Saiga 308 zero

[AARguy 0]

[spitstickler 1]

Hey AARguy. First of all, thank you for your service!

 

Good graphical description of how this works. It seems to me you know what you're doing. I think it just depends on how you are going to use your rifle. If you are using the standard irons with the 100, 200, etc come ups, and you know that the cartridge you're using with be on at 25m and 200m, I would set the rear leaf at 200 and zero at 25. That way the indexing/marking on the sights should be on for 100 if you move it back down to the first notch. If you are shooting full sized silhouettes you have a good amount of leeway and should be in the black out to 300m without ever moving the sites from your 25/200m setting on rear sight. (and maybe 400m with the .308... x39 really drops off at that distance) If you want more precision, you can raise or lower the rear sight to the appropriate distance. Another way to verify, is to set the rear site at 100m and zero at that distance. Move to 200m, adjust the rear sight to 200m mark and verify zero, them move to 25m (keep the rear sight at 200). It should be close.

 

If you are running an optic and want the best precision possible, zero at what distance you plan to shoot the most and then just move back and get your come ups for each distance. Memorize them, but also write them down and keep them with your rifle. Like you said, different ammo will yield different results based on the bullet weight, ballistic coefficient, powder charge etc. You can use free ballistic tools on the web to get a rough idea of what these will be, but IMHO nothing can replace going out and shooting known distances and getting real data for your ammo in your rifle.

 

Other things like sight height, temperature, altitude, etc all come into play as well. I appreciate these other things for what they are and I don't get me wrong, I really like an accurate rifle. But I'm not a "sniper" and try to not get to mired down in the details. Having a rifle that, regardless of weather conditions, will work every time I need it and is accurate enough is far more important to me. Since I attended my first Appleseed earlier this year, I have no interest in shooting off a bench or using a tripod anymore. Consistent hits on a 20" target at 500m (4MOA) using nothing but a rifle, sling, and good body position is my goal. Your goal may be different, but just figure out what you want to be able to do, and start from there.