Zero A rifle Scope

[SheriffHD]

This is another Guide given to me from the NRA, which i feel would prove useful (this has been modified to suite Air soft/airguns)

Zero in your scope

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Rifles can be zeroed in by shooting a target or a trap at only 10 feet.

• to do it this way it id highly advised that you wear safety glasses as you can be sure ricochets are going to happen.
  

To begin:

1. Adopt your standard prone shooting position
   - Prone is the best way as if you test shoot from the standing or kneeling positions you waver more and its harder to do a true test.
   - Make sure your windage and elevation turrets are ready for adjusting i.e. Caps removed.
   
2. Draw 1 or 2 small dots on a piece of cardboard about 6.5 CM apart vertically.
   - There's no precision to this step. you just want enough room on the target so no shots are lost. At 10 feet, they cant go far.
   - If your scope has parallax adjustment, adjust it as close as it will go. if it has variable power adjust it as low as it will go.
   - The aim point will probably be a little fuzzy at this distance.
   - Aim at the top dot. expect your first shot to be as much below the dot as the center of your scope is above your gun barrel. If that's 7 Cm then thats how low the shot should go.
   - Then take another shot using the same aim point, this is to confirm the aim point as good as you can.
   
3. Keeping in mind where your first 2 shots went, adjust the windage and elevation turrets.
   - At only 10 feet this will take a lot of clicks.
   - Your objective is to get your shots in line with the lower target dot. Keep shooting and adjusting until you get there.
   
4. Now its time to get serious. Move the targets out to 10 meters (33 or so feet)
   - take more shots and see where they land.
   - One you have seen where your shots are landing, adjust the widnage till your shots are landing as close to center as they can. remember at this distance it wont take as many clicks so only go a few clicks at a time.
   
5. Once you're aligned correctly at the horizontal level at 10 meters its time to get the vertical zero sorted out
   - your shot pattern should be focused around the lower dot
   - at longer distances your shots will rise but stay in line side to side.
   
6. Move your target out to 20-30 meters and shoot 5 shots
   - if you know what your standard/average shooting range is then set your target at that range
   - They should all be pretty close on the top dot now.
   - Make any small tweaks to bring them closer to the dot and you're about done
   

You now know that at less then this range your shots will fall lower then the aim point so you can mentally adjust your aim to compensate.

Also, at about 5 meters further away the pellet will again fall lower then the aim point, so you can adjust again.

It's trial and error basically, but with testing you'll get to where you need to be abe be able to trust that your shots will do where it says they will. this may take some time and alot of shots, but just be patient and you will get it.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Wouldn't the closer you are mean you have to aim lower, not higher?

The vertical mildots above the centre point are there for close range shots because you'll have two zero points if you configure correctly.

The first zero point will be where the shots rise into and then over the centre point and the second will be where they fall back towards and then under the centre point.

I'd suggest configuring at about 25 to 30 metres, personally.

This would ensure that the angle of your scope and barrel never differ much until gravity starts taking a greater hold after the shot has passed the second zero point at the 25 - metre mark.

Hopefully that all makes sense.

To be totally honest though, I never saw that much point in totally zeroing a scope in airsofting, you can see the shots the whole time anyway, just fire and adjust accordingly.

 

[THE PREDATOR]

Hi mate I read your guide and found it very informative,

I already knew roughly how to zero a scope but this layed it out clearly,

What I would say is, isn't it better to zero your scope at a distance your predicting to be shooting at? Then you won't have to make many gravitational adjustments on the field

Overall a good guide though, well done

 

[SheriffHD]

the 10m is just a quick step for doing the left to right zero. Optimal distance is to zero the Up-down zero.

 

[THE PREDATOR]

Oh yer sorry mate, my bad

 

[Cyrax]

You could add in the "laser pen method".

Not everyone has access to a laser pen or similar, but the idea is you set the laser directly in front of the barrel, look through the scope and where the laser dot is, is where the bb/bullet/pellet would fly if it had a perfectly straight trajectory.

Then you simply match the laser dot with the center of the cross hair.

The only real problem is if you dont own one, or if you dont set the laser directly in front of the barrel.

Job done.

 

[SheriffHD]

laser pen is an opition. but unless you can find one whih can fit nicly inside your barrel so that it is perfectly flush, you're just better doing it the old school way. plus learning the old school way helpps when adjusting the sight to suit targets at differnt ranges. and if you plan to adjust for wind if you want to get that advanced

 

[Cyrax]

Just thought it was worth mentioning, as for some people it might be an option.

 

[Airsoft Dan]

Nice guide. I might use it soon.

 

[Rolo Rolo]

I'd like to propose a different method that should be more reliable.

0) First sort out your hop-up, you don't need accurate sights for that.

1) Clamp the weapon in a B&D Workmate or equivalent.

2) Set up the target at your desired range and aim the weapon at it as much as you can, move the target to suit the clamped weapon if required.

3) Fire weapon at target and repeat. Establish median impact position. You might have the one miracle weapon that puts all the BBs through the same hole, but I doubt it. There will almost certainly be some variation. You need to fire a FIXED weapon repeatedly to see what the variation is.

4) Set up your sights to aim at the median point.

5) With the gun still clamped, replace target with fresh target and test your settings. Repeat steps 3-4 until you're satisfied with the sights.

The problem with setting up a weapon when you're holding it, is that there are too many variables to reliably set it up. You need to eliminate as many as possible and account for the others. In step 3, if you haven't clamped the weapon, you have no idea if the variation is down to you or the gun. So you take out human error by clamping the gun, and take out shot variation as much as possible by working out the average impact position and setting the sights for that.

I've tried this (with my pistol and laser sight) and it works. I haven't had the chance to try it with my rifle yet, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work just as well.

 

[SheriffHD]

Only really need to clamp a gun if you are shooting full bore, and are doing a 200-300m zero, but a 15-25m zero, a bag will do. or prone with a bipod. remember this is aimed for airsoft.

using a gun clamp is just an unnecessary purchase, and it inst something you can do in the field, which is why you rely more on the zero method i posted.

By no means am i saying your method doesn't work because a clamp is what i use when i re-zero my .308 (although more now i use a laser zero method.)

 

[Rolo Rolo]

Only really need to clamp a gun if you are shooting full bore, and are doing a 200-300m zero, but a 15-25m zero, a bag will do. or prone with a bipod. remember this is aimed for airsoft.
using a gun clamp is just an unnecessary purchase, and it inst something you can do in the field, which is why you rely more on the zero method i posted.

By no means am i saying your method doesn't work because a clamp is what i use when i re-zero my .308 (although more now i use a laser zero method.)

I'd agree that a gun clamp is not something most people would need to buy, hence my cobbled "workmate" rig.

The bipod or sandbag never occurred to me, to be honest. I think my problem is that I'm such a crap shot I need all the help I can get when setting my gun up.

 

[SheriffHD]

Ha, yeah well my motto is, if you miss with one bullet, get a bigger bullet