This isn't a question, although I appreciate feedback. I recently bought my first rifle. I'm currently shooting paper, exclusively. I was struggling with zeroing the red dot at an indoor range. I knew the bullet would follow a parabolic trajectory, but I wasn't aware how pronounced it would be in the first 50 yards.
After Googling people's opinions on the distance they zero their red dot sight on a 10/22, it seemed like everyone had a different opinion. And, no one was backing them up with data. Then I found this ballistic trajectory calculator. These graphs are just what I needed to understand where to zero and roughly where to aim.
Before I ran all the calculations for various zero's, I wanted to check the calculator's work. I googled the ballistic coefficient for my favorite ammo and filled in the rest of the values.
CCI:
Shooterscalculator.com:
The results checked out with CCI's provided values. Good. I knew I wanted to zero my red dot at 25 yards or less. When shooting >50 yards, I'll likely swap out my red dot for my scope. I created four zeroing distances on the multiple trajectory graph:
Evaluation:
I'm going to zero my red dot sight at 25 yards. The flat trajectory requires the least amount of correction for the distances I'll be shooting. There's only a little more than 1" of correction between 5 and 65 yards with this adjustment.
Looking forward to taking this to the range tomorrow. I hope my rifle's muzzle velocity isn't far off from the manufacturer's spec.
After Googling people's opinions on the distance they zero their red dot sight on a 10/22, it seemed like everyone had a different opinion. And, no one was backing them up with data. Then I found this ballistic trajectory calculator. These graphs are just what I needed to understand where to zero and roughly where to aim.
Before I ran all the calculations for various zero's, I wanted to check the calculator's work. I googled the ballistic coefficient for my favorite ammo and filled in the rest of the values.
CCI:
Shooterscalculator.com:
The results checked out with CCI's provided values. Good. I knew I wanted to zero my red dot at 25 yards or less. When shooting >50 yards, I'll likely swap out my red dot for my scope. I created four zeroing distances on the multiple trajectory graph:
Evaluation:
- 25 yards offers the flatest trajectory to ~50 yards with 3/4", 1/2", and 1/4" at 10, 15 and 20 yards, respectively.
- 20 yards doesn't offer anything I'm not getting from 25 yard zero.
- 15 yards seems reasonable for close range plinking. -1/2" at 10 yards, +1/2" at ~22 yards. This zero would probably be best for my father's eyes, if he were shooting this rifle.
- 10 yards would leave a lot of correction for close ranges. But it's very flat from 40 to 80 yards. I might choose a trajectory like this for my scope.
I'm going to zero my red dot sight at 25 yards. The flat trajectory requires the least amount of correction for the distances I'll be shooting. There's only a little more than 1" of correction between 5 and 65 yards with this adjustment.
Looking forward to taking this to the range tomorrow. I hope my rifle's muzzle velocity isn't far off from the manufacturer's spec.