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The 26-Yard Hunting Zero

Much has been written on the ideal distance to zero a hunting rifle. There is no best sight-in range for everyone, because the range at which hunters expect to shoot their quarry differs considerably. For example, if you hunt exclusively from a ridge top that overlooks a food source that is 150 yards away, you should zero for that distance. But if you hunt various terrain that offers both short- and long-range shots, here’s a technique that’ll allow you to hold the crosshairs on the vitals of deer-sized game or larger and keep your bullet inside the vital zone out to 280 yards, give or take a few yards depending on your caliber. It’s called point-blank range, and to maximize it you should alter your sight-in range for a particular load, rather than letting your traditional sight-in distance dictate your rifle’s zero.

Point blank range defined is the range of distances at which you can hold your rifle on the bullseye and never fall in or out of your target’s kill zone. The point blank range for a deer, for example, is generally regarded as six inches. In other words, if you hold dead center on the vitals, your bullet can be 3 inches high or 3 inches low before it slips out of the vital zone. An elk’s vital zone is larger of course—we’ll say 8 inches. But I like to stay with the 6-inch rule of thumb because is allows for some shooter error, an occurrence that you’d be naive to assume doesn’t happen while in field positions shooting at wild game.

So many hunters zero their rifles at 100 yards that it’s almost become standard practice. But the following examples will illustrate why that’s not a great zero for a rifleman who wishes to be able to take shots quickly, without calculating, from point blank to nearly 300 yards.

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As an example, let’s use a very common hunting round, a .270 Win., loaded by Remington with a 130-grain Premier Accutip boattail bullet that has a .447 Ballistic Coefficient (BC). It’s got a muzzle velocity of 3,060 fps. Ballistically, it falls in line with a whole class of moderately fast calibers. The scope (line of sight) is mounted 1.5 inches over the middle of the bore. Zeroed at 100 yards, the bullet will impact .76 inches low at 25 yards (this is just fine for hunters), and will be 2.98 inches low at 203 yards. But after 203 yards it falls below the 6-inch vital zone. (That’s missing the 6-inch circle, 3 inches below the center, or point of aim.) At 250 yards, it will impact 6 inches below the point of aim, (three inches out of the vital zone.) So, with a 100-yard zero, a hunter can simply aim at a buck and expect to hit it in the vitals anywhere from 0 to 203 yards.

Other riflemen who routinely hunt areas where shots of 300 yards or more aren’t uncommon sometimes opt for a 200-yard zero. This places that same .270 bullet 0.4 inches low at 25 yards, 1.41 inches high at 100 yards, 2.51 inches low at 250 yards and finally slips below the 6 inch vital zone at 257 yards. So with a 200 yard zero, a hunter can hold dead on from 0 to 257 yards and kill the animal, assuming he does his part and fires an error-free shot. As you can see, the 200-yard zero is very effective, and if your target range will accommodate it, great. But many hunters don’t have the luxury of zeroing at 200 yards. No worry, there’s a better zero anyway.

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Using ballistic software downloaded from Remington.com, I manipulated the zero range input data until it was optimized for the greatest point-blank range. (Another great website for finding maximum point-blank range is ShootersCalculator.com.) I found that by zeroing my rifle in at 26 yards, the .270 will deliver its bullet 2.81 inches high at 100 yards, 2.80 inches high at 200 yards and 2.12 inches high at 250 yards before finally falling out of the 6-inch vital zone at 310 yards. This means that with a 26 yard zero, I can hold dead-center of a deer’s vitals and kill it cleanly from 0 to 310 yards without adjusting my hold.

Of course, this is an on-paper estimate, and until you actually shoot your rifle at those distances, you can’t be sure, but I’ve found it to be pretty close. For most rifles, a 25- to 28-yard zero (depending on the caliber’s velocity and bullet’s BC) will maximize its point blank range. My technique for shooting is to zero at 26 yards (if using the .270 noted above), then shade slightly low (an inch or two) when shooting at 100 yards, and hold slightly high at 300. This increases my margin of shooting error, while allowing me to not have to calculate or hold off the animal at 300 yards. I simply see the animal, range it and shoot—out to 310 yards. Any further than that, I can either use my scope ballistic reticle, or know my caliber’s ballistic data and hold over appropriately.

If you choose to employ this 26-yard technique, beware that when zeroing at close range, you must strive for perfection. Place a dime-sized spot on the target and do not deem your rifle “good” until the bullet actually punches that dime on a consistent basis. If you are an inch high or low, or to the left or right, you will be way off at longer range, and it defeats the whole purpose of zeroing in at such a specific range. If you can’t hit the dime at 26 yards, it indicates that your rifle (and/or you) probably isn’t accurate enough to be shooting at long range anyway, because if your rifle is grouping 1-inch at 25 yards, for example, it will likely be 4 inches off at 100 yards and well off the paper at 300. But with the technique mentioned above, you can simply aim for an animal’s vitals out to 300 yards and concentrate on a smooth trigger pull.

