Dont use a black marker on your post. My sights on my bow were cheap. They could be replaced fairly cheap

Here's what helped me...I went to a 6 o'clock hold...I used to have my flintlock sighted in dead on and held to the center of the target, doesn't work for me any more...I'm 52, have terrible vision and had my retna detach about 6 years ago, which had to be repaired by laser surgery, so my right eye isn't as sharp as my left one...

Might try sighting in your guns higher and try the 6 o'clock hold...I don't have fiber optics, I have the traditional silver front sight...I also opened up the rear notch with a file, as it's a little fuzzy and was hiding the front blade...

I read somewhere that MOA with iron sights the bull should be 6" @ 100 yds, 12" @ 200 and 18" @ 300. I think I have it on my home computer. I'll check this evening.

If so, then maybe your problem is just that the bull is too damm small????

It's more than just the type of sight, it also involves the "sight radius" - the distance between the sights. A short barreled gun with a shorter sight radiusis just that muchharderto shootas accurately atlonger distances.
Thelength of the barrels on hunting guns are a tradeoff between being light &handy and being toolong, heavy andunwieldy.A target gunwill usually alwayshave a longer sighting radius than a sporter/hunting rifle. A shorter sighting radius offers quicker target aquisition but is less forgivingwhen it comes tolong range sightingaccuracy.

Some of the precision targetshootersadda barrel extensionthat's like a false muzzleto increase their sighting radius and their sighting accuracy,plus their barrels areusuallylonger than a sporter barrel is to begin with.

I've usually heard that it's the front sight that should be kept in focus with open type sights, and to basically concentrate on keeping that steady while squeezing the trigger.

12" dot at 200 yards? Holy crap! I always thought my 3" dot looks a bit small out there

Firstly I'd like say sorry to who ever the author of this piece is. I don't have the link from whence it originally came. If anyone recognizes it please post the corresponding link. Thank you.

This is a long read but interesting.





I don't think the "six o'clock" hold system is widely understood, and I don't believe most instructors explain it adequately. If it is properly explained and understood, I think the average shooter will understand how to use it effectively.

First of all, the reason for the six o'clock hold is simply that it is easier to precisely locate a front sight TANGENT to a circle than it is to locate it in the center of that same circle, when the front sight must necessarily obliterate one-half (exactly one half?) of the circle. "Setting" the bullseye exactly on top of the front post, or tangent to it, can be done fairly precisely. Setting the front sight exactly in the center of that same bullseye is not as precise, because you are not dealing with a precise line, but with an estimation of where the center is. But you can't see all of the bullseye when trying for a center hold, so that is less precise.

So, for target shooting purposes, the six o'clock hold is more precise. What about hunting?

In order to evaluate the use of the six o'clock hold for hunting purposes, we have to analyze exactly where the point of impact is relative to that front sight. But don't worry -- the beginning shooter has to do this only once, not for every shot! You have probably noticed that bullseyes vary in size, depending on the range at which they are to be used. A 50 yard (rifle) bullseye is 3" in diameter; a 100 yard bullseye is 6" in diameter; a 200 yard bullseye is 12" in diameter, and so forth. In short, each of these standard bullseyes subtends an angle of six minutes of angle, or the equivalent of six inches at 100 yards.

Let's relate that six inch bullseye to the front sight. Eye positions vary, and barrel lengths vary. However, you will generally find that front sights (at least on military rifles and on commercial equivalents) will be of a width that they will also subtend six minutes of angle. Therefore, the front sight post will "look like" it is the same width as the bullseye at whatever range we are shooting at.

Where is the point of impact when we are using a six o'clock hold? Every beginning shooter using iron sights should be very confident of that point of impact, and shouldn't have to think about it. Simply stated, "The point of impact is one-half the width of the front sight above the front sight." Here's how to teach a new shooter how to visualize the point of impact:

(1) Sight at the target, which may be a bullseye target, a tin can, a deer, a prairie dog, or any other object.

(2) While sighting on that target, visualize a circle the same DIAMETER as the WIDTH of the front sight. That's easy in bullseye shooting, because that is what the bullseye is.

(3) Become familiar with that circle, real (with a bullseye target) or imaginary (with a tin can, a deer, whatever) on the target.

(4) Once familiar with that circle, real or imagined, your point of impact is the center of that circle.

Thus, at 100 yards, your front sight subtends about 6" in width. The circle is the same diameter, or 6". The center of the circle is 3" above the top of the front sight post.

