Settling in a zero

[chuck d]

How many shots do you need to get a well settled in zero? I had about 200 rounds on my gun/scope. I had developed zeros of a bench, then verified offhand. I have about another 200 rounds (in the cold/snow) and thanks to the article on the forum by Dwaine, found I was a couple minutes low. My last 20 shots at my pig target, using the top of teh back yielded 12 hits. I know when I change the barrel on my HP XTC gun it takes a couple matchs before matchs before I fel 100% comfortable with my sights. Any thoughts?

Also, I have a Bushnell 4200 6X24. Good enough scope? It have 1/4 min clicks, but that is at 100 yards. How many clicks at 60 M to move 2"?

Thanks
chuck

[Boyd L.]

..... How many clicks at 60 M to move 2"?

Thanks
chuck

Roughly 8 clicks (edited to correct a case of brain lock ) with standard velocity ammo. Dependent on the speed of what you're using you may need one more or one less.

I don't know if your rifle is "settling in", or simply experiencing what most of us experience with zero shifting under varying conditions.
Here's a discussion that may (or may not) be useful to you.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4420&hilit=Zero+Shift

[lone ringer]

Chuck, for what is worth in my opinion when you first sight in your rifle you determine what your zeros are usually around 0, 2 1/4, 4 1/2 and 8 1/2 give or take a few clicks depending on the ammo's velocity and scope height in relation to the action.
I have gone to one of my local shooting range to shoot SB matches three or four months in a row and taken the same rifle and shot the very same ammo and every time my zeros changed by at least a couple of clicks so my advice is to not trust your zero but use them as a reference to start and always try to check your zeros before the match. There are things like temperature, humidity, wind, light conditions or time of the day that can affect your zeroes.
What I try to do is keep a note book to record sight settings for a particular place and most of the time I am going to be on the ball park but I double check from the bench and offhand and if I have any changes I record them if not I go with what I have written in the past.

[Travelor]

I clean my barrel each time I shoot with Bore Tech Rimfire Blend. It usually takes one round to get it settled to grouping.

FWIW, I have found that if I check elevation for any given day on Chickens and then use my established come-ups for the other animals it works. For windage, I check the wind at Rams and leave it there of the other animals.

George

[Jerry G]

0, 2, 4. 8 is real close for just about every range I have shot at. My hunter rifle puts the first 'cold bore' shot out of the group but my heavy rifle does not.

Using the ram windage for all my animals hasn't worked to well for me. In face, the wind can change from shot to shot during a 5 shot string on any animal. 2 minutes wind on the rams is not uncommon an one range I shoot at but with 2 minutes on the chickens I wouldn't even hit half of them. Some ranges have different conditions from one end of the line to the other and I wouldn't even try to generalize on wind settings.

[ywltzucanrknrl]

Chuck, for what is worth, I shoot XTC and I find that my AR zeros are more consistent than my zeros on my 22 Silhouette rifle. Could be temperature, my position that day,the wind or the rifle or scope,---my silhouette zeros are usually close but it seems like I always need to adjust and I usually try to shoot several shots so things settle in.
Another thing that happens to me when I practice on metal targets is that I have a hard time telling from the impact in the dirt berm whether or not I'm high or low on the animal---sometimes a shot between a ram's legs can appear to be a high shot and vice versa---I believe this also happens with spotters---I know when I spot I sometimes have a hard time telling if the shot is high or low and I have this issue on every critter, not just the rams.
I learned from XTC shooting that paper gives better feedback on shots, so now I practice on paper silhouette targets whenever I can. It has helped. Although I don't know the sites, I downloaded my paper silhouette targets off a web site.
Also, on my SB silhouette rifle I have 1/4" adjustments and I have to move 8+ clicks to get 2" at 60 meters.

[Jeaux]

Chuck, I have been shooting with the Bushnell 4200 scopes for several years first in air rifle field target and then in air rifle silhouette. I can tell you that these scopes are affected by temperature and do shoot low in the cold when using zero's that were set when temps were warmer. We shot an air rifle silhouette match this past Saturday and my POI was off by about a minute low on both my TX200 with a 8-32x and my Walther LG300 hunter open class gun with a 6-24x both model 4200 Bushnells. These are fine scopes and in my opinion, one of the best values in high quality shooting glass out there. They are some of the most popular scopes in air rifle field target for spring piston class guns because of their durability with the spring gun recoil, quality of the optics and the fact that they will adjust parallax down to 10 yards. Many field target shooters can tell you that you will hit low with a warm weather zero on a cold day and I have typically had to make about a one minute adjustment to hit point of aim when temps get cold enough. During pre match warm up, I usually try to break shots on the top of the back of animals I am shooting in practice and judge adjustments to elevation based on point of impact vs. called Point of aim when the shot broke. Doing this on spinners or resettable targets makes this much more practical. I have also had the same issues, but maybe not as much as a full minute with my Leupold FX3 scopes when temps drop. Around the club we all know that you will probably need to make elevation adjustments from cold weather settings to warm weather settings. Keeping a log will help you make notes of things like this until it becomes second nature to you.