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May 3, 2001 - Bill Cooper
59:29
Hitting the Target
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Time Text
...
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you Oh, my God.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. You're listening once again to the Hour of the Time.
Well, last night in my efforts to make things as simple as I could for everybody who doesn't
understand anything about ballistics and how a bullet behaves in its trajectory and all
of these things, I got a lot of calls today.
And...
And it's basically because of two reasons.
So right off the bat, if you took down notes last night I want you to scratch out anything I told you about the rate of drop of a bullet when it comes out of the muzzle.
I was trying to make things very simple.
If you all take a bullet in your hands and hold it, you know, out at about a height of 32 inches and drop it and time it at the same time, you're going to get one second.
Exactly.
But that's not what the physics tells us.
Okay?
And folks, all I was trying to do last night was give people who don't have any conception of ballistics some kind of an idea of what happens without being exact, without giving them all kinds of formulas and trigonometry and all of that kind of stuff.
I don't want to get into any of those things.
So all of those of you who are experts out there, please understand what I'm trying to do.
I'm just trying to give the average guy that doesn't go to the range, or maybe just goes every once in a while, maybe goes hunting once a year and really doesn't understand all this stuff, and that, believe it or not, encompasses most people.
And believe it or not, for most of the militia meetings that I've ever attended, it also encompasses a good percentage of people who belong to militias.
They're just average guys.
There are a lot of us who study these things and have, you know, stood on our head backwards and upside down and all that stuff.
I don't want to get into all of the deep technicalities of ballistics because if I do that, the average Joe is going to turn off his radio and go to bed because he's going to be confused.
The average person doesn't understand feet per second per second.
They just don't.
Most people didn't like mathematics, and were glad when high school ended, didn't go to college, and really, my dear Scarlett, you know, don't give a damn.
So I'm not going to go in those places.
If we can get enough people educated in the basic understanding of what happens when you fire a rifle, Then later on down the line, as we always do, we will get more complicated and I'll be happy to get into that kind of stuff.
But not now.
So, if you took notes last night, just cross out what I told you about the rate of drop as a bullet leaves the end of the barrel.
Okay?
Just cross that out.
We're going to get into that at some later time.
But so you don't lose the understanding Of what I was trying to tell you last night, let me try to put it another way that makes it very simple, and I know that every one of you will understand this.
Okay?
Listen very carefully.
If we could find a piece of level ground, and the one that comes to mind is like Groom Dry Lake, Area 51.
It's a dry lake bed.
It's absolutely flat and level.
For thousands of yards.
If we could set up a rifle so that the barrel is perfectly parallel to the level of the ground on that lake bed and at the same time we held a bullet the same size, same shape, same weight bullet that we're going to fire in a cartridge in that rifle at the same level as the chamber of the rifle Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to fire that bullet, we're going to fire the gun, and we're going to drop that bullet at the same time.
If we can figure out how to do this, if we could somehow connect the trigger to both the firing pin and a little mechanism that would drop that bullet that we're holding next to the chamber at the same level of the chamber, here's what's going to happen, folks.
As the rifle fires, the bullet in the cartridge is going to be propelled down the barrel.
As it leaves, the muzzle of the barrel is going to begin to fall, and it will continue to fall until it hits the earth.
If we were to fire that rifle and drop the other bullet that we're holding via the chamber, both of those bullets will hit the ground at the same time.
One of them will hit the ground right below where you dropped it, and the other one's going to hit the ground So many hundreds of yards in front of the barrel of that rifle.
I'm trying to keep it as simple as I can and I'm going to continue to do that.
And I'm not going to get into any kind of mathematical problems or technicalities or physics or anything like that because the average person doesn't understand that stuff.
And it's not because they're stupid.
It's because they're not Really, until they develop an enthusiasm for shooting, they're not interested.
And this is the truth.
Those of us who already have the enthusiasm for shooting have already gone in that direction.
So, I'm not trying to educate people who are already good shooters.
I'm trying to educate people who are not.
Okay?
There's one other thing that came up today.
Several people called and they're still insisting that once the bullet leaves the barrel of the rifle, it rises.
Not true.
It can't.
That would defy the law of physics.
It can only fall.
The only thing that keeps it from falling between the time it's fired in the chamber and leaves the end of that cartridge down inside the barrel of the rifle is the barrel itself.
As soon as it leaves the muzzle of the barrel, it will start to drop.
According to the laws of gravity and physics, it will continue to drop until it hits the ground.
Now, there is an area where people get confused, and when we talk about scopes and line of sight and line of bore, then it will become clear to you.
But just in case you think I'm full of it, and just in case you think I don't know what I'm talking about, get this month's issue of Guns & Ammo.
This month's issue, May 2001, Guns & Ammo, on page 47, Tom Gresham, what I consider to be an expert on guns, rifles, he wrote a column on exactly what we're talking about.
He doesn't understand it either.
Why people come up with this stuff.
See, I don't know where they get it.
There's no way a bullet can go up from the point where it's aimed.
Now, it will start out going in the direction that the rifle is pointed in.
If you point the rifle 45 degrees up from the ground, or from the level of the ground, the barrel will leave The bullet will leave the barrel pointed in that direction, but it will still begin to fall.
And it will continue to fall until it hits the ground.
It will not go up.
If you have the barrel parallel with the ground, and you fire that bullet, as soon as it leaves the muzzle, it's going to start to fall, and it will continue to fall until it hits the ground.
It will not rise up ever above the line of the barrel, or the bore, of that rifle.
Never in a million years.
Now listen to what Tom Gresham has to say.
Trajectory.
Well, here's the headline.
Straight talk on gravity.
No bullet, however fast, can outrun the law of physics.
Trajectory.