With a little practice, an iron sight shooter can visualize the point of impact at ANY range within his point blank range. Remember, he always has a reference sticking out there -- his front sight!

So, "The point of impact is one-half the width of the front sight above the front sight." SQUEEZE!

Target's 200 yards away? 250 yards away? Doesn't matter. Point of impact is one half- the width of the front sight (it's still sticking out there where you can see it) above the front sight. Built-in automatic range finder.

Most beginning shooters can't hold well enough to hit anything beyone the range of their iron sights, once they learn how to use the iron sights. So, I agree with the Hunting Safety Instructor.


GunLaw
Ask Several Shooters That You Know . . .

My earlier post was intended mostly as a brief explanation of the six o’clock hold and why I believe it is a very effective hold with iron sights. From some of the posts prior to mine, and also some that followed my first post, I believe there is some confusion about the six o’clock hold. For those of you who are interested, possibly for those who have an opportunity to teach rifle marksmanship to Boy Scouts, soldiers, hunters, or others, bear with me for a few more minutes.

There is a very common misconception about the six o’clock hold, and that misconception causes some shooters to believe that the hold doesn’t make sense, or defies the laws of trigonometry. Let’s look at that.

Give a blank sheet of 8-1/2" X 11" typing paper (no lines) and a pencil to a shooter that you know. Ask him to draw a sight picture, AS HE UNDERSTANDS IT, with a bullseye, a post front sight, and his choice of a peep (aperture) rear sight (rifle) or a standard notch rear sight, as would be found on a handgun. DON’T GIVE HIM ANY HELP; DON’T WATCH HIM DO THIS; DON’T ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS! Just tell him to draw the sight picture, then give the paper back to you. Repeat this with as many other victims – err, friends – as you can get to help. DON’T let any of them know what the others have drawn, or even that you have asked anyone else to draw the sight picture.

What’s this all about? We all know what a sight picture with a six o’clock hold is, don’t we?

Well, no.

I believe that all of us will agree that we will have a post front sight. If the shooter is drawing sights with notch rear sights, we will have the rear sight drawn with the top of the rear sight level with the top of the front post. There will be even spacing, or the same amount of “daylight”, on both sides of the front post. With aperture rear sights, we don’t even have to worry about that. And, finally, the bullseye will be drawn on top of the front post, just barely touching the post. That’s all there is to it, right?

Well, no.

The most important thing that has not been stated so far is the size of the bullseye. More exactly, the size of the bullseye IN RELATION TO THE SIZE OF THE FRONT POST. Most shooters that I ask to draw the sight picture (before they go through my class) will draw a bullseye about five or six inches in diameter, and a front post about one inch or less in width. In other words, a relationship of five or six to one.

If that is your conception of a six o’clock hold, I can see why you wouldn’t be confident in using such a sight picture! It looks (and is) so imprecise that it is hopeless. Assuming that the standard front post sight subtends an angle of six minutes, a bullseye five or six times that size would be 15" to 18" in diameter at 50 yards. In order to use a six o’clock hold on that “bullseye”, you would have to have a point of impact 7-1/2" to 9" above the top edge of the front sight. And what if the bullseye is either smaller or larger? You would have to sight in the rifle for each different sized bullseye, and for each different range. Totally unworkable!

Even worse, consider a bullseye at 100 yards. If that bullseye subtends an angle five or six times the size (width) of the front sight, it will be 30" to 36" in diameter. The point of impact will need to be from 15" to 18" above the top of the rear post! Gads!

But that is not what a six o’clock hold really is!

A proper six o’clock hold places the point of impact "one-half the width of the front sight above the front sight." (See my previous post for an explanation of that.) In order to do that, the DIAMETER of the bullseye should be approximately equal to the WIDTH of the front sight post. Standard bullseyes used in rifle shooting are that size!

When we get into field shooting or hunting, we don’t have a nice, neat, bullseye to aim at. I haven’t been able to get the elk to stand still while I painted a bullseye on his side! So, if we don’t have a bullseye painted on the side of our deer or elk, we have to use the next best thing: a bullseye VISUALIZED on the target. How big is that bullseye that we are going to visualize? Easy! It is the same diameter as the apparent width of the front sight! We put that imaginary circle right in the middle of the vital area of our target, and SQUEEZE!

