Sighting in a rifle

What you need

• A safe range or a backstop you know is solid
• The ammunition you will actually hunt with
• A solid rest, sandbags or a pack, front and back
• Hearing and eye protection
• Targets, a marker, and something to write the results on

How

1. Check the action is clear, then tighten the scope base and ring screws before a single shot. Loose screws move the point of impact and look like bad shooting.
2. Start close, twenty five yards, and get on paper. Fire three shots from the rest without touching the rifle between them.
3. Move the crosshair to the group, not the group to the crosshair. Turrets are marked in clicks per inch at one hundred yards, so a group two inches low at twenty five needs four times the clicks it looks like.
4. Move out to one hundred yards and fire three more. Adjust off the centre of the group, never off one shot.
5. Let the barrel cool between groups. A hot barrel walks and you will chase it all afternoon.
6. Confirm with a final three shot group and write down the zero, the load and the date.

Watch for

Notes

Shoot from the positions you actually hunt from once the zero is set. Off a rest is the easy part.