Zeoring - Acceptable Grouping

kerryman12

Lads

I am in the process of Zeoring in a new rifle.Using the attached hardware, a pro hunter in .243 firing 100 gr remington. My goal is to zero the scope for 200yrds. I spent quite a bit of time on this to date and fired close on 100 rounds.

I have two general questions:
1) is this a realistic target ie 200yrds
2) what would be considered a realistic grouping at this range.



Any information/assistance greatly accepted.

regards

freddieot

Nice looking kit.

I had an SSG in .243. Had it zeroed for 200 and it worked well at that range. My mate had a pro-hunter in 243, again quite a good gun at 200.

It is difficult to say what size your group should be at 200. That depends on the shooter as much as the kit but that looks like a reasonable scope (Leupold?) so you should be able to manage <3inch from the bipod at least assuming low\no wind. Better than that is down to practice. Make sure the bipod is on something reasonably soft like a mat or grass.

My advice is maybe to start off at 100 and see how you get on and build up a bit of confidence first.

kerryman12

thanks freddieot

yes its a leupold 4.5-16x50. Spent a good bit of time with working my way out slowly. Got good results even at 180 but pushing back the last 20 today was a bit annoying needs more work.

Practice/confidenacne is the key I have seen it already. I just want to make sure I have realistic expectations.

freddieot

You're right and it's all about practice. One thing though, 243s are fairly fussy about ammo type. Remington for example would never work well in my rifle but it loved Lapua, Hornady and especially Federal 85g HP BT.

Try different types of ammo to see if your groups tighten and remember it's not all about the heaviest bullet. The 85g HP BT is far more accurate at 200than 100g softpoint for example. Depends whther you want to use for hunting primarily or target though. Myself, I am only interested in Target.

best of luck.

pm.

i just got a styer .243 myself its a, im waiting on my scope to arrive before i zero it in, make sure to clean it after around 20 shots.

freddieot

If you want to get the best out of a new barrel it should be cleaned thoroughly until the patches come out clean after every shot for the first 10 shots and every 2/3 shots after that till 20 at least. Then normal cleaning.

What happens is that there are microscopic burrs on a new barrel. They vaporise copper from the first few bullets and this will accumulate on the barrel. Very hard to get off with normal cleaning.

kerryman12

I clean it after every use to be honest using a bore snake, one pass gives very good results - but only put on oil every third or so cleaning.

In relation to the ammo. Was using hornday 58 gr originally and then remington 95 gr actuitip. When I had to get more this weekend the closest I could get was the remington 100 gr. I though I shouldnt change manufacturer until I had my zero - is this logical?

Following a review of other threads:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055166933&highlight=ssg+ammo
I might try federal.

In the end I want to end up in a position where by I have a light grain 50 or 55 for foxing and a heavier 95 or 100 for foxing.

thanks lads will keep trying.

quackquackBOOM

if i zero in a rifle i zero it in at an inch or two high at 50 yrds
then when its good enough
move it onto the further of 150 yrds and fire a few shots to see how it groups
takes the number of shots down significantly
and it hasnt failed me to date

meathshooter

kerryman12 wrote: »

Lads

I am in the process of Zeoring in a new rifle.Using the attached hardware, a pro hunter in .243 firing 100 gr remington. My goal is to zero the scope for 200yrds. I spent quite a bit of time on this to date and fired close on 100 rounds.

I have two general questions:
1) is this a realistic target ie 200yrds
2) what would be considered a realistic grouping at this range.



Any information/assistance greatly accepted.

regards

I am using rem 700 .243 vx 3 leupold same as yours crocket & boon ,harris bipod ,getting sub inch @100yrs with hornady 58gr molys,found them great very flat shooter great for fox,have now run out of them all I could get locally where rem 100gr corelokt had to re zero not by much but there
grouping well 1 1/2 inch @ 200 off the bipod have also tried federal power shok i think 80gr or 85 found them good aswell dealer only had one box ,also tried winchester 80 gr also found them good for field work anyway

.243

this really depends on what you are shooting at,if its paper punching concentrate on shooting that distance all the time regardless of grouping (this will only improve in time and practice)
for hunting purpose simply as for .243 90-100gr ie.deer shooting 1 inch above the bull at 100yrds,so anything out as far as 200yrds is still in the aiming mark

seamusgi4szw

kerryman12 wrote: »

I clean it after every use to be honest using a bore snake, one pass gives very good results - but only put on oil every third or so cleaning.

My Gad.....!
A boresnake is for taking dirt out out of your barrell, dats it my friend.
Look up shooting in at the website,
www.border-barrels.com

G IN' A BARREL

There is much discussion about 'shooting in' a barrel. Everybody seems to have their own way of doing it, so this is a brief monograph about how we do it.
But first, a few words on why 'shooting in' a barrel is necessary. No matter how well lapped or how finely finished the internal surface of the barrel is, the first few bullets down the barrel seem to leave a significant fraction of themselves behind as heavy metal fouling. A subsequent bullet shot up a barrel with heavy metal fouling will tend to press that fouling into the barrel causing dints and roughness in a bore that the barrel maker has gone to a lot of trouble to make smooth and even. So it is important to get all that metal fouling out before shooting another bullet up the barrel.

When we shoot in a barrel, we fire one shot and then use a phosphor bronze brush and Shooters Choice to clean the barrel of powder fouling and loose dirt. Having dried out the barrel with a few patches, we squirt some Forrest bore foam up the barrel and leave it sitting for 24 hours to get out all the metal fouling. There is no way to quickly clean metal fouling out of a barrel and we find Forrest bore foam seems to do the job best as the foam clings to the whole interior surface of the barrel.

After 24 hours the Forrest bore foam has turned dark blue, but all traces of the metal fouling is gone. Now we fire another shot and repeat the process.

We do this about five times. Finally, we fire five shots and then give the barrel a final 24 hour soak in Forrest bore foam. The bore of the barrel will now have been 'conditioned' and metal fouling should be minimal from now on. Yes, we take a week to shoot in a barrel! But there is no quick way to remove heavy metal fouling. Anyone that says there is doesn't have a bore scope!

Using moly coated bullets seems to minimise the metal fouling during this shooting in process and makes it all a lot easier.:cool:

Cheers mate
Seamie

sounder

.243 wrote: »

this really depends on what you are shooting at,if its paper punching concentrate on shooting that distance all the time regardless of grouping (this will only improve in time and practice)
for hunting purpose simply as for .243 90-100gr ie.deer shooting 1 inch above the bull at 100yrds,so anything out as far as 200yrds is still in the aiming mark

i must agree with this i set mine 1 inch high at 100 yards and have put up clays at 200 yards and still stay down at the bottom of it to break it,300 put in the middle and have broke them out at 400yards and i am no great shot.use a tikka t3 lite s/b 3/12/50,100gr federals sp,t8 mod ,harris bi;pod,that good enough for me and if u stick to that or what u want to stick to 100 200 once u know where u are your right.cheers sounder

kerryman12

I think that horse may have already bolted re the shooting in as I have put approx 80 rounds through it by now. I have cleaned it after each days shooting.

Thats good advice .243 I will try that at the weekend . It's a hunting rifle pure and simple. Thinking of 55/58gr for foxing and 95-100gr for deer.

Is it worth putting the rifle in a vice to remove the shooter from the equation, of course I am loosing the experiance with each shoot by doing this??