Firemandon

My buddy and I are novice to BP but we went out and shot today using BH209 and Hornady SST low drag 300 grain sabbots. He shoots a Traditions Pursuit and I shoot a Yukon. His was best at 110 grains while that was too hot for me so I shot at 100grains. We shot about 12 rounds through his then 8 or 10 through mine. He had a new scope and I had mine adjusted so it took us some time to get to where we want to be. For some reason I was shooting 5 inches high at 25 yds then at 100 I was about a foot high. I shot 240 grain XTP last year and not sure why the huge difference besides the fact I had to adjust the scope on the mounts. Got that corrected pretty quick. Not quite dialed in and we ran out of sabbots so my last shot was and inch high and inch right as 100 yds, but will shoot again in a week and let you guys know how that went. All in all the BH was awsome as we didnt have to swab inbetween and the cleaning was ridiculasly wasy compared to the pyrodex I was used to. Although the BH 209 has a huge kick to it. Thanks for all the advice in my last post and if you have any more please chim in. Thanks

Muley Hunter

Sounds like you had a good day. 5" high at 25yds and 12" at 100yds sounds about right for the load you used.

That would have been close to a 200yd zero.

Firemandon

Muley, didnt even think about it like that. Where do you think I should sight in at if where I hunt shots vary anywhere from 25 yds to 180 yrds?

Muley Hunter

I'd use 150 yd zero, and then check where you're at on the 180 and the shorter ranges.

cayugad

It sounds like you had a lot of fun. And you have your rifle dialed in.

oldsmellhound

Nice shooting! 5" high at 25 yards is way too high- I usually sight mine in to be dead on at 25. I'll then move to 50 yards and see where I'm at. If I'm not able to shoot at 100 yards, I usually sight in .5" - 1" high at 50 yards. With most loads, this puts me either dead on or maybe 1" high at 100 yards.

Everyone has different opinions on how to sight in for longer ranges, some will say sight in 3" high at 100 yards and just hold dead center for any shot from 0 - 170 yards or so (depending on the load).

Me personally, I like to sight it in to be dead on at about 120 yards. That way, anything relatively close, I just aim dead where I want to and know that the bullet will hit within 1" or so. If a deer is farther, say 150 or 175 yards out, I know the bullet will be hitting several inches low, so I aim for the spine. That way, even if by some fluke or range estimation error, the bullet hits where I'm aiming, it will still drop the deer. But most likely with that hold the bullet should drop into the lung or heart depending on how far it is.

Firemandon

Thanks for the info guys. My local range only allows me to shoot 100yds which sucks, so I am thinking 2 to 3 inches high at that yardage if I understand you all correctly. Also I think I want to drop from 300 grain to 250 in the same sabbot, will I still be on paper at 100 yds when I go back out or will I have to start from scratch?

Muley Hunter

The 300 gr has a better BC than the 250gr, so the 250gr might shoot lower at longer distances. Not sure about 100yds. It should be close.

Semisane

Firemandon, the Blackhorn site shows a velocity of 1925 fps with 100 grains of BH under a 240 grain XTP. The Hornady site shows a BC of 0.205 for that bullet.

Using those figures, your trajectory should look something like this if you sight in two inches high at 100 yards. As you can see, the 240 grain bullet has plenty of energy left all the way out there at 200 yards.