What do you zero your .204 at?

[Aquazone]

My .204 has taken over the pest pest control duties from my .223...My .223 is zeroed at 200mtrs and would comfortably take foxes out to 250mtrs.
With my Tikka t3x lite in .204 being a faster, flatter shooting round, I have it zeroed on paper at 250mtrs...And take foxes out to 300mtrs.
I run Hornady 32gr superformance factory rounds and have found them very accurate.
I mainly hunt on foot with thermal. I've found an lrf in the spotting monocular a cracking ranging tool for all the calibres I run. I much prefer to go straight at the target animal and the most holdover I'll use is the furline above the shoulder. If it's windy I simply reduce my range to accommodate the wind strength...It certainly works for me!!
What are your preferences for zero and the allowances you use???

[Rick in Oregon]

Well there Aquaguy, another Aussie! Excellent.

Welcome to the forum, good to have you aboard. I see others are responding to your other posts here, so I'll just address the topic question. I shoot many small caliber CF's, the 204 among them. Virtually every scope I own is a Leupold, and as they have a most excellent Custom Shop, I send all my CF varmint rifle scopes to the factory to have the military-grade M1 Elevation Turret installed with the reticle of choice. My 'zero' for all rifles so equipped is 100 yards, then I dial to the actual range (laser RF), hold dead-on, hold for wind if necessary and shoot. It works so well in the field for my type of shooting, that sometimes it occurs to me that it seems unfair (to the target critter).

My Cooper 20 VarTarg wearing her Leupold VX3 LR 6.5-20X 40mm with the M1 elevation turret:



My "come-up" chart affixed to the ocular flip-cover on my 20VT showing corrections in MOA, which translates perfectly to the scope's graduation marks:



But we all have different requirements for our own local conditions. Half of my varmint shooting is shooting prairie dogs and ground squirrels from a rotating benchrest, with hundreds of shots a day at varying ranges. The other half of the time I'm out cruising the junipers and sagebrush fringes of irrigated alfalfa and hay farms with with a rifle and bipod for our rock chucks (Yellow Belly Marmot), native to the NW USA, and in shootable numbers that delight the farmer or rancher.

A couple of rockchucks and my Cooper M38 Phoenix 221 Fireball shooting a wicked-accurate load of the Nosler 40gr BT over RL-7.....a 1/4" load in this rifle:



The method of zero and range has been discussed here and elsewhere ad nauseum, but the method I use is about as effective as I've found in my keen interest of extreme rifle accuracy (totaling 60 yrs) coupled with shooting game and/or varmints at what we call "extended range". Every rifle I own and pick up has the same zero with it's own 'come-up' chart attached, no dinking about trying to remember hold-overs and trajectory. It was learned by me by a very experienced USMC 'shooter' some time back sharing similar interests. It works well. Very well.

So welcome to the 204um.....we're looking forward to more of your stories from OZ and of course PICS! We're quite the visually-oriented group here, so don't be shy about posting your adventures.

[Bill K]

Again Welcome to the board AZ. I was taught the same manner and principal as Rick described and it works so well and easy, I would also, suggest doing it the same. Like your photo and looking forward to more and stories of the hunts.

[skipper]

In the Marines the shortest distance we qualified at was 200 yards, off hand with an M14. Now that's with iron sights mind you. Same later on with the M16. I suppose that was what we called Zero back then. After the 200 YL we moved back to the 300 yard line for kneeling and sitting. After that it was back to the 500 yard line for prone on a Dog target. I always thought it was amazing what we were doing with those rifles that had thousands of rounds through them.

Now, I use scopes and red dot sights. All my rifles are zeroed at 100 yards and then I use similar elevation come up charts. Get a good range finder and bench log book. I like to verify each successive 100 yard increment wherever I can shoot at distances. The ole eyes just don't see as well.

Okay, rant over.

[Tom Kat]

That drop chart on the lens cap is a great idea