Don’t worry about range, within reason. If the target is within our point blank range, we visualize the bullseye on the target, the same size as the width of our front sight post. THE FARTHER AWAY THE TARGET IS, THE LARGER THE VISUALIZED CIRCLE IS, as that visualized circle is the same size as the front sight width. If our deer is 100 yards away, our visualized circle is 6" in diameter. Shoot to the middle of the circle by using a six o’clock hold. If the deer is farther away, still shoot to the middle of the visualized circle, the same diameter as the width of the front sight post, using the six o’clock hold. If that deer happened to be 200 yards away, our front sight would cover an area 1 foot in width, and our visualized circle would be 1 foot in diameter. We would have placed that circle directly on the middle of the vital area. With the six o’clock hold, our point of impact would be exactly in the middle of that visualized circle. Venison!

Note that this procedure works regardless of the range, and most importantly, EVEN IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE RANGE. Your automatic rangefinder is the front sight post, already sticking out there in front of you! Visualize a circle the same diameter as the width of the front sight post, six o’clock hold, and squeeze! Am I repeating myself?

Now, you are probably thinking, “Why should I bother visualizing a circle on the target when I could just adjust my sights to hit at the top of the front post and be done with it?”

Excellent question, and I believe there is an important answer. If I haven’t bored the Hell out of everyone, I’ll take that up in the next post.

Let me know if that is of interest. It is something that I have taught before, but I haven’t tried to write before.

GunLaw
Visualizing Bull’s-eyes and Shooting in Three Dimensions

Lots of shooters are excellent target shooters on the range. Yet, those same shooters can’t hit a real life target in the field. Or, worse yet, they hit and wound a lot of deer but don’t often get a clean kill, even though their marksmanship looks great on paper. There are several reasons for that problem, and the problem can usually be cured if the shooter properly identifies the cause of his problem.

One major problem in transitioning from the range to the field is that the shooter on the target range is used to shooting in “two dimensions.” A shot through the 10 ring is a good hit.

In the field, a hit through the 10 ring might not do the job, depending on other factors. Most important is, where was the 10 ring?

That is where we get into three dimensions! Let’s imagine for the moment that our expert target shooter goes deer hunting, and he has studied all of the anatomy charts and knows exactly where the vital area of his target is. He has even shot at full-size deer targets, and can place the great majority of his shots on the vital area marked on the target, even though the markings are not visible from the shooting position. IF our hunter is lucky enough to go into the field and find a deer standing within range, in the classic broadside pose, he is going to get his deer!

But what if the deer is not standing broadside? What if the deer is quartering away from him, or toward him? Uh oh!

To understand the problem, let’s imagine that the deer is quartering away from the shooter. That is, instead of being broadside, the deer is facing away from the shooter about 45 degrees. Not a hind end shot, which he probably shouldn’t take at all, but with its head away, its rear end toward the shooter, but one side of the deer also visible. Now, suppose our shooter takes his usual aiming point, just like he has practiced on his life-size deer targets. He puts his aiming point exactly where he has trained, and squeezes off a perfect shot. Instead of dropping in its tracks, the deer bounds off into the woods, and keeps going. The hunter and his hunting buddies track it for several hours, and hopefully finally find the deer piled up dead.

What happened? On examining the deer, the hunter finds that the bullet entered exactly where he was aiming, and exactly where the scoring rings on his life-size deer target said he should hit. But since the deer was quartering away from him, the bullet traveled forward in the deer, missing the heart and lungs, and exiting just forward of the off-side shoulder. Probably a fatal wound, but not an immediately fatal wound. The worse thing we can do, as hunters.

We would have the same problem if the deer is quartering towards the shooter. In that case, the bullet would enter just where it was aimed, but travel back into the paunch of the deer. Also fatal, and maybe a bit sooner. Still, a very painful wound, and one we try to avoid.

What has happened is that our hunter failed to visualize his target bullseye in three dimensions.

When I started hunting deer, I was taught to visualize the vital area of a deer as a basketball (we have BIG deer around here). That basketball is in the actual area of the real vital area of the deer, namely, the heart and lungs. However, unlike a bullseye, it is three dimensional. The point of aim is the center of that imaginary basketball, REGARDLESS OF THE PATH OUR BULLET HAS TO TAKE TO GET THERE!

If our deer is quartering away from us, we visualize the target area in the center of the chest cavity, and aim for that, even if the bullet must enter way back amidships, even in the center of the deer (from front to back) in order to course forward to the vital area. If the deer is quartering towards us, the bullet may enter in front of the near-side shoulder in order to course back into the vital area.

What does this have to do with bullseyes and six o’clock holds? Well, now we are there!

