My primary shooting interest is hunting. I shoot a couple of hundred hogs a year. My rifle for that is a Savage 99 in .30-30 with Leupold VX-I 2-7 scope. Ammo is all HP cast bullets at full throttle.
Absolutely precise zero is not critical for the hogs, since nearly all my shots are inside 100 meters. I do however shoot the occasional dog as well, and these are both smaller and generally further away, so require better zero.
Amid all the action, the rifle can take the odd knock, leaving me wondering if the zero has survived. Worst of all is missing a shot that should have been good, or wondering if it really was a miss. Doubt as to zero is to me more damaging to performance than impaired zero itself.
One of my better equipment buys has been a Tasco Shot Saver boresighter with a 4 minute grid. Once I have zeroed the rifle, I record the boresighter setting. If subsequently I take a tumble or otherwise come to doubt my zero, I can check for scope movement with the boresighter. If the scope is off then I can deal with it. Otherwise I just keep on shooting with confidence restored.
This system is not totally precise, but it will pick up displacement of more than a minute or two. Scope needs to be on full power (7X) for the check. System does not apply to iron sights.
I’m sorry the image is a bit dodgy – another recording experiment with the NV device on the back of the scope with boresighter in place.
You are only as good as your library.
