is alpin hunting. During the warmer month the bucks stay up high arround or above the tree line. Your shots will be pretty far, it'll kinda of be like deer stalking in Scotland or high country mulies. If you can have your rifle sited in to shot out to 200 yards or so with not worry about hold over that be perfect. With that new 375 you'll have to decide on a weight and load and then work up how high the rifle needs to shoot at 100 yards. The target window on those little Sitka black tails is pretty small so you don't want to site in for q big 10" window.

(2) Low brush/forest country which is pretty rare except in the rut in Oct-Nov. Shots will be close and fast here, or so I've heard.

(3) moderate range shooting along waterways, beaches. I've not seen many bucks arround here but if you were bear hunting along salmon streams and just happened to see a buck... Here the shots can be anywhere from 30-150 yards.

Hope this helps a little. Just rember these are generally pretty small guys, not like big mulies, more like east coast whitetails.

The ranges are likely to be a bit on the short side. If you zero so that your bullet strike is 3" low at 200 yards, you'll be able to handle about any shot you're likely to get and be dead on for the most of them.

I tell all my hunters to have a 100 yard zero. Most do but some don't. You must know where that bullet will land on a 60 yard shot.

Over many years, on all game, we have about a 60 yard average shot.

I have killed bucks at 15 yards and 400 yards. The vast majority are close tough.

The Sitka Blacktail are stalkable. Even when in the open Alpine. A long shot is totally your choice and is rarely needed.

Many 3x or 4x bucks on POW go 160lb (live weight) and up. I have taken several in the 200lb (live weight) range.

Welcome to AR brother! It�s good to see that you finally made it over here. I think you will like it here, good people here!

Thanks for the �view� of the terrain. I was having a hard time visualizing the place.

Muskeg & RupertBear,
Thanks for the input. Although the ranges are very different, I can see that almost any range shot is possible. Perhaps something in-between would work well. My next question would be you us a 270 Gr or 300Gr. Bullet?

It depends on your rifle. Frankly, I don't think that there's enough difference between the two to worry about (less that a .22's bullet's worth). My rifle seems to prefer the 300 grain bullet, so that's what I use for everything - it simplifies everything. I've used the load so much that I know just what the ballistics are in the field, not from some computer program. Just make sure that whatever bullet you use will work on a bear at 15 paces. That's your worst case scenario, and if it'll hold together for that, it'll put a nice .375 hole through your deer (they're small).

May your hunt go well.

Thanks. I had planed on trying the two bullets with open sights to see which the gun liked, then stick with that bullet when sighting in the scope. I hear that some guns like one better than another.