We have talked earlier about visualizing a “bullseye” on the target, with the same diameter as the apparent width of the front sight post. Now, we are going to change that slightly. Instead of visualizing a bullseye, a two dimensional object, we are going to visualize a ball, a three dimensional object.

Our visualized ball may not be a basketball, even if we are aiming at a deer with a vital area that large. Instead, our visualized ball will be a ball with the same diameter as the apparent width of the front sight post, but located in the center of the vital area of the deer.

That’s right. Our visualized target area, or ball, may be smaller than the actual vital area of the target. As long as it is visualized in the right place, it can’t be too small!

Remember the line Mel Gibson’s character in the movie Patriots delivered to his two sons when he was giving them final instructions in fighting the British, “Aim small, miss small.”

You should never aim “at a deer.” You should aim “at an exact spot on the deer.’ And where is that exact spot? It is the center of the imaginary ball (remember, we are up to three dimensions now) that is the same diameter as the apparent width of your front sight post, but positioned in the center of your deer’s actual vital area.

And use a six o’clock hold. That hold is based on a visualized object, either two or three dimensions, with a diameter the same as the width of your front sight post. Your normal sighting and sight adjustment will then deliver your bullet to the center of that vital area. Regardless of the range. Even if you don’t know the exact range. Your front sight post has just become a rangefinder!

Of course, this procedure only works if your target is within range. What is “within range”? Well, our rangefinder can tell us that!

A standard front sight subtends six minutes of angle, or a 6" circle at 100 yards. It subtends 12" at 200 yards. That expands to 18" at 300 yards.

A good shooter can keep all of his shots within a 6" circle at 100 yards. Extrapolated, that same shooter can keep his shots within a 12" circle at 200 yards, and an 18" circle at 300 yards. Now, before you complain that you can shoot a Hell of a lot better than that, remember that I am talking about field shooting under field conditions. That shooting will probably be off-hand, or at best with an improvised rest. It will be under time pressure. Six minute shooting is pretty good under those conditions. If you can shoot better, great! If you can’t keep within six minutes under field conditions, get more practice!

All this talk about field accuracy has to do with our “rangefinder.” Let’s imagine that our hunter is aiming for a small Louisiana whitetail. That deer might have a vital area only 9" in diameter. If our shooter is within 100 yards, he will visualize his aiming circle (or ball) as being 6" in diameter, the same as the apparent width of his front sight post. Put that aiming circle in the middle of the vital area, and squeeze.

But suppose that same deer was 200 yards away. Again, the hunter visualizes his aiming area as being the same diameter as the width of the front sight post. Now, however, that aiming area covers 12" in diameter out there where the deer is, at 200 yards. That is larger than the effective area of the vitals of his intended target. Based on average shooter accuracy and humane standards, his probable hit area (within his visualized aiming circle) is LARGER than the vital area of the deer.

HE SHOULDN’T TAKE THAT SHOT. Even a good shooter doesn’t have a reasonable probability of a humane kill at that range. Stalk closer, or look for another deer.

Note that this rangefinder aspect of the shooting technique is independent of the actual range, or even knowledge of the range. It is simply a question of whether the vital area of the target is the same size or larger than the visualized bullseye. If so, shoot. If the vital area is smaller than the visualized target circle, and thus the expected actual impact area,. the target is too far away. Don’t shoot.

All this with iron sights and the six o’clock hold?

Yes. That is why the shooting technique has survived so long and is so well respected by those trained in its use.

Now, if you are a firearms instructor, your students don’t have to know all of the rationale that I have tried to explain here. They only have to know how to visualize their “bullseye”, how to hold, and when to trust their built-in rangefinder that a shot is too long.

Any more is good, but I believe that much is enough to convince most shooters using iron sights that the six o’clock hold has much to recommend it.

Let us know what you think!

I realize that this is Rimfire Central. Most rimfire shooting will be at substantially smaller targets. Not to worry! The six o’clock hold scales down perfectly to work with small game. Even better, in fact!

If anyone is interested, I will talk about shooting that squirrel in the eye in another post!


GunLaw
Using The Six O'Clock Hold For Hunting

Fortunately, I took a break for some work after that last post on this forum. When I came back, I read my earlier posts over again, and I realized that some points were vague, and others were misleading. I would like to take another stab at clearing up several points and setting out some simple rules for hunting with iron sights. Because distances and measurements are so different with high power rifles and rimfire rifles, I will address them separately.

