Hey folks,
Season's Greeting to all! :-)
My FIRST post! So, I'm driving to the gym this morning thinking about my new planned endeavor..... I'm gonna take up the art of hunting when I retire in about a year. I've been a shooter all my life, but never really a hunter. One pheasant and one turkey over the years ( I'm 62! ). I expect to be hunting with a friend in the Blue Ridge Mountains when I move to north Georgia on retirement.
Anyway, I bought a new Marlin 336 in 30-30. This is gonna be my iron sight brush gun. I don't expect I'll take a shot over 50 yards. Remember my eyes are 62 years old! My question is: Should I zero this rifle in at 50 yards and then calculate for closer and further shots? Or should I zero it in at 100 yds, as I see in tables I've been looking at, and do the calculations from there?
I'm on a couple of motorcycle bulletin boards and have had a great time learning and exchanging ideas with folks in this type of venue. I think I'll find the same here. :-) Thanks!
gary

Zero at 100 yards, and enjoy your new hobby.

Doesn't matter. Point of impact will be close enough at that range that if you hold on the deers shoulder, you'll be dragging out your first deer.

Zero at 100 would be my game, even if I'm only shooting 50yrds. It'll be essentially ON at 50yrds still (100% good enough to kill any deer), and that way if you do need to take a 100yrd shot, it's on.

Even a .30-30 will shoot flat enough that you don't need to adjust your hold over for anything between 0-150yrds if you have a 100yrd zero.

I knew like minded folks would come through! Thanks.
Ya, forgot to mention my thoughts are to hunt both deer and boar. And turkey ( not with the Marlin, though! )
Thank you all, again, for rapid and experienced advice. Will be going out to the hundred yard range soon!
gary

A year or two before I retired I had Lasik eye surgery so I don't have any problem seeing 100 yds, or even 500 or 1000 yds.

A couple of years ago I thought I needed another Model 94 Winchester and bought one off Gunbroker. When I got it home, I sighted it on a rock a hundred yds or so on the hill above my house. I could see the rock perfectly, but the iron sights on my new .30-30 were just a blur.

I've since found that if I wear low power reading glasses I can focus on the iron sights of that .30-30 or my pistols, but then the target is a blur. Out to 100 yds, if my target is large enough, I can hold on the center of the blur and usually hit the target.

With open sights, like on my slug gun and my .54 flintlock, I zero 2 inches high at 50 yards...This will put you in the ball park of being on at 100-125...

Zero it for 100 yards and then shoot it at 150 to see where it hits, shoot it at 50 to see where it hits and shoot it at 10 to see where it hits. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say 10 yards, but a lot of game is killed at 10 yards and less with archery and it can happen with firearms. When I was a young man in CO I shot a cow elk at exactly 4 paces with a muzzleloader. Close range hunting is something that happens more often that you would think.

If you know where it hits at a little more and a little less than you expect to be shooting, you'll be better prepared than just shooting at one range.

I ditto the idea of sighting for 100 yards.
I also think you would be much better served with a low power scope.
Enjoy north GA. Some fine country there.

At 4 paces, that cow was dead from muzzleblast before the projectile hit it!!!!! LOL!!!!