A very good solution for those who have a scope with that capability and the knowledge to use it. Scopes with a Below Dead Center (BDC) reticle offers another option. But in both cases, the shooter finds himself having to take extra steps before taking the shot. Those extra steps can lead to a missed opportunity. While one is figuring distances and turning dials, the other is trying to decide which crosshair will get the bullet to reach the target.

The discussion often brings to mind how hunters once took all their deer with fixed, low power scopes. It was their ability to sight their rifles with a more lengthy zero, and knowledge of where the bullet should be at a given distance, that yielded such success.

No, that's not correct. Here's a simple trajectory of a 270 Win with a 130 grain bullet at 3050 fps with 1.75" sight height.

With a 100 yard zero, the bullet will be 2.5" low at 200 yards and 10" low at 300 yards.

With a 200 yard zero, you will be 1.29" high at 100 yards, and 6" high at 300.

100 yard zero
Range Elev Wind
(yards) (inches) (inches)
0 --- ---
100 0 0.65
200 -2.58 2.68
300 -10.2 6.23
400 -23.69 11.47
500 -44.05 18.61

200 yard zero
Range Elev Wind
(yards) (inches) (inches)
0 --- ---
100 1.29 0.65
200 0 2.68
300 -6.33 6.23
400 -18.52 11.47
500 -37.6 18.61

If you learn MOA, you can see the drop or hold off for 100 and 200 yards is the same. If you charted all your top calibers and the speeds they ran (about 2800-3000 fps), from a 100 yard zero, almost all of them have about a 1.25 moa come up at 200, 3 moa at 300, about 5 moa at 400 yards. If you learn to think in MOA (or in mils), it becomes even easier to understand drop. You have to learn to not the think in inches. When I teach shooters this, at some point a light bulb goes off in their head, and then they wonder why they didn't start working in moa or mils sooner. Even on a standard duplex reticle, I can account for 5 moa of elevation no problem, and be on target at 400 yards.

Same 270 data as above.

Range Elev
(yards) (moa)
0 ---
100 1.23
200 0
300 -2.01
400 -4.42
500 -7.18

Range Elev
(yards) (moa)
0 ---
100 0
200 -1.23
300 -3.25
400 -5.65
500 -8.41

For mule deer I site in at 500 , white tails 100-200 depending on caliber and Mbr.

Seriously! How exactly do you do this?

Depends on what cartridge and planned use of the rifle.

Handgun and traditional leveractions 100 yards
modern bottle necked cartridges 200 yards unless they have a scope to dial for yardage. If the rifle is equipped with a dial scope then 100 yards.

BDC = Below Dead Center?

I'm dead on at 100 with my 308 Savage from a 20" 1in 10 twist. 99.5% of my shots on deer and pigs are within bow range. I usually use my old Ruger carbine in 44mag. It's DRT accurate from 0 - as far as I can see in the woods.
I'd like to go hunt south and west more often.

100 yds for me. For all the reasons previously posted.

100 for all but one of my rifles.

Fairly sure he meant Ballistic Drop Compensating unless he was talking about setting cam timing on a small block.

The arguments I'm seeing here mirror the reasons my friends had.

Personally I zero every rifle with a scope that I dial at 100 yards. Just like Chad and JG said early on, it minimizes environmental effects, you always have to dial up and it minimizes zero shift when sighting in at one altitude and then shooting or hunting at another.
For my rifles with a standard duplex or BDC reticle that I seldom expect to shoot beyond 200 - 250 I zero at 200 yards. This gives me 1.25 to 1.75 MOA high at 100 yards and 1.5 to 2 MOA low at 300 yards.

While I don't always agree with how some of my friends set their zero I know that they have practiced and hunted enough to be effective to their self imposed shooting limit.

I used to zero at 50 because it was a nice tight up and down range for my shots out to 150. I never shoot any farther than that at my lease. i changed to 100 this year because over the past 4 years at my lease, 90% of my shots are right at 100 +- 10 yards.

My .270 is zeroed at 200 because in my original hunting spot it was 194 yards to my feeder. plus, it was easy to remember -3" and -7" at 250 and 300 yards. Past 300 is out of my comfort zone.

Checking again, Nikon SpotOn app shows a 200 yard zero with the .270 would be just 2.7 inches low at 250 yards, while a 100 yard zero would be about 6 inches low at that distance.

I believe you meant 6 inches low at 300 yards with a 200 yard zero. That would agree with the SpotOn table of being 2.7 at 250 yards, the bullet now dropping more quickly.

But I stand corrected. A 200 yard zero extends the no holdover range of the .270 by about 50 yards.

Correct.

I fall in that group that incorrectly views it as marks on the reticle that appear below the center of the scope.

I'd like for someone, anyone, to show me the reticle that is subtended in inches, for any distance.

No-one can, because it doesn't exist.

Measurements in degrees are widely available, however. They are called MOA or Mil reticles.

Yes, sorry, 6" low at 300.

I do 100 yards on most of my guns, but just moved my 300 win mag to 200.

My rational was for most distances I would be shooting a 200 zero would require less turret adjustments.

100 yard zero here as well. It'a much easier and faster mathematically to figure dope (knowing my rifle, environment and ballistics) with a 100 yard zero. At least it is for me anyhow!!

Good info, thanks.

So, JG if it's not inches that everyone is saying, then it is moa/mills? For correctness if I zero my 270 at 100 yds then for 200 I would use the turret 2.5 X 1/4 = 10 clicks.
Or am I missing the whole boat?

Where do you guys come up with some of this stuff. What about the guy that thinks his .270 will be 5" low at 150yds if sighted in at zero 100yds. Or the dude that's sights in at 500yds for mule deer. How do you sight in at 500yds? I guided mule deer hunts when I was in high school until I got out of college. The only deer I ever saw killed at just over 500yds was when the 7mm STW first came out and a customer made an amazing shot on a buck. I'm sure a lot of you Cowboys can nail dead center at 500 offhand but I've only killed two deer over 450 and they were shot several times apiece. They died but I was shooting too far. Sight your guns in at 2" high at 100yds and don't shoot over 350.