Huntng Big Game Using High Power Rifles With Iron Sights

I hope I have covered in the earlier posts the vocabulary that will be used here. Also, the trajectory of a bullet should be understood by anyone who has waded through the earlier posts. Still, there are several assumptions that go into these simple rules for hunting big game using a high power rifle with iron sights. To avoid confusion, I will spell those out:

Assumptions

1. Most deer size game will be taken at ranges of 150 yards or less. At least 90% of deer taken will be taken at ranges of less than 200 yards.

2. Most hunters cannot estimate range with any precision. They may be able to tell you whether they believe a deer is within 100 yards, within 200 yards, or within 300 yards. Those estimates will usually be correct within 25% to 50%. More than that, we can’t count on.

3. Most hunters will not be able to shoot better than a six minute of angle group using iron sights under field conditions. That translates to a 6" circle at 100 yards, a 12" circle at 200 yards, and an 18" circle at 300 yards.

4. The vital area of deer, and most other big game, will be less than 18" in diameter – usually substantially less.

5. The average beginning hunter should be expected to have enough interest in the shooting sports to comprehend the trajectory of his bullet, the limits of his own shooting skill, and his point blank range with his rifle and ammo combination.

6. The iron sights supplied on most factory rifles cannot be adjusted easily in the field without tools, and may not have repeatable settings. Therefore, no sight adjustments will be called for in the field. The sights will be adjusted before you go hunting, and not changed unless you suspect problems.

With those assumptions, let’s set out:

The Rules For Hunting Big Game Using High Power Rifles With Iron Sights

1. Sight your rifle in at 100 yards. Use a bench rest, prone position, or other stable shooting position. Use a standard 100 yard rifle target, which is a 6" bullseye. Use a six o’clock hold (described earlier). Adjust the sights so that the center of your group is in the center of the bullseye at 100 yards.

2. Go hunting!

3. If you spot an animal that you want to take, make a quick estimate of whether that animal is within 200 yards. Whether the animal is within 300 yards?

4. If you judge that the animal is within 200 yards or less, sight your rifle on the animal. Visualize a three-dimensional “ball” where the center of the vital area is, regardless of the angle of the animal. Always visualize a 6" ball, the same size as the bullseye you sighted in on. “Aim Small, Miss Small.” Use a six o’clock hold Squeeze off your shot.

5. If you judge that the animal is more than 200 yards away or may be more than 200 yards away, use a center hold. You still visualize the 6" ball or bullseye located where the center of the animal’s vital area is, but this time, you put the line of sight defined by the top of the front sight post in the center of that visualized area.

6. If you judge that the animal is more than 300 yards away, it is beyond your point blank range. It is also beyond the limits of your skill as a marksman, if your typical groups under field conditions is greater than six minutes of angle. Pass up that shot. Find another deer, or stalk closer.

7. If you can shoot accurately enough under field conditions to be certain of a hit at longer ranges, you can estimate range accurately enough to place your bullets properly, and you know the trajectory of your bullet beyond the point blank range well enough to calculate a sure hit, take the shot. But then, such a shooter is an expert rifleman, and doesn’t need my advice!

.

(End Of Rules)
.

There, that’s not so difficult, is it?

The instructor who is giving these simple rules to his students should be conversant with the following points:

1. When we tell a shooter to sight his rifle in at 100 yards on a 6" bullseye using a six o’clock hold, we are really adjusting his point of impact 3" high at that range. That gives him the maximum point blank range.

2. The shooter could really take a center hold at any range less than point blank range and be reasonably sure of a good hit.

3. Telling the shooter to take a six o’clock hold on an imaginary bullseye 6" in diameter at any range less than 200 yards is partially a ploy to get him to visualize the vital area as a three-dimensional area. This keeps him from taking a “skin shot”, a shot at some designated point on the skin of the animal, and gets him to concentrate on the three-dimensional vital area and where he has to hit if his shot is something other than a broadside shot.

4. If the shooter isn’t sure of his range, but thinks it might be over 200 yards, the center hold will take advantage of the full point blank range of his rifle/ammo. That hold COULD BE used at shorter ranges (remember that it is only 3 minutes of angle from the six o’clock hold), but we lose a bit of precision at the shorter ranges.


GunLaw
Point Blank Range

The choice of a sight picture (center hold or six o’clock hold) using iron sights is influenced by the desired point blank range.

Most shooters don’t seem to understand the meaning of “Point Blank Range.” It’s not with the muzzle of your gun up against the target or game. It has a very specific meaning.

