Thermal sight in distance

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Wylietx107

Member
What yardage do you sight in your thermal? I have an Iray bolt 35 on a tikka superlite 22-250 and it’s perfect at 100 yards. Most of my shots are between 50 and 100 yards. Last night I had a coon at around 40 aimed at the head and skinned him under his breast bone. I haven’t had a chance to shoot it at 50 to see where it’s shooting. Would I be stupid to sight in dead nut at 50?
 
Shoot and see where it hits, memorize the difference. Usually low up to 25, over to 100, then drops. Use a ballistic calculator to see the trajectory. Hunting you don't have time to change to another traj on the scope.
GNU Ballistics Library Free one
 
The the greater the sight height above center of bore and higher velocity equals lower impacts @50 yards and closer. Whether you zeroed at 100 or 200 yards, bullet impact will be 2+ inches low at 25 yards, with 22-250(3" above bore sight height). Really need to shoot every 25 yards out to 200 and tweak the x,y setting to a trajectory that "clicks" in your memory so you don't need to think about.
 
If your only shooting out to 100 yards most of the time just sight in at 100 yards. No reason to over think this that close.

If you really want to find the flattest trajectory for your bullet then throw your ballistic info into a calculator and keep changing the sight in range (25, 50, 75 yards as an example) until you find the flattest trajectory for your bullet.

I think you will find it doesnt much matter if you're shooting a 22-250 at only 100 yards.
 
I zero @ 200 yds with my 223 shooting 50 gr vmax @ 3100. Its is about .5" low at 50 yds and about 1.5" high at 150 yds and about 2.8" low @ 250 yds. Your 22-250 should be better depending on your bullet and velocity.
 
Well I did some testing today. At 100 yards it’s 1/2” high. At 50 yards it’s 1 1/4” low 25 yards 1 1/2” low give or take. I’m guessing it’s just me. This is the first thermal I’ve had and 3rd time calling with it. I should have shot it before I made myself look stupid on an open forum.
 
I also have a Tikka Lite 22-250. I did some experimenting and zeroed at 50 yds. I was 2.5 inches high at 100, 1 inch high at 200 and less than 1/2 in high at 250 yds. At 300 it was 2 inches low. This was with Hornady Vmax 55 gr. I watched a Youtubvideo of someone zeroing at 25, 50 and 100 yds and showing where he hit at all distances with a 223 cal. His claim was zeroing at 25 yds would put you dead on at 300, which wasn’t the case. Zeroing at 50 yds would put you dead on at 200 and this was pretty close when I tried it. The reason I liked zeroing at 50 is because the wind doesn’t affect my shot and I can get dead center and see the target perfectly with my thermal. I use the aluminum foil tape in a cross which works very well. If you try this make sure to switch to black hot and angle your target so it can reflect the sky.
 
What throws a lot of guys off is the fact the scope has to sit much higher than normal....as many have mentioned.
Instead of starting 1.5" low at the muzzle it is 2.5" - 3" low at the muzzle.

We sight all our thermals dead on at 200 and then work back and check POI. Usually about 1" high at 100.

Depending on you thermal you can experiment with different targets.
We like to use either water bottles full of hot water or even 1" or 2" diameter vitamin bottles.
We cut a hole in the side of a decent sized cardboard box so that the bottle can be shoved in and the hole is tight enough to hold the bottle.
This way at 200 yards you have a 1" or 2" perfect HOT circle to aim at, AND you have cardboard to see impacts on if you miss.
Of course after you get it dialed it is very satisfying to explode a 1" circle(bottle) at 200.
 
Don't beat yourself up Wylie. Nobody starts out as an expert know-it-all. The guys on this forum are here to help and are willing to share info they have. Part of the pleasure of shooting is experimenting with what you have and then put it to use getting them critters!
 
I hate using Maximum Point Blank Range on scopes. But this is the one time I use it. I enter in all my data in StrelokPro and it has a MPBR calculator. For my 6 creed, I zero it at 43 yards. This has me holding on fur out to 300. My 400yd hold is 1mil. After that, I shouldn’t be shooting because my calling needs work.
 
bmicek said:
I hate using Maximum Point Blank Range on scopes. But this is the one time I use it. I enter in all my data in StrelokPro and it has a MPBR calculator. For my 6 creed, I zero it at 43 yards. This has me holding on fur out to 300. My 400yd hold is 1mil. After that, I shouldn’t be shooting because my calling needs work.
Click to expand...
You might want to find a way to backup or print the data in Strelok if you have to change phones you will not get. the program back.
 
killahog said:
You might want to find a way to backup or print the data in Strelok if you have to change phones you will not get. the program back.
Click to expand...
I fear the day I lose Strelok... I guess at that point I'll find a new app and learn to use it. But I like it and know it well enough I'd rather not start over
 
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