Any neat tricks?

Ok so I muffed the chance at a wall hanger yesterday. Kinda a long story but the short version is:
Big sika stag answered a single call then came charging over the brow and stopping in clear sight at 300m.
I tried to dial the elevation on my CDS turret only to find I didn't have enough rotation (only wanting 7moa) so obviously had done at least one, maybe 2 full rotations from zero.
I kinda panicked and cranked it back a couple (maybe three) full turns but then the dial would still go round but kinda grind. I put the dial on zero, lined up on the big boy's front shoulder and hoped.
The suppressed shot didn't even worry him, he stood for a few seconds before nonchalantly trotting into the scrub. I saw him a minute later standing not 100m away without a care in the world.

Question is, do you have any handy way to ensure you don't lose your zeroby being a full rotation or more out?

Scope is a VX3i 3.5-10 non zero-stop

Get a zero stop scope

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Originally Posted by longrange308

Get a zero stop scope

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Never thought it would be necessary on my bush gun... shot steel out to 500 and turkeys at 450+, but this time it cost me my best sika

You lost me. You needed 7 Moa?
What cal and what range is it zeroed.



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Originally Posted by R93

You lost me. You needed 7 Moa?
What cal and what range is it zeroed.



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7-08 throwing a big pill very slowly. Zeroed at 100yds...
162A-Max @2285

Count turns up from zero and remember it.

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I am still a bit confused as for argument sake you have a 26" drop at 300 with 100 yrd zero?
And you went a few full turns in the heat of the moment to get 7 moa?

He must have been a big fella to get you so flustered. [emoji16]
Shit happens tho. I know your pain.
I missed my only chance at a huge trophy red by hitting a small tree in line with his leg, dead center after watching him for a good 5 mins in pretty open Bush.
Could have neck shot the bugger 100 times over and should have on reflection.
My only suggestion is to get a suitable scope to allow a quick shot at those ranges without needing to dial.
Or go a lighter bullet with a 200 yrd zero and hold top of the back.




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He must have been a bloody ripper stag, if I recall correctly you shot a pretty big jap a year or two ago?

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Originally Posted by R93

I am still a bit confused as for argument sake you have a 26" drop at 300 with 100 yrd zero?
And you went a few full turns in the heat of the moment to get 7 moa?

He must have been a big fella to get you so flustered. [emoji16]
Shit happens tho. I know your pain.
I missed my only chance at a huge trophy red by hitting a small tree in line with his leg, dead center after watching him for a good 5 mins in pretty open Bush.
Could have neck shot the bugger 100 times over and should have on reflection.
My only suggestion is to get a suitable scope to allow a quick shot at those ranges without needing to dial.
Or go a lighter bullet with a 200 yrd zero and hold top of the back.




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I didn't wind on too much elevation in a panic, I had obviously either done at least one full rotation at some point previously and not known, or not retuned it to its actual zero after shooting long range last time.

Thinking I was on the actual zero tried to dial 7moa but ran out of elevation meaning I probably already had at least 12moa dialled when I thought I was on zero... this caused me to get flustered and try to find my mechanical zero stop without realizing I didn't have one, and ending up totally lost.

I have a rifle perfectly set up for that kind of shot but took my light gun because lots of where I was hunting was high tussock and I thought an off hand shot was quite likely and I know I can reliably shoot that gun to 400 +.

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Originally Posted by GWH

He must have been a bloody ripper stag, if I recall correctly you shot a pretty big jap a year or two ago?

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Yeah I've got a 171DS jap on the wall from 2yrs ago. Hard to tell exactly but this guy was definitely in the same class. Looked to have more length and better tops, but hard to be sure at 300yds

Why dont you just go back to basic's like we have hunted for the past 50+ years? Sight it in for 200, know your holdover [if necessary] for 300, and then just shoot the bloody thing. All this dialing is causing so much confusion and mayhem, hear it all the time, add in no zero stop and you're asking for trouble. Any decent calibre will shoot to 300 or possibly further with a 200 or 250 zero, even the 7.08! Practice on gongs if you intend to shoot far away, practice, practice, practice, using holdover. And if its too far for you to comfortably shoot using holdover, then get closer, or be patient and use your calling skills.

1 Buy something like b&c reticle and learn it for your load or tape the turret with self vulcanising tape you can remove when you need to dial.