Point Blank Range is the distance to which a shooter can hold his sights right on his desired point of impact and be assured of a hit within a defined “vital area.”

In order to discuss point blank range, we need a few other terms.

From working sight-in at the local gun club rifle range for several years, I have learned that most beginning rifle shooters, and many hunters, don’t understand the trajectory of a bullet.

“Line of Sight” is the line along which the shooter is sighting when he sights and fires his rifle at a target. This is not quite the same as the path of the bullet. The bullet will start out from the center of the barrel, and that line is somewhat below the line of sight. Exactly how much depends on the gun and the sights, as well as the base and rings of a scope, if used.

“Sight Height”

Here is a general set of distances between the center line of the bore and the point where the line of sight passes over the muzzle:

1.5 inches for rifles or handguns with scopes.

0.75 inch for rifles with iron sights.

0.8 inches for handguns with iron sights.

1.0 inch for silhouette type handguns.

Some guns will have substantially different sight heights. I have a .22 Long Rifle target rifle which has a sight height 2.0 inches above the bore, because of the large scope used. AR15 type rifles have even larger sight heights. If your gun is a fairly standard rifle or handgun, you can use the general measurements above. If you want to be precise, measure the actual sight height of your gun.

The bullet starts out BELOW the line of sight. It then rises in an arc, passing through the line of sight (“on the way up”, as we refer to it) a short distance in front of the muzzle. Most hunters use scope sights, and those using standard high power rifle cartridges and scope sights should start their sight-in to have the point of actual impact of the bullet exactly on the line of sight at 25 yards. That bullet will continue to rise (above the line of sight), generally putting it about three to three and one half inches above the line of sight at 100 yards. Once the shooter has his point of impact exactly on his sighting point at 25 yards, he is ready to move his target to 100 yards. He should then make any desired corrections at 100 yards, before shooting at longer ranges to confirm his zero and point blank range.

A shooter using a magnum cartridge should begin with his first target at 35 yards. Since the magnums have a flatter trajectory than standard high power cartridges, we want the bullet to cross the line of sight a little further from the muzzle, so that the point of impact won’t be too high at 100 yards.

Many beginning shooters will quarrel with the idea that we want their bullet to hit about 3 inches above the line of sight at 100 yards. “I want it to hit right on!”, they argue. We have to explain the trajectory to them, and demonstrate that, if the bullet hits “right on” at 100 yards, it may be well below the vital area of a deer at 250 yards. On the other hand, a rifle zeroed at 250 yards will still place its bullet within the vital area at 100 yards.

Here’s how that works:

Let’s use the same bullet, a .30 caliber Speer Soft Point (.308" diameter) at 2,927 fps muzzle velocity. I just picked this arbitrarily from my stack of chronograph data.

First, we will zero the rifle at 100 yards, which is what our beginning shooter wants to do. At 200 yards, his bullet will be about 3.51" below the line of sight. Probably still good enough to get a deer. But, at 250 yards, his bullet will strike about 7.53" below the line of sight. Probably a miss. At 300 yards, his bullet will strike about 13.30 inches below the line of sight. Definitely a miss.

Now, let’s change his zero to 250 yards. At 100 yards, his bullet will strike about 3.01" above the line of sight. That should be good enough. After all, it is within the 3 minute of angle variation that we expect a shooter to have under field conditions. 3 minutes above and 3 minutes below line of sight at 100 yards is still a 6 inch circle, which is fairly good shooting under field conditions.

The difference comes at longer ranges. With the 250 yard zero, the bullet will be about 2.51" high at 200 yards. That’s venison. At 250 yards, the point of impact is right on, since that is the range at which we are sighted in. This 250 yard range is the “sight in range” in our example, and is the point at which the bullet crosses the line for sight for the second time, “on the way down.” Even at 300 yards, the bullet is only about 4.26" below the line of sight. That is probably close enough to get his deer, if it is a reasonably sized deer.

In the first example, with the rifle sighted in at 100 yards, the rifle will have a maximum range at which it can hit the vital area of a deer, without holding over, limited to about 215 yards. Here’s how I figure that: For the sake of sighting in my rifle for deer, I want to be able to hit within an 8" circle without guessing about the range. That 8" circle means that my bullet can’t be more than 4" above the line of sight at its highest point, called the “mid-range trajectory.” Sighted in at 100 yards, that is certainly no problem. We have room to spare. But beyond 100 yards, the bullet drops rapidly below the line of sight. At 150 yards, it is about 1.06" below line of sight. At 200 yards, it is about 3.51" below line of sight, and at about 215 yards, the bullet has dropped 4" below line of sight. That is the maximum I am willing to allow without making hold-over adjustments. Pretty short!

