Precision shooters spend years dedicated to putting multiple bullets in a single hole at a set distance. The average hunter just wants to have a clean kill shot any time they pull the trigger. This is where you learn the difference between zeroing your rifle and setting a battle Sight Zero for your rifle.
Con’s To Battle Sight Zero
The downfall to a battle sight zero is that it’s not a highly precise zero. Which can be a problem for hunting. In fact, it can be really far off if you don’t spend the time to understand how it works. Plus you must know your particular rifle.
The biggest problem is just how much your aim will be off when you try to shoot past the effective range of your zero. This can be a problem when hunting if you can’t estimate range. However, this type of zero is best used for hunting because it allows you to keep your shots within the “kill zone” at various ranges without having to adjust your sights on the fly.
Effective Range of Your Rifle
For a battle sight zero work, you must understand the effective range of your rifle for hunting. In fact, you must truly understand the bullet trajectory also. Having a clear understanding of MOA helps make it work also. As you are setting up your rifle zero to hit within the body of a deer. Instead of hitting in a small bullseye.
Let’s look at a .270 rifle ballistic chart for the 130-grain bullet. If you follow the ballistics chart and set your zero at 25 yards, you will hit 1.5″ high at 100 yards. This is perfectly fine for hunting. If you are aiming at a deer’s heart you will still hit it even if you are a 1-1/2″ high of where you aimed.
Aiming at the same spot on the deer when it is out 200 yards. You will hit it almost dead on. Going out to 250 yards and you may miss the heart but you will still hit the lungs and drop your deer. In fact, it’s not until you take a shot out past 300 yards that you’d have to worry about missing the body of the deer if you are aiming at the heart.
There is a distance where you can’t effectively adjust your point of aim to hit your target. If you look at the .270 chart. You’d have to estimate holding your sight almost 30″ above the deer’s heart to make a clean shot at 400 yards. Most rifle scopes don’t have nearly that large of a sight picture. You’d completely be guessing where the deer is. Which makes your effective range for a .270 rifle about 300 yards when zeroed at 25 yards.
Calibers and Effective Range
Of course, every caliber and rifle will have a different effective range. Thus you must understand your battle sight zero and effective range for each rifle you own. If you plan on using this type of zero.
If you zero all your 30-06 rifles in at 25 yards. You will drop just under 2″ at 200 yards. However, you drop a little over 10″ at 300 yards and over 18″ inches at 350 yards. Making 300 yards your basic effective range of 30-06 with a 165-grain bullet.
Run the same basic zero on a 6.5 Creedmoor with a 130-grain bullet. You’ll find it drops 2″ at 200 yards. 12″ at 300 yards and 20″ at 350 yards.
Pros to Battle Sight Zero
If you spend some time looking up bullet ballistics and bullet drop on various calibers. You’ll find most times the effective range of a battle sight zero is around 300 yards. If you zero your rifle at 25 yards you’ll hit your deer at any distance from 25 yards out to 300 yards. This is great for taking a quick shot at a deer. It also prevents you from having to think about how far you are shooting.
The best part about using a Battler Sight Zero is that you don’t have to go find a 300-yard range to sight your rifle in at. Most indoor ranges, or “back yard” ranges are at least 25 yards. Thus it’s easy to find a place to sight your rifle. While knowing you can make hits out to 300 yards.
Extra Things to consider
Size of Target
None of this takes into account the size of the target you are shooting at. It works perfectly if you are aiming at a Deer with a 30″ tall midsection. You can aim in the center and make lung hits out to 300 yards. Even with a 12-15″ drop. Of course, what happens if you are shooting at smaller animals?
What if you are hunting Coyotes? A 10″ drop means you just hit the ground if you are aiming at the center of mass of a smaller animal.
Using Battle Sight Zero is going to require you to know the general size of your target. Then take into account the bullet drop you will have. Otherwise, you will miss your target. It works best when hunting animals at least 20″ or bigger.
Rifle Accuracy
All of this is works perfectly if you have a rifle that shoots 1 MOA or smaller groups. The problem arises when you get a cheap or worn-out rifle. Imagine a rifle that shoots 2-3 MOA groups. That’s not bad at 100 yards. It means you will still hit your target. Potentially 3″ high or low when your point of impact will be 1″ high in theory is still good.
The problem arises when you shoot at 300 yards. With a 2 MOA rifle, your grouping will be 6″. Add a 12″ drop, and now you could hit 18″ low or 6″ low. It really depends. You won’t know. If your deer is only 20″ high in the midsection. You will never know if you are going to hit your target or not. Of course, this is why many people blame their rifles when they miss a shot instead of their ability.
Shooters Ability
This all takes into account that you as a shooter can make hits accurately. If you on average shot 2-3″ groups at 100 yards. This is just as bad as having an inaccurate rifle. It’s worse if you think placing all your hits on 6″ plate at 100 yards is good enough.
6″ at 100 yards is 6 MOA. Which if you understand MOA this also equals 24″ at 300 yards. If that’s how you shoot, you don’t have room on most targets to add bullet drop. Not without compensating for it.
Wind Drift
None of this takes into account wind drift. Battle Sight Zero is set based on having no wind. If you have a crosswind this changes everything. You must apply what’s called Kentucky Windage.
The standard for adjusting windage is 1 MOA per 100 yards for every 10 MPH of wind. So let’s say you are shooting out 200 yards with a 20 MPH wind blowing from your right. That means you’ll have to move your point of aim to the right 4 MOA. Converting to inches that equals out to about 8″ at 200 yards. Move out to 300 yards and you have to aim 16″ to the right just to hit where you want.
Start adding this all up, at 300 yards you may not be able to see your deer in your scope. Not after adjusting everything if you used a standard 100-yard sight in.
Temperature Change
Temperature change is another thing to take into account when zeroing your rifle. In practice every 20 degrees of temperature change, changes your zero by 1 MOA. This is of course because of air density. Cold air is denser than hot air. So if you sight your rifle in, in the summer when it’s 90 degrees. You are going to be way off when you go hunting in December when it’s 10 degrees. That is going to cause your sights to be -4 MOA. At 100 yards that’s only 4″. Not too bad. Go out to 300 yards and you’re looking 16″. That’s a problem. Make sure you take this into account when hunting. The temperature change can become a huge issue.
Conclusion
When hunting the need to have an exact zero for your rifle is almost counterproductive. Using a battle sight zero is a much better way of setting a rifle up so you can get your game without worrying about the exact distance they are at. Once you know your rifle well enough it’s the most efficient way to make hits. You just have to have a little understanding and a lot of practice to know your rifle’s effective range. Not to mention you need to be able to judge the size of your target and most distances.