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The Data

.270 Win. at 100 Yards:

This graph illustrates that with a 100-yard zero, your bullet is on at 100 yards, then starts falling rapidly, and is 3 inches below the point-of-hold at approximately 200 yards.

bt 100yd The 26-Yard Hunting Zero

.270 Win. at 26 Yards:

The graph shows that your .270 Win. bullet, when zeroed at 26 yards, angles above the line-of-sight 2.81 inches at 200 yards, crosses the line of sight (zero) again at approximately 275 yards, before falling beyond 3 inches low at 310 yards. Therefore, with a 26-yard zero, you can hold on the target and expect to hit a 6-inch vital zone from 0 to 310 yards.

bt 26yd The 26-Yard Hunting Zero

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.223 Remington vs .243 Winchester Ammo Comparison – Ballistics Info & Chart Caliber Ballistics Comparison 07 Dec, 2018 Posted By: Foundry Outdoors The following ammunition cartridge ballistics information and chart can be used to approximately compare .223 Remington vs .243 Winchester ammo rounds. Please note, the following information reflects the estimated average ballistics for each caliber and does not pertain to a particular manufacturer, bullet weight, or jacketing type. As such, the following is for comparative information purposes only and should not be used to make precise predictions of the trajectory, performance, or true ballistics of any particular .223 Remington or .243 Winchester rounds for hunting, target shooting, plinking, or any other usage. The decision for which round is better for a given application should be made with complete information, and this article simply serves as a comparative guide, not the final say. For more detailed ballistics information please refer to the exact round in question or contact the manufacturer for the pertinent information. True .223 Remington and .243 Winchester ballistics information can vary widely from the displayed information, and it is important to understand that the particular characteristics of a given round can make a substantive difference in its true performance. Caliber Type Velocity (fps) Energy (ft-lb) .223 Remington Rifle 3150 1250 .243 Winchester Rifle 3180 1950 [Click Here to Shop .223 Remington Ammo] [Click Here to Shop .243 Winchester Ammo] Velocity As illustrated in the chart, .223 Remington rounds – on average – achieve a velocity of about 3150 feet per second (fps) while .243 Winchester rounds travel at a velocity of 3180 fps. To put this into perspective, a Boeing 737 commercial airliner travels at a cruising speed of 600 mph, or 880 fps. That is to say, .223 Remington bullets travel 3.6 times the speed of a 737 airplane at cruising speed, while .243 Winchester bullets travel 3.6 times that same speed. Various calibers Energy Furthermore, the muzzle energy of a .223 Remington round averages out to 1250 ft-lb, while a .243 Winchester round averages out to about 1950 ft-lb. One way to think about this is as such: a foot-pound is a unit of energy equal to the amount of energy required to raise a weight of one pound a distance of one foot. So a .223 Remington round exits the barrel with kinetic energy equal to the energy required for linear vertical displacement of 1250 pounds through a one foot distance, while a .243 Winchester round exiting the barrel has energy equal to the amount required to displace 1950 pounds over the same one foot distance. As a rule of thumb, when it comes to hunting, muzzle energy is what many hunters look at when deciding on what caliber of firearm / ammunition to select. Generally speaking, the higher the muzzle energy, the higher the stopping power. Again, the above is for comparative information purposes only, and you should consult the exact ballistics for the particular .223 Remington or .243 Winchester cartridge you’re looking at purchasing. [Buy .223 Remington Ammo] [Buy .243 Winchester Ammo] Please click the above links to take a look at all of the .223 Remington and .243 Winchester ammo we have in stock and ready to ship, and let us know any parting thoughts in the comment section below. Foundry Outdoors is your trusted home for buying archery, camping, fishing, hunting, shooting sports, and outdoor gear online. We offer cheap ammo and bulk ammo deals on the most popular ammo calibers. We have a variety of deals on Rifle Ammo, Handgun Ammo, Shotgun Ammo & Rimfire Ammo, as well as ammo for target practice, plinking, hunting, or shooting competitions. Our website lists special deals on 9mm Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 45-70 Ammo, 6.5 Creedmoor ammo, 300 Blackout Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 5.56 Ammo, Underwood Ammo, Buffalo Bore Ammo and more special deals on bulk ammo. We offer a 100% Authenticity Guarantee on all products sold on our website. Please email us if you have questions about any of our product listings. 7 Comments kenneth ellsworth – Oct 20, 2019 The 223 is not legal for hunting in many states. Such as my state of Washington requires .24 caliber/6mm minimum. Make no mistake the 223 will DRT any deer with proper shot placement and shot placement above all things takes game Joshua – May 16, 2020 what i find funny is a 22 cal. Can kill a deer on the spot but you cant hunt with them. V – Aug 15, 2020 I like that .223 is not as overbore as .243. I like that .243 has substantially more ft. lbs of energy. I guess I’ll just have to own both. As if that’s such a painstaking decision. You didn’t have to pull my arm out of it’s socket for that solution. 😂 B – Apr 03, 2021 The .243 has more terminal energy at 300 yards than the .223 does at the muzzle. Most people when they first get into guns are drawn to the AR-15 and standard .223 rounds, but later we all realize that the .223 doesn’t reliably drop deer or humans without 2 or 3 hits. The .243 is one-shot, one-kill at normal ranges and the .223 simply cannot be relied upon as such. It is underpowered on anything heavier than a coyote. Carson Mineer – Oct 19, 2021 I’m no expert .wasn’t the ,223 designed to wound not kill in theory removing three soldiers from the battlefield wayne allan – Nov 23, 2021 I read mystery novels and wondered why a sniper would use a .223 in a favorite author of mine. I target shoot a Glock 44, I enjoy the fun of getting better. My question, do you have 22lr available for sale? Please let me know, thanks Wayne Geoff Barnes – Nov 16, 2022 In Australia we don’t have any big game except for some water buffalo and crocodiles up north with the crocs being protected so they can eat humans! A .303 was used to hunt crocs back in the day. The 223 and 243 are used extensively to control kangaroos which are often in plague proportions and destroy wheat crops. Naturally the 243 hits a bit harder but the 223 is just as effective on roos. Leave a comment Comments have to be approved before showing up Your Name * Your Email * Your Comment * Post Comment