In the second example, with the rifle sighted in at 250 yards, the bullet is 3.01" above line of sight at 100 yards, within my requirements. At 150 yards, the bullet is 3.46" above line of sight, still within my requirements. Things get better after that. At 200 yards, the bullet is only 2.51" above line of sight, and, of course, since 250 yards is the sight-in distance, the bullet is right on the line of sight at that distance. By 300 yards, the bullet will have dropped to 4.26" below line of sight – a little beyond the specifications I have chosen. So, I will limit my shooting without holdover to about 290 yards. Still a lot better than the 215 yards achieved with the 100 yard zero. We have extended the effective range with the same rifle and load simply by changing the sight-in distance.

There are two keys to this question of sight-in distance. The first is the allowable variation. In other words, how far off the line of sight can the bullet’s path be, and still be acceptable? In my example, I picked an 8" diameter vital area for a deer. That means that the bullet may not be more than 4" above the line of sight before the sight-in distance, nor more than 4" below the line of sight after that sight-in distance.

The maximum range at which the bullet remains within those limits, without the shooter holding over or under, is the Point Blank Range.

As you can see, the definition of the diameter of the vital area is critical to the determination of the point blank range.

These examples were calculated with my ballistics program. If you don’t have a ballistics program, I suggest that you get one. You can even get them free on the Internet.

Also, the sight height used was for a scope. If you are using iron sights, you should probably adjust any high power rifle to be right on at about 10 to 12 yards, which is where the bullet crosses the line of sight “on the way up.” For a rimfire rifle using iron sights, I have found that a 25 feet sight-in range is a good starting point. That is a standard range distance, and it provides a good starting point for further adjustments.

I will cover those in a future post. Hopefully, not as long as this one!


GunLaw
Using The Six O'Clock Hold For Sighting In and Hunting With a 22 Rifle

The six o’clock hold is perhaps even more important with a .22 rifle than with a high power rifle. The targets are smaller! I just went through my stack of targets to try to find one about the same size as the head of a fox squirrel. The closest I could find was a 50 foot small bore rifle target. The black (the 6 ring) of that target measures 1.5". That looks just about the same size as the head of a squirrel. Actually, I would like to get my group size quite a bit smaller than that 1.5" circle for squirrels.

With targets that small (the squirrels, that is), the point blank range is very short, because the vital area is very small. If you zero your .22 LR rifle at 50 yards, using a 1.5" vital area, you will find that you have a point blank range of 60 yards. That is about the maximum you will get with the .22 LR cartridge. I use a slightly smaller vital area, as I will explain.

At 60 yards, a 6 minute of angle front sight covers 3.6". Heck, that’s twice the size of our selected vital area! Even a very narrow 4 minute of angle front sight covers 2.4" at the maximum point blank range. That’s the key to it – covers!

I don’t want to obscure the head of a squirrel with the sights while I am aiming at it. Doing so makes it harder to estimate the real center of that target. Judging the center of a circle when you can’t see the entire circle, or possibly even a part of the circle, is too imprecise. Judging the center of the head, when I can see all of it, and putting the visualized ball in the center of that circle, just seems to work better for me.

That’s the six o’clock hold.

Here’s how to sight in your .22 LR rifle for small game hunting, using iron sights. These calculations were made with my ballistics program. They use a standard CCI round nose bullet at a muzzle velocity of 1,245 fps. Sight height above bore is 0.75". I wanted a “vital area” of about one inch. I finally settled for a vital area of 1.12" simply because the numbers worked out well with a sight-in range of 25 yards (not “zero” range -- that’s 50 yards), and a point of impact at that range one-half inch above the line of sight. The bullet crosses the line of sight “on the way up” at a trace over 10 yards, is one-half inch above the line of sight at 25 yards, crosses the line of sight the second time, “on the way down”, at exactly 50 yards (that’s the “zero range”), and gives a point blank range of 57 yards. If you want to run your own favorite ammunition over your chronograph and generate your own customized ballistics table for that, by all means do so. You will certainly learn a lot. However, I don’t think your sight-in data will be much different from mine.

The bulletin board program doesn’t support tabs, and it eliminates double spaces, leaving only one space. So, I will just list the important points, not put them in a neat table form. The two numbers on each line are the range, followed by the bullet drop (with a minus sign) or height above the line of sight (no minus sign).

