I just got a CVA Hunter 450 Bushmaster. It has a 6.5x20x50 scope. What I was needing to know is what should I set my zero to? I’ve been reading a bunch of people’s opinions and I’m getting conflicting answers. Some say that point blank is 150 yrs so setting zero at 50 yrs is the way to go. I don’t understand this. I’m expecting to shoot a deer no closer then 100 yrs. So should I zero at 100? The question is if I zero at 100 and the target is closer how far up do I have to raise it?
At the risk of sounding cavalier, there are only a few things to look at to figure out what is the right zero for ‘you’.
*will you be hiding in the alder thickets, cedar swamps, pine stands, and bushes (with your bushmaster) or will you be looking across the clearing, bean patch, or power line right away?
*What is your intended quarry?
*Quarry and environment will guide ammunition selection.
*Ammunition selection will determine your ballistic curve (easy to look up)
*Ballistic curve and environment will guide your choice of zero.
Probably more important than what you pick is KNOWING what you picked. Before auto ranging, balistic adjusting scopes a lot of guys would just tape their ballistics info right inside their scope cover.
Whatever you pick, remember that it’s big, fat, and slow so it falls pretty quick past about 150.
I think that top chart shows it really nice. You have two crossings of “zero”. So a 150yd zero will give you a 50yd zero hold. Overall, you are no more than 2" off of zero out to 175yds (either above or below). Well within margins. So, that would mean hold where you want to hit out to 175yds.
Justin, I would consider that scope a very powerful one for a long range weapon. I would not put the .450 bushmaster in to that category.
For me, the optics need to match the ballistics. I have a lot of rifles in a lot of calibers. To each his own–but I have that scope on a .223 varmint gun and would use if for long range shooting. I have a .450 bushmaster I will be using for deer and hogs in WI, OH and TX–I’m running an eotech with a 3x magnifier.
Considering I’m not planning on shooting over 100 yards, I’m going to zero it for 50 yards.
To the graphs shared by Greg (nice), you could zero your rilfe to hit 2 inches high at 100 yards, and have a maximum point blank range of about 175 yards. Does that help?
Lots of good advice above. The 450 is fat and slow and drops like a rock after 175. You are WAYYY over scoped for that round unless you are trying to loft a round in at 500 plus and you will probably run out of adjustment. I shoot a 30-06 at a MILE and have a 3.2-17X on it. For critters of 2 or 4 feet 1 would very seriously consider either an Eotech for a Zero powered optic, a 1 - 6X for a variable or a straight 4X for a fixed power optic.
As to “zero range”, the first chart above should be your bread and butter setting in that the boolit passes through zero twice well inside the performance range of the round and does not climb significantly between the two. It is also nice that at 100 yards you can dial in at 2" high and be good to roughly 175 yds without holding over or under to make a clean chest hit. You could play with it a bit and get a little farther range but you will give up point and shoot accuracy in the middle. Most folks can’t stand on their hind legs and keep 5 rounds in a 2" circle at 100 yards, he!! most folks cant hit a 2" circle at all standing at 100 yards.
A bounding Bambi, A Running Rat or a Creeping Crook will teach you quickly the value of FOV (Field of Veiw) If you want to talk precision I can take you a long way down that road and we will begin with Focal Planes.
Dude, I contract with DARPA on occasion and there is stuff out there that will blow your mind. The particulate wind reader is my favorite, I made a 2K cold bore shot with winds on a 10" plate. And then did it 10 more times. Yes those things are a bit spendy as the platform I was using was north of $200K and no I/you can’t buy it.
Sorry Brah, you would have had to start 35 years ago. Very, VERY small club. The only reason I can talk about that one is that it’s on the street in multiple platforms, there is other stuff too wild to even comment on because you wouldn’t believe it. I just play end user, the geeks that build this stuff are off the chain. My job is to prove them wrong, I don’t win very often.
And a lot less cumbersome.
