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Is Your Carbine’s Zero Wrong?

I’ve always found zero at 100 yards.
It’s what works for me. This was my Savage AR10 .308 at 100 yards the last time I went shooting.
4CCFB50A-A870-4C19-BC76-B51A7C727ADF.jpeg

5 shots.
 
I actually did quite a bit of research and asked a good number of my AR owning buddies before I took mine to the range for the first time. I did get other answers but most of them said 50 yards. A few said 36 and a couple said 100.

Ultimately I just may be using the wrong zero. I have a 1x magnified red dot and frankly I don't see me taking any 200 yard shots with it so the 50/200 thing might be a wash. At any rate I have shot it at distances ranging from 25 yards to 100 yards and the POI did not change significantly enough for me to be worried about it. If I was going for real precision there would be a scope on it. And it would be a .308.
 
I'm using a 50 yd zero for my AR & a 62 gr FMJ round. I recognize the bullet drop data in the article based on my own experiences.

Now I just have to find that perfect zero for my .45 ACP PCC with a 8" barrel, 1:16 twist, firing 230gr FMJ. Since I only plan on using that firearm at short distances (10, 20, 50 yards) I may just set up three targets at those distances, zero at 10, then fire at 20 & 50 to measure drop, then zero at 20 and try 10 & 50 yds to measure rise & drop, then lastly zero at 50 and check rise at 10 & 20. Then...pick one! :D
 
I have and edge love all my springfeids and45 xds on my edge i use it for home defense what do you recommend on range i should set it.would probably be close range if i had to defend my self been dry firing at 25 feet what do you all think.62 grain green tips
 
I can go along with the title, because it is a bit of an introspective question. If you're running a 25 yard zero because that's simply what someone told you, is it really the right one for you? That kind of thing.

@Bowhunter, I would zero your rifle to 50 yards, that way you can be within the vital zone of anything from 0-250 yards. If you don't have 50 yards available there's a way to zero at 10 yards to be equivalent to a 50 yard zero.

https://jerkingthetrigger.com/2014/11/12/frank-proctors-50-yard-zero-at-10-yards/
 
Saint edge pistol what do you recommend a to zero in at for homedefense love my saint.
Trigger Monkey said:
I can go along with the title, because it is a bit of an introspective question. If you're running a 25 yard zero because that's simply what someone told you, is it really the right one for you? That kind of thing.

@Bowhunter, I would zero your rifle to 50 yards, that way you can be within the vital zone of anything from 0-250 yards. If you don't have 50 yards available there's a way to zero at 10 yards to be equivalent to a 50 yard zero.

https://jerkingthetrigger.com/2014/11/12/frank-proctors-50-yard-zero-at-10-yards/
Click to expand...
 
Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled Is Your Carbine’s Zero Wrong? and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/is-your-carbines-zero-wrong/.

Click to expand...
What a timely article - my AR-556 w/Primary Arms red dot was zeroed at 25 yards. We went to the range yesterday and I was WAY high at 100 yards (and high at 50 as well). The gentleman we were with who has much more long gun experience than us recommended re-zeroing to 50 yards. Did that - worked a charm! Still need a lot of practice - especially since I'm math-challenged. But based on initial results, the 50-yard zero is going to be much better for us... at least for now (y)
 
Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled Is Your Carbine’s Zero Wrong? and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/is-your-carbines-zero-wrong/.

Click to expand...
Mike, I have to ask where you got your information regarding a 25 yard zero being 9" high at 200 yards. I've combat zeroed my M4 dozens of times in different AOR's with other 5.56x45 wielding guys from every branch of the US military and a few branches of a few other countries. Your statement and assumption is just simply not true. The trajectory peaks at approximately 3.5" high at approximately 150 yards.

The beauty of a 25 yard 5.56 zero is that you basically can't go wrong from CQB range all the way out to 300 yards. Anything after that and your designated marksmen with .308's and your squad M249/M240 should be doing most of the real lifting. I've included Hornady's ballistic calculator results regarding a 25 yard zero from 0-300 yards. Parameters include a 1.5" site height (the standard height for a modern sporting rifle or m4 carbine) and a 62gr m855/green tip equivalent bullet at ~3000 fps.

As you can see, the correct data makes an extremely obvious case for the 25 yard battle zero. It produces a maximum vertical variance from 0-300 yards of under 4". With 50 and 100 yard zeroes you'll experience 12-13 inches of drop at 300 yards (and the bullets fall off a cliff at this point). Compared to the 4" drop of the 25 yard zero, that's a big deal. Besides some oddball number like 28 yards or 17 yards or something like that, there is no reasonably common zero distance that produces results that are even remotely that positive. Perhaps you can revisit your article with this new information in mind. I think one of the strongest points to be made about the 25 yard zero is that it's easy to do. You don't need that much space. You probably don't need to move or have a spotting scope in order to evaluate if any adjustments are needed between shots. For me, the cherry on top is that I can aim center mass at a man-sized target from 0-300 yards an score a mortal hit without thinking or moving my crosshair. That's a far cry away from claiming the bullet arcs at over 9" at 200 yards. 3.4". It's not nearly as big of a deal considering I doubt anyone could aim to 3.4" of precision at 200 yards without significant magnification.

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Keystone19250 said:
I’ve always found zero at 100 yards.
It’s what works for me. This was my Savage AR10 .308 at 100 yards the last time I went shooting. View attachment 11186
5 shots.
Click to expand...
Oh that was so long ago, although I really like shooting a .308 and that Savage was a great shooting gun it was flawed with poor timing during the reload process causing the lugs of the bolt to contact the lugs of the camber and subsequently damaging the bolt lugs. I had returned the AR10 once to savage and they replaced the bolt not the BCG, after receiving the rifle back and 10 rounds later the bolt lugs started showing the same damage so I traded it for my now flawless shooting M1A .308
 
Well done article. A little side note as far as the history of AR/M16 zeroes is that up until the advent of the M16A2 both the Army and the Marines both conducted initial zero at 25m/1000" then confirmed the zero at 300m/300 yards. This was because of the hundreds of 25m (Army)and 1000" (USMC) ranges left over from the M14 days in the USA and USMC. As part of the development of M16A2 training one of my compadres at WTBn, Quantico SSgt Allen, l later CWO Allen, did the stubby pencil work and figured out the 36 yard/33 meter zero deal and we started teaching in the USMC programs around 1988/89. Initially it was accomplished by using the 8/3 rear sight setting with -2 clicks down. I think eventually everyone stopped messing with the -2 as its only 2 moa on the M16A2 rear sight.
 
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