Range . . Drop
Muzzle -0.75"
5 Yards -0.37"
10 Yards -0.05"
15 Yards 0.20"
20 Yards 0.39"
25 Yards 0.50"
30 Yards 0.56"
35 Yards 0.55"
40 Yards 0.43"
45 Yards 0.27"
50 Yards 0.00"
55 Yards -0.31"
60 Yards -0.76"

Two points in that series are more important than the others for sighting-in purposes: At the 25 yard mark, the bullet is 0.5" above the line of sight. At 50 yards, the point of impact is exactly on the line of sight.

I don’t have a target with a 1" bullseye which would be ideal for sighting in at 25 yards, so I make my own. I use 1" diameter orange stick-on targets spots. I got mine from Midway Arms, but your local gun shop probably has them. Since I want a nice distinct round black bullseye for sighting in, I blacken a 1" orange spot with a Marks-A-Lot marker, then stick it on my target. Just use any standard target, and turn it around backwards, with the target spot pasted on the back, which is now facing you.

Put your sight-in target at 25 yards. Use a bench rest, prone position, or other stable shooting position. Use the six o’clock hold described earlier on your freshly-made 1" bullseye. Adjust the sights so that the center of your group is in the center of your 1" bullseye at 25 yards.

Now, let’s go hunting with your sighted-in rifle, and see how this works.

At extremely close ranges, about 5 yards to 15 yards, use a center hold. That is, hold the top of the front sight post exactly in line with the center of the squirrel’s head. That’s fairly easy to do, because the front sight is not covering any substantial portion of the squirrel’s head.

That may sound too close, but it isn’t. For the last 100+ squirrels that I have shot, NONE has been farther away than 35 FEET! But in my mis-spent youth, I shot a lot of squirrels at longer ranges, using iron sights.

If you can’t stalk closer to the squirrels, and don’t have two dogs as good as mine, you may have to take longer shots. From the trajectory table that I posted, you will notice that from about 15 yards to about 45 yards, the point of impact will be slightly above the line of sight. Not much, but as much as 0.56" at 30 yards. That’s where the six o’clock hold comes in. For squirrels within the range of 15 yards to about 45 yards, simply visualize a 1" diameter bullseye in the middle of the squirrel’s head, and put your front sight just below that visualized 1" circle, in the classic six o’clock hold.

What about ranges longer than 45 yards? From the trajectory table, you will see that the bullet’s path drops back to the line of sight (lined up with the top of the front post) at 50 yards. From there, it drops rapidly until it is a full one-half inch below the line of sight at about 57 yards. That’s why my point blank range for squirrels, using a 1.12" vital area, is limited to 57 yards.

Beyond 45 yards, and out to my personal limit of about 57 yards, I again use a center hold. That’s fairly easy to do, because the front sight is not covering any substantial portion of the squirrel’s head. HAH! That’s why we are using the six o’clock hold at the shorter ranges!

Now, I can hear some of you saying that you regularly take tree squirrels at 100 yards with your .22. If you are using iron sights, that is some pretty good shooting. If your bullet passes through the line of sight at 50 yards, the drop at 100 yards is 7.65". Not only that, the difference in the drop between 95 yards and 100 yards is 1.28" – more than our selected vital area. Therefore, to reliably hit your target at around 100 yards, you have to have range estimation within 5%. That’s pretty good! I can’t do that, so I limit my shooting to the limit of my ability. Around 57 yards with a .22 LR. At that range, a six minute of angle front sight subtends 3.42" at the target. A narrow four minute of angle front sight subtends 2.28" at the target. Even in the case of the narrow front sight, you are talking about grouping within one-half the width of your front sight! Maybe you can do that at that range under field conditions, but I will bet my day’s bag of squirrels that you can’t. And that’s a lot of squirrels!

My recommendation for hunting squirrels using a .22 rifle with iron sights is simple.

1. Sight in your rifle to hit one-half inch high at 25 yards. Do that by using a six o’clock hold on a 1" bullseye and adjusting your sights so that the center of your group is in the center of that bullseye.

2. At ranges from 5 yards to about 15 yards, use a center hold.

3. At ranges from about 15 yards to about 45 yards, use the six o’clock hold on your visualized 1" bullseye, visualized in the center of the squirrel’s head.

4. Beyond about 45 yards, out to the range of your ability, use a center hold again.

As my Dad told me when I started hunting squirrels about 55 years ago, HEAD SHOTS ONLY!

Good hunting!