Looking to get thought some tricks

CZ455Mad

Hi,

Have 2 firearms now with a year 17hmr CZ455 and a 12g Lanber
Have a fairly good understanding of the CZ and of the Lanber but have been looking to get more serious about hunting rabbits and foxes with the CZ as I'm still relatively green with the techniques and tricks of the trade

Any tips, tricks and incites would be greatly appreciated

Cass

Welcome to the forum.

The CZ45 in 17hmr is a cracking little rifle. Had one for a few years and loved it. Excuse some/all of the following. I'm just naming some stuff that might help.

• Zero - Make sure your rifle is perfectly zeroed. Almost there or close enough is not good enough. Don't be afraid to spend some time and ammo making sure your zero is on the nose.
• Drop/Dope chart - Learn your drops. Without adjusting the scope learn what drops occur when your fire your rifle at various distances with your preset zero. For example with a 100 yard zero fire at targets at 50, 150, 200 and if you want go further with 250 and 300 yards. Knowing these will allow you to practice hold over or adjusting your scope for longer/shorter shots.
• Scope - Seems obvious, but learn your scope. Get to know what the ranging magnification is, and pick a setting that gives you the best mag for hold over and taking those longer shots. Also play around with adjusting your scope. Does zooming in or out affect your zero. How to quickly but properly click/dial your scope.
• Trigger control/pull - Try reading about trigger control. Improper trigger pull can result in missed shots especially at longer ranges. It can cause the shot to be pulled off depending on your style and also the trigger pull weight. If necessary look into a Yo Dave trigger kit. It's a cheap and effective way to lighten your trigger and allow better shot placement.
• Breathing - Not something that can be instantly learned but over time you'll learn to control your breathing, again for those longer shots, and get better shot placement.

One important factor is know your limits. Knowing when not to take a shot is more important than anything. Too many times people overestimate the ability of the rifle or themselves and this is when the problems start.

My best advice is to follow someone that has a good deal of experience. Take from them everything you can and make sue of the stuff you can. Don't try it all at once. Take each one a step at a time and when you have it down move onto the next. This way if you are having problems you can identify what it is. IOW if you try to improve all aspects at once and something is causing you a problem you might not know which one it is.

Happy shooting.

CZ455Mad

Thanks very much Cass. Yes I find my zeroing at the start wasn't quite %110 but have spent more time at it as there is nothing more frustrating than having your scope right on at still missing a shot due to nothing but laziness from not zeroing it in correctly! One problem I do have and it's just lack of knowledge with the situation is the parallax adjustment on my scope (Nikko Stirling MountMaster 4x12x50) I don't know when I should be adjusting it and find some times that I'm doing more adjusting of the scope than I should be doing as I feel by right that once I zero it correctly I should be leaving the turrets alone and the magnification. If you have any wise words on this it would be greatly appreciated! ðŸ‘

cookimonster

I don't shoot a HMR but will throw my two cents in about use of parallax.
With out starting a sh1t storm lets say your HMR is effective up to 150yrds and your within a realistic Point Blank Range - PBR (that's basically no hold over or dialling in needed) 2 inch high and 2 inch low to target rabbits and foxs alike. Set your scope magnification between 6-8 adjust your parallax so that you can see a clear image close in and out to your max range.
Now leave your scope alone, the whole issue of parallax comes into play at higher magnification and or distance. Most scopes rated for centre fire rifles with average ranges out to 300ish yards have no parallax adjustment as they tend to have lower end max magnification. The original medium game scopes started off at 3x, latter went to 6x and now the classic is 8x. High power scopes are used for small targets either at close or long range or extreme long range targets.
6x is very effective on rabbits and fox day or night especially at realistic ranges of the HMR.

Cass

Son of a bitch.

Had a reply written out, hit the power lead, and lost it all.

In short what Cookimonster said is spot on. Get a good zero, find out the drops to the various ranges you shoot to, and then adjust to parallax for those ranges and leave it at that. You may have to adjust the mag, but most scopes within a reasonable distance won't mess up your parallax for small changes to the mag.

CZ455Mad

Thanks Cookimonster and thanks Cass will get out and see how I get on at the weekend much appreciated guys !