I have suffered your pain so now my hunting rifle wears a plain 2-8 Leupy with no exposed turrets and B&C Reticle, no more dial moved, parallax not set right for snap shot, magnification up too high etc. Point and shoot now

All my big heavy vari-powers are on my target rifles not where they should be

This is how people miss quite consistently once your dialing. If you are shooting a 162Amax at 2200ft/sec, you have gone a bit extreme on the whole process, to your detriment. The ability to beat wind is great and you will shoot gongs all day like that, but the trajectory is still a bit limp for practical hunting ranges. I say this as the aficionado of heavy and slow for chambering projectiles.

You run into exactly what you have run into, 300m is too close to be shagging around and you don't need to dial. Just know your reticle. Have a look at my Ode to the 22LRF thread, where I am using traditional sighting in (what @Husky1600 describes) with an ordinary reticle, but being as fussy as you would be setting up to dial to 1000m. I'm knocking over game at silly ranges now.

Dialing is for further out. There is too much pressure on at closer ranges to get it right and you need too much elevation correction for that rifle. You basically turned a 300m shot into a 600m shot.

I don't know your scope, but if the turret rises with elevation, you can put a horizontal mark under the turret cap at your zero.

learn to use hold over

The range I used to practice on was exactly 12moa and my Monarch was 12 moa per rotation...has some good fucups...

@Dorkus if you have flip up covers you could just write the amount of clicks your zero is up from bottom.

I use 2 zeros on my duplex reticle,the main intersection is bang on for 100m ,the top of the lower vertical bar is on for about 300m,also bang on at 50m for my sub loads which is pretty handy,.no holdover needed.

or try playing around with your mpb range

Pull out the bolt, put rifle on a surface it won't move, bore sight to distant object, look through scope and see alignment of cross hairs, turn to correct zero. Can't be done in a rush with a deer you are trying to shoot but only takes a few minutes. Also after zeroing at the range go through this method so you know where the cross hairs are when rifle is sighted in, they ill be slightly higher than bore sighted object. Hope this helps:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by wsm junkie

@Dorkus if you have flip up covers you could just write the amount of clicks your zero is up from bottom.

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Yep, or down from the top, since it sounds like you found the top but couldn’t find the bottom?

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Originally Posted by wsm junkie

@Dorkus if you have flip up covers you could just write the amount of clicks your zero is up from bottom.

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This.

Or put a label under the scope or on the stock.

A small laminated drop chart in my lil stock pouch works for me. And holds a lens cloth, couple rounds and a very small folding knife.

Put the zero stop ball bearing in

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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Put the zero stop ball bearing in

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This but most factory caps don't have the ball bearing in the right spot. Well mine isn't. Theres a thread on adding a zero stop to the cds with bb size and drilling a detent. I just remember I only have 28 moa of use able dialing in my cds dial with my rifle.

As for your slow load I don't really see an issue I used a 225 eld m out of my 16.5 inch 308 at similar velocities for quite a while and had no Issues but found a factory ammo that would give very similar accuracy and still hold energy for awhile so stopped loading the 225s

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Originally Posted by Dorkus

Never thought it would be necessary on my bush gun... shot steel out to 500 and turkeys at 450+, but this time it cost me my best sika

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Ok winding you up a bit but tongue in cheek.

Bush gun why on earth would you even have a dial up scope? bush gun to me means 20-30y shots....I know up north you have all that eaten out non 1080d bush and a 100m bush shot is a possibility but still?...even then a 200-250y zero with a suitable 120-140gr projectile is point and shoot to 300 y easy and bang on 25-40Y for up close and personal.
That said my bush(and open country gun) does have a dial up vx6 but only because it is my only big game rifle......and its two turns down from max up to zero ;)
If I was to have another "bush" gun as well it would probably be another 308 but shorter than the last few with another 2-12 boon and crocket zeroed at 200y

Bugger man. Upgrade to the vx5?

Been there done that with non zero stop scopes made heaps of balls ups, for pin point shot placement on a up hill down hill shots a dialup scope with zero stop is a better guarantee. In saying that though a mate uses a Boone and Crockett on his 7mm-08 out to 500m no problems.

Im not sure I entirely understand what went wrong? Am I right to say the turret was a full turn out from zero before you then went to dial the 7 MOA to make the shot? I have heard of that happening.

Someone mentioned knowing your clicks from top or bottom to ensure your turret is in fact on zero along with being aligned on the 0 MOA marker on the cap which is a good thing to do. Being given grief for dialling on a "bush gun" and "just use holdover" doesn't really have much to do with it.. Simple mistakes happen no matter what method you use when placed under a certain amount of stress. Just learn from it and be better prepared next time. Bugger about the stag! Be bigger next time you catch up with him.

Thanks for helpful thread and links

Always a day late me but a mil dot reticle along with a taped on drop chart works for me out to 500.