Sighting in a .308 at 50m

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Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Kurnal » 30 Apr 2022, 8:56 am

Heading out for a hunt soon with a new tikka .308.

Outdoor longer ranges closed here in Sydney and unlikely to open before I go. I was still in ammo testing stage when the bad weather hit so never got it fully sighted in.

Can get to a 50m indoor range.

Shots during the hunt unlikely to be more than 150m.

Question is what am I looking for at 50m to get me roughly sighted at 100m ? An inch or so low ? Can I trust it enough for the hunt ?

Thanks all.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by bigpete » 30 Apr 2022, 9:51 am

Use a trajectory calculator. I think an inch low at 50 will be a bit too low at 100
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Larry » 30 Apr 2022, 11:11 am

It will be slightly different for different ammo but for my ammo it shows at 50m it should be 0.4 inches low. this will also depend on the height of your scope above the bore in my case 1.5 inches

If you zero at 50 it will be 0.4 high at 100
Last edited by Larry on 30 Apr 2022, 11:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Peterwho » 30 Apr 2022, 11:21 am

Hi Kurnal

What ammo are you using? 135, 150, 165, 180gr? Some of the factory ammo suppliers have their own ballistic charts. What are you hunting? If pigs it will be close enough imo. Unfortunately you can’t just drop the curve down to get the exact measurement. As bigpete suggests using a ballistic calculator will get you a better answer, but some of them are a bit complex. minute of pig has a bit of room for error

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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by bladeracer » 30 Apr 2022, 11:57 am

Kurnal wrote:Heading out for a hunt soon with a new tikka .308.

Outdoor longer ranges closed here in Sydney and unlikely to open before I go. I was still in ammo testing stage when the bad weather hit so never got it fully sighted in.

Can get to a 50m indoor range.

Shots during the hunt unlikely to be more than 150m.

Question is what am I looking for at 50m to get me roughly sighted at 100m ? An inch or so low ? Can I trust it enough for the hunt ?

Thanks all.


It greatly depends on the ammo you're using, but I think virtually any "standard" factory .308 ammo zeroed at 50m will be within an inch at 100m, and less than two inches low at 150m - the really heavy 220gn loads will be about 4" low, most normal stuff will be no more two inches low. Just zero at 50m and you'll be pretty spot on at 100m and a couple inches low at 150m. This is the basic trajectory for a wide range of broadly similar cartridges at close ranges, 6.5Creedmoor, .303, 7mm-08, .30-30, etc.

I would want to fire at least one shot at 150m to confirm, but if you're chasing larger beasts like pigs, goats or deer I think you'll be near enough, if your 50m zero is spot on. Unless you're head-shooting them, in which case just keep around 100m max and you'll be fine I think.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Kurnal » 30 Apr 2022, 5:43 pm

Thanks all. Target species is deer. Will be using factory gamekings. I’ll set it slightly low at 50m. That should be fine for this trip given shots more than 100m are unlikely.

Appreciate the responses.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Oldbloke » 30 Apr 2022, 6:19 pm

I always check 50 meters. 0.5" to 1" high.

Good for most chambering out to abt 200 yards. That's assuming goat, pig or larger size animal.

If you look at a few chamberings it's abt right. 90% of my shots are under 150 yards.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by in2anity » 30 Apr 2022, 11:32 pm

50m zero should be still on the upward, so it’ll print 1/2” high at 100m. My suggestion zero it at 50m then come down 1/2moa aka two clicks.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by straightshooter » 01 May 2022, 7:33 am

Sighting in at 50 meters will give a fairly reliable wind zero but even slight errors in correct elevation will be greatly magnified at longer ranges.
If one was looking for a sensible big game hunting zero of about 250 meters then shots printing at about +1 1/4 inches at 50 meters would get you somewhere near to what is wanted.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Blr243 » 01 May 2022, 11:42 am

I regularly google ballistic calculator or shooters calculator .. free online quick easy no messing around
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by bigpete » 01 May 2022, 12:53 pm

Screenshot_20220501-122217_Samsung Internet.jpg
Screenshot_20220501-122217_Samsung Internet.jpg (67.59 KiB) Viewed 7494 times


There you go.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Larry » 01 May 2022, 1:10 pm

bigpete wrote:
Screenshot_20220501-122217_Samsung Internet.jpg


There you go.


Very close to my calcs but yours show a zero at the muzzle. However if you set the zero to 50 yrds the +0.42 will be at 100 yrds meaning it is slightly high.

For the close range shooting you are going to be doing I think this slight offset will be negligible but if you want to make an adjustment to zero it at 100 then the 2 clicks down should give you a very close 100 yrd zero.
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by bigpete » 01 May 2022, 2:07 pm

Larry wrote:
bigpete wrote:
Screenshot_20220501-122217_Samsung Internet.jpg


There you go.


Very close to my calcs but yours show a zero at the muzzle. However if you set the zero to 50 yrds the +0.42 will be at 100 yrds meaning it is slightly high.

For the close range shooting you are going to be doing I think this slight offset will be negligible but if you want to make an adjustment to zero it at 100 then the 2 clicks down should give you a very close 100 yrd zero.


No it doesn't. Its zeroed at 150yd ( I couldn't be stuffed changing to metres and its close enough anyway )
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Kurnal » 02 May 2022, 8:26 am

Thanks everyone
CZ 455 .22LR Vixen 4-16 x 44
Ligthgow LA102 .223 Optika5 3-15 x 44
Tikka T3x Lite Stainless .308 Leupold Vx3i 4.5-14 x 40
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by Kurnal » 04 May 2022, 7:23 am

FYI, played around with ballistics calculators, and with the 165g gamekings it came out very close to zero @ 50m is basically zero at 150m. That's close enough for me for this trip !
CZ 455 .22LR Vixen 4-16 x 44
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by bigpete » 04 May 2022, 7:45 am

Kurnal wrote:FYI, played around with ballistics calculators, and with the 165g gamekings it came out very close to zero @ 50m is basically zero at 150m. That's close enough for me for this trip !

Excellent
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Re: Sighting in a .308 at 50m

Post by bladeracer » 04 May 2022, 8:59 am

Kurnal wrote:FYI, played around with ballistics calculators, and with the 165g gamekings it came out very close to zero @ 50m is basically zero at 150m. That's close enough for me for this trip !


It'll be zeroed at 50m and 100m, but at 150m it'll be between 30mm and 60mm low depending on your barrel length. If your scope is mounted 65mm high like an AR it'll be zeroed at 50m and 150m and about 30mm high at 100m.
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