I've been re-zeroing a couple of our .22s. We have an event at the Carmi Rifle Club this week and one of the targets we have for new shooters is a line of lollipops at 50 feet. All of our .22s were zeroed at 25 yards, so I made the adjustments to ensure success for the participants. When you zero at 25 yards, high-velocity .22 LR lands 4 to 5 inches low at 100 yards. What I found when I zeroed at 50 feet was the 100 yard groups were falling only 2 to 3 inches low. That makes it much easier for a kid to hit a clay pigeon on the 100 yard berm. The other thing I found is that at 75 yards the group falls only 1/2" low instead of a solid inch. Zeroing at 50 feet gives you the ability to shoot with no correction to just beyond 80 yards with varmints around the compound.
5 comments:
Very interesting! I had never seen a chart done like that - be real handy in the squirrel woods!
I need to make the lines a bit heavier. It was very hard to see at 75 and 100.
if I zero my 22 at 50yrds can I hit a squirrel in the head at 50 yrds holding dead on. tha2
Dear Unknown: You can zero at 50 yards, but then your line of sight will be intersecting the bullets' arc at only one distance from the muzzle. Zeroing at 50 feet to 75 feet will give you a longer point blank range. Figure out approximately what distance you are most likely to shoot a squirrel or rabbit and zero there. It probably will be about 60 feet, as a guess. Less than that, the bullet will strike just a bit low; farther out, it will strike a bit high. Fifty yards is a long shot for a squirrel. You need to stay inside 1 1/2" on the heart/lung area for a clean kill, and most .22s are good for about a 1" group at that distance. Your shooting skill must be at the top for that shot on small game. A brain shot needs to be inside 1", so I quit trying for those and went to heart/lung shots when I was hunting squirrels. Zeroing at 50 or 60 feet will let you hit the vitals on a groundhog out to 75 yards. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
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