I hit my personal best yesterday. Zeroed my uncle's Browning BAR LongTrac in 30-06 with Remington Core-Lockts in 150gr. The scope is a Vortex Crossfire II 6-18x44mm. On his birthday, we replaced the Leupold base/ring with a Warne one piece mount and Vortex Viper rings. He had problems with the leupy base twice in the past...got to shooting @ 25yd and it actually hit paper (yes!). Low and to the left. Adjusted for windage, a little better but still low. Tried to adjust elevation, but scope was topped out. Had this problem on the old base/rings, so I just turned it down like 3 or 4 turns and then started adjusting up...in the bull by shot 6. The rest of the 12 were @ 100yd and very easy, for a round count of 18.

My question: is this a good/ideal number of bullets to zero with or high or low? I've had to shoot guns up to 60rd to get them zeroed, even letting barrels cool, so that took much less time than those. And did I do right by bringing the topped-out elevation down and then adjusting? And what's your shortest zero, without laser or conventional boresighting (we just mounted it and things worked out lol, and being a Semi I couldn't do the barrel/scope thing)?

If you have an accurate gun with a scope that tracks (one click is exactly what it should be), you can zero in 2 rounds.

If the gin was shooting low, and the scopes elevation was maxed out, how would turning the elevation turret down allow you to turn it up to the ZERO?

That doesn't compute in my head. I have been drinking so I may be fuzzy.

[Tried to adjust elevation, but scope was topped out. Had this problem on the old base/rings, so I just turned it down like 3 or 4 turns and then started adjusting up...in the bull by shot 6. The rest of the 12 were @ 100yd and very easy, for a round ]

This doesn't make sense

Ideally 2 shots. Rock solid mount & bore sighted. Fire 1st shot. Move crosshairs of scope to POI. Adjust gun to now be on bull. Fire 1 more & you should be done.
Not boresighted, start @ 25. Then move to 100. It should take <5 shots.

18 is high. I'm not the greatest, but I have no idea why it would ever take 3 boxes to zero. I can get pretty close with two, usually, then fine tune with a few more from there. Long before I reach 60 rounds I will have decided that the rifle does not like the ammo and try something else.

Good job, you are are doing well young man.

I would be saying bad words if it took me more than 4 shots to zero a rifle. Normal is 3 shots but I get lots of practice at sighting in rifles. Did two AR's this weekend two shots for one and three shots on the other.

You are doing well with that. With time and more experience you will get there in fewer rounds but have seen lots of people burn through boxes of ammo and not get their rifle what I consider zeroed.

Fewest I have ever used was one shot, shot 2 more to confirm. That was just luck for me.

I usually go through a box (20) because I like to shoot groups while sighting in. I usually shoot with a bipod and my jacket under the rear of the rifle lol

The accuracy of any rifle can be verified in a shot two from the bench. Determining the accuracy of the shooter without the conveniences of the bench is a different matter.

Sounds like a lot of shots to me

I have always shot at least a first round of 3 shots. Then adjust. You can fire solos after the three until you have walked it to the bullseye. Then I move to a clean target and fire three more to verify. One shot can have a pull to it and you are going to adjust out of whack. But a tight group of three, that is proof positive the gun is putting them where the scope it pointing.

I think you did pretty well for putting a new scope on and not being able to bore sight it !

My uncle was insistent on shooting 2 shots before adjusting. So it could have been done with much less work. Like I re-zeroed my 22-250 from 100-200yd zero back in January and that only took 3 or 4 shots and then the rest was for fun. But that was different because it wasn't a problematic scope deal, like this Browning.

Yeah, I wanted to get it laser boresighted, but nobody I know has one and I'll volunteer to go to Hell before I go to Academy or Bass Pro to get them to do it. Couldn't do traditionally because not a bolt action. The range that we went to used to boresight but for some reason they stopped.

I think I would spend $20 on a laser bore sight tool if it ever took me 60 rounds to zero.

Yeah so the issue with those rifles were that they were Academy/BPS bought, mounted, and boresighted. Not one rifle held zero past 25 yards until we had shot them enough times to scare everything within a 2 mile radius.

I plan for 4 rounds for sighting in and zeroing when testing a customers' rifle. It normally takes me 1-2 rounds to get it within an inch or two of bullseye at 100 yards. After that, I'll be shooting for groups with the various test rounds at 200 yards, and will fine tune the zero after each group.

How many shots it takes you depends on your ability to make an accurate shot and dial in the correct amount of adjustment. I've seen shooters not be able to shoot and/or dial the scope correctly. And then they not even be able to get zero'd with nearly 2 boxes of ammo. Years ago I saw a guy struggling at 100 yards with a 30-06 bolt gun. His target looked like Swiss cheese and that gun was beating him up. He had 3 or 4 rounds left, and I asked him if he needed help and said yes. I told him all I needed was 1 round to zero it, and he said no way. I pulled the bolt and bore sighted the rifle in. I sent 1 round on my clean paper at 100 yards. It was close to zero from my bore sight, and I made a slight adjustment to his scope, and told him he was good. He then shot an open group, but it was decently centered around the bull. He didn't believe I could do it in 1 shot. It's not that hard really, once you know how to bore sight and how much to correct for using your reticle.

^^The key there is to have a scope that moves POI as much as you tell it to. Also need a decent shooting rifle, and ammo.
Many of us have several excellent shooting rifles, with hand loads. That's why we have more rifles than scopes, it's only a couple of rounds once a scope has been relocated onto the rifle in question.

On a properly outfitted bolt gun it typically takes me 1 shot to get on paper @ 100. Then 1 shot to match POA and POI. Then 1-2 shots for small adjustments.

Throw in loose scope rings, loose base, incorrect torque, stock issues, trigger issues, crap ammo and it's anyone's guess. Since I don't own any boresighting tools, it takes me a few more rounds on a gun that I can't see down the bore (e.g. lever guns, Ruger Mini)

Hmmm... I am the opposite I seem to always have a few extra scopes around just in case a gun needs buying I am ready.

I will say that last one took me a bit more than it should have. I needed to move it about 2 inches and since a mil is about an inch I need to move 2 mils. Than I couldn't see the impact



That one hurt a bit when I figured out my mistake

^^So much wrong there^^

Isn't 1 Mil at 100 yds is 3.6 inches

Hence why I couldn't see it on the paper...