Scope Hold Unders

[Trung Si Ma]

I know which scope I'm going to use for my new rifle build (even have the 30MOA mount arriving early next week) and have been playing with the ballistics program to get a feel for bullet drop and windage adjustments. A little while ago I was talking to a friend about what range to zero and I noticed that the scope has stadia marks above the reference line. I got to thinking about using them to hold under for close in targets. As in zeroed for 100yds and then shooting at a 50yard target by using the third stadia mark above the reference line.

Has anyone done this before? Does it work or is it another overly sober thought process?

 

[Gunbuffer]

What short range distances? Who cares if you pop someone in the eye or in the nose? Just hold over plently accurate up close. After some practice you might be able to see if some of those upper hashes happen to coincide w up close hits. Close needs fast and it might slow you trying to use lines up close. Just my 02

 

[dlbleak]

Welcome to OSA. I found some good info in this thread.
https://www.okshooters.com/threads/zeroing-a-22lr.301004/unread

 

[Trung Si Ma]

Probably should have mentioned that this is for popping paper during an NRL22 type match.

 

[Trung Si Ma]

What short range distances? Who cares if you pop someone in the eye or in the nose? Just hold over plently accurate up close. After some practice you might be able to see if some of those upper hashes happen to coincide w up close hits. Close needs fast and it might slow you trying to use lines up close. Just my 02

Actually, you want to hit them in the throat rather than the face - S-2 likes the pictures to go with the DNA.

 

[Calamity Jake]

I know which scope I'm going to use for my new rifle build (even have the 30MOA mount arriving early next week) and have been playing with the ballistics program to get a feel for bullet drop and windage adjustments. A little while ago I was talking to a friend about what range to zero and I noticed that the scope has stadia marks above the reference line. I got to thinking about using them to hold under for close in targets. As in zeroed for 100yds and then shooting at a 50yard target by using the third stadia mark above the reference line.

Has anyone done this before? Does it work or is it another overly sober thought process?

Our OKCGC air gun group does just as you want to do while shooting field target, we shoot different animal type knock down targets
from 15 yards to 55 yards, you must hit a kill zone on each target to score a hit which makes the target fall over, kill
zones are different sizes for each distance.
scoped guns are usually sighted in for 30-35 yards and you must hold over or under depending on target distance.
My mil dot scope is sighted in for 35 yards, when I shoot the 15-20 yard target I must hold 1/2 to 1 mil under to score a hit.
Kill zones on the close targets are usually 1/2 to 5/8 inch diameter.

 

[Trung Si Ma]

Thank you for at least indicating that I am not completely crazy. I'm not sure how it will work out, but I can see lots of range time working on it as a technique to be kept in the bag of tricks.

 

[swampratt]

I set my 30-30 scope to zero at 200 and for some time at 250 yard zero and held under at 100.
No issues unless your mind goes somewhere else.

 

[magna19]

I set my 30-30 scope to zero at 200 and for some time at 250 yard zero and held under at 100.
No issues unless your mind goes somewhere else.

Folks this is how you get bad bullet performance and lost game. Sighting in 30-30 for extreme ranges and trying to shoot game at closer ranges with very high sight-in at 100 yds is asking for trouble.

 

[Jcann]

Which scope are you going to use?

There's really no trickery in any of it. You'll be gathering your ballistic data while out shooting. You'll gather when to hold under, over, and when to dial. Don't trust any ballistic charts/apps; they may get you on paper but you still need to gather your own data. If your scope isn't tracking correctly anything you find online isn't going to work, especially if your shooting a 22lr at distance. All good center fire ballistic app have a place to add/subtract for an elevation correction factor and/or a wind correction factor. Nothing would screw with you more than to trust the ballistics from an online source which tells you, you need 14moa to shoot X distance but in reality when you dial 14moa your scope tracked 12.9moa