Best distance to zero a.243?
I love the.243 Winchester caliber rifle cartridge.To use it to its maximum effectiveness, you need to sight in your.243 to the best zero distance.What does that mean?
What is the best zero for.243?25 yards is the best zero distance for a.243 Winchester.At 25 yards, a 100 grain,.243 bullet will have a maximum point blank range of 296 yards and hit a high of 2.7′′.You can aim dead on target all the way to 300 yards with this 25 yard zero.
In this example, I used a 6.75′′ target size to make the math work out, because a 6′′ target changes the best zero for a.243 Winchester to 26 yards.Few of us have access to a 26 yard range.
It is never as simple as that when it comes to the.243 bullet trajectory.First, we need to define some concepts.
Sighting in a rifle is not trivial and there are some concepts that you need to understand.
Zero, what does it mean?"Zero distance" is setting your sights or scope crosshairs so that your aim is the same as your bullet's point of impact at a given distance to your target.
What is the maximum point blank range?The maximum point-blank range is the distance from the point of aim to the yard.The trajectory allowance is 6 for most North American big game, from white-tailed deer to moose.There is a website called Hunter-ed.com.
The reason we want to figure it out is that we don't need any fancy charts to kill the game.Being reasonably sure that our bullet will hit 3 inches high or low along its entire pathway out to the maximum point blank range is what we can do.
We aim at the dead center of the kill zone from 0-300 yards, and no matter how far away it is, we will hit the vital areas.
Most big games in North America have a small margin for error.
To get the most accurate bullet trajectory reading/information for a given bullet/cartridge, you must fill out a host of settings and entries.
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My uncle used a 10 inch white pie plate to see in his 7mm.He called it good when he got on the pie plate.The guy killed deer because he spotted it in methodology.
22 years as an Army officer in the Infantry left my father with some hard and rigid rules about zeroing rifles.You learn how to make a rifle accurate when your life depends on it.
Even for a.243, there are few instances when you need anything more than a 25 yard zero.
I wrote a description of how to sight in a rifle in another article.If these terms are unfamiliar to you, you can read the article and get some clarification.
A 25 yard zero for a.243 is the best zero you can have for practical hunting purposes.
The.243 doesn't travel above or bleow your line of sight by more than 3′′ with a 25 yard zero.It remains an ethical and effective deer hunting bullet at that distance.
The trajectory of the little 100 grain,.243 bullet goes beyond the distance of 300 yards.It's at about 325 yards.
If you want to kill deer-sized animals with a 100 grain.243 bullet, the farthest range is 400 yards.At that distance, you should be looking at a broadside animal that is not moving, because the energy of your 100 grain.243 bullet is down to 880 ft. lbs.
I only say that because I have seen enough deer dropped hard at between 300 and 400 yards that the theoretical limits are not matching up to their practical application.
The MBPR falls off a lot with a 50 yard zero.The point of impact is -4.0%, which is beyond the impact for a 6′′ target rule to find our MPBR.
You would only be able to aim dead on out to225 yards with a 50 yard zero on a.243.Not what we want.
What about a zero on a.243?Most rifle ranges will let you practice at this distance.
The MBPR will drop to 200 yards if you sight in your.243 for 100 yards.The point of impact is -3.3′′.A miss of a very low hit on deer-sized vital areas would result in the bullet dropping to -5.0′′.
The best place to shoot 100 grain bullets for deer is 25 yards.The maximum point blank range is around 300 yards.You can aim dead on at animals out to 300 yards and still hit important areas.
Steve has been a hunter his entire life.He relearned why he loves hunting after his daughters went hunting.He's taught them everything he learned from his father about hunting.