Questions about Sighting in a Carbine

[SpaceOddity]

What distance do you guys use in the MDFI Carbine I & II classes for sighting in your rifles?

I'm wondering, in theory what is the proper distance to use for a defense/general use/trunk gun carbine that could encounter a wide variety of situations (would 10 yards to 150 yards be reasonable?)

Then based on whatever distance you've sighted it in at, do you just guesstimate how much higher/lower the bullet will hit based on distance and the height of your sight above the barrel?

[ChaneyD]

25 yards.

[RECON762WT]

There are some different options for sighting in your rifle. Different zeros get used for different things here are some of the most common ones with the AR-15:
- 50yd BZO (sight in at 50 yds and will be same point of impact at 200)
-36yd BZO (sight in at 36yds and same point if impact at 300)
-100 or 200 yd zero and know the amount of drop for your bullet (mostly high power rifle scopes
)

I would probably go with the 50yd option. That will work, but the biggest thing for a class like that is going to be knowing where your round impacts at less than 50yds and how to compensate for your height over bore issues up close.

I would go to the range get on paper at 25yds, sight in at 50yds and get a good zero, then bring the target back and and fire at 3yds, 5yds, 10yds, and 15yds to see about your height over bore offset. After about 15yds you should be able to hold point of aim point of impact.

[SpaceOddity]

There are some different options for sighting in your rifle. Different zeros get used for different things here are some of the most common ones with the AR-15:
- 50yd BZO (sight in at 50 yds and will be same point of impact at 200)
-36yd BZO (sight in at 36yds and same point if impact at 300)
-100 or 200 yd zero and know the amount of drop for your bullet (mostly high power rifle scopes
)

I would probably go with the 50yd option. That will work, but the biggest thing for a class like that is going to be knowing where your round impacts at less than 50yds and how to compensate for your height over bore issues up close.

I would go to the range get on paper at 25yds, sight in at 50yds and get a good zero, then bring the target back and and fire at 3yds, 5yds, 10yds, and 15yds to see about your height over bore offset. After about 15yds you should be able to hold point of aim point of impact.

Thanks for the great response. I wasn't getting good results searching "distance sight red dot" in Google, but using the term "50yd BZO" (I didn't remember that term) brings up a ton of supplemental info to what you said! I think I'm set, looks like 50yd is the way to go. Also your advice re: sighting in and then checking impact at closer ranges too is perfect. Thank you!

[Joeywhat]

There isn't a right answer...pick whichever works for you. Sight it in at 73 yards if it's what you feel like...as long as you know your POI/POA differences and can make hits at the distances you are shooting it really doesn't matter.

As stated above 50 yards seems to work for most people, and there's a considerable amount of data around about it.

[RSF]

the main to are 50 and 100 yards


anything else is silly, a few years back teaching a class for a local area SWAT team

they ran 15 yard zeros ith acogs on colt commandos, I asked there team boss why?

he stated because we do entries, ok fair enough but dont you guys use these in patrol as well well yes and its preety rual huh? yes but the computer tells us it will be here at x distance


so we shot with there zero first at 50 and what there computer program told them...... well they were 18 inches high? hummmm they now run 50 yard zero

Now i like both

100 yard zero with some of my setups allows we to use my 4 moa aimpoint as a bdc to 400 yards yet still works with my holdovers inside 25yards

why because we shoot our guns and practice these things