One word encompassing an entire area of study we call exterior ballistics.
It's what happens between the time the bullet leaves the muzzle and the time it impacts the target.
With a little effort, it's easy to understand, but the myths about bullet path continue to confuse.
Listen to this.
Recently I was chatting with a policeman who is the firearms training officer for his department.
As we talked about rifles and trajectory, he posed a question I could hardly believe.
Here's what he said.
Doesn't a rifle bullet, he asked, go down And then up after leaving the muzzle?
Huh?
This is the police officer.
Not only that, he's the firearms training officer of his department.
So if you don't understand ballistics, don't be ashamed of it.
Because I've talked with people who should know better, and some of these myths abound.
So he talks, he says, only two weeks later, a caller to my radio show expressed the same thought.
I thought to myself, where is this whiffle ball theory of ballistics coming from, where a bullet can go up, down, or sideways?
So here's what he says about it, folks.
Listen very carefully.
He's going to tell you exactly the same thing that I told you last night and tonight.
Here's what he says.
Back to basics.
If your rifle barrel is precisely level when the gun is fired, the bullet begins dropping the instant it leaves the muzzle.
The path trajectory is a curve that begins almost flat and steepens farther from the rifle.
Roll a ball fast across the table and watch the path as it leaves the surface.
Same thing.
After the ball Rolls off the table, it never goes up, folks.
It always goes down and continues down until it hits the floor.
Okay?
The truth is, it's pretty much the same thing as when an outfielder hurls a baseball toward the infield.
And here's what he got, and it's what I always get, too.
People just don't understand trajectories.
They don't understand ballistics.
Here's what a guy asked him after he said this.
Yeah, Tom, but why does the bullet hit high at 100 and 200 yards then?
Isn't it going up?
Yes, it is.
But only because the rifle barrel is pointed up.
And I'll get deep into that and we'll talk about it when we talk about sighting The rifle line of sight through your scope are along your open sights.
And believe me, folks, your open sights may look like they're level with the barrel, but if you look very carefully, you'll see that they're not.
They can't be.
If you want to hit the center of a target, I don't care where that target is, the rear sight, if you're going to sight your Or zero your rifle at 100 or 200 or 300 yards is always going to be higher than the front sight.
Always.
That makes the barrel elevated, pointed up.
And that's the only way that you can do it.
You can't do it any other way.
So, uh, if you don't believe me, you'll, you know, you'll, you'll get used to this concept sooner or later, but please don't anybody else call me and tell me that when the bullet leaves the muzzle, it goes up.
It never goes up.
It starts out always in the direction that the barrel is pointed, and as soon as it leaves the muzzle, it begins to fall.
That's why velocity is so important.
If you can push a bullet faster, or, you know... Well, let me explain something.
Let me give you a little problem that Tom Gresham gave at the end of his article.
I've already closed the book, so I'm not going to read it verbatim.
But listen to me very carefully.
Here's the truth about velocity.
And if you don't learn something from this, I don't know what in the world I could ever teach you.
Listen to me carefully.
You're in a jet plane.
You're in the tail of the jet plane.
The jet plane is moving forward at 1,000 feet per second.
Are you listening to me?
The jet plane is moving forward at 1,000 feet per second.
You have a rifle and you have a bullet in that rifle that when it leaves the muzzle is going to be traveling at 1,000 feet per second.
The jet aircraft is moving forward at 1,000 feet per second.
You're in the tail of that aircraft.
You have a rifle that's going to propel a bullet out the muzzle at 1,000 feet per second.
And you fire that rifle Directly out the rear of the airplane.
what happens to the bullet well I won't back down, no I won't back down
you can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won't back down
no I'll stand my ground, won't be turned around and I'll keep this world from dragging me down
I'll stand my ground, and I won't back down I won't back down, baby, turn it on if you will
I won't back down, yeah, I'll stand my ground I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushing me
around But I'll stand my ground And I won't back down
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out Hey yeah I'll stand my ground And I won't back down
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out Hey yeah I won't back down
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out Hey yeah I'll stand my ground And I won't back down
I won't back down Hey
None of us should.
We can't.
We have to have the courage of our convictions and stand our ground, folks.
That's what I'm doing.
Hope you will have the courage to do the same.
Okay, tonight, make sure you're taking notes.
I'm going to teach you how to boresight your rifle.
And zero your rifle without buying a whole bunch of boresight stuff and other things that you don't really need.
Now, for those of you who don't have computers, you can get ballistic tables from the manufacturer of whatever bullets or cartridges you're buying.
Now, the velocity that they give you is never going to be the same that you're going to get with your rifle.
So you're going to have to, by trial and error at the range, determine what your real trajectory of your bullet is really going to be if you don't have a computer.
If you have a computer, I suggest you go on the internet and find a website for a program called Load from a Disc and buy it.
It costs $59.
So what you're going to have is a rifle off the shelf, a scope off the shelf, You're going to buy manufactured bullets off the shelf, and you're going to buy load from a disc if you have a computer.
If you don't have a computer, get the ballistics tables from the manufacturer of your cartridges.
Now, you can buy ballistics tables In the reloading manuals, even if you're not going to reload or make your own bullets or your own cartridges, you can still purchase the manuals because they've got a lot of useful ballistics tables and trajectory information and things like that.
Okay?
And you can also get those tables from the manufacturer of the cartridges that you're going to be using.
But the way they determine their ballistics of their bullets is from a special rifle that's permanently mounted on a solid platform that can't move.
In other words, there's no recoil in that rifle when they fire it to test their cartridges and get their ballistic tables.
So when you fire it, there's going to be some recoil, which means you're not going to have the velocities That they're going to specify for that cartridge when you use it in your rifle.
Now, it's not going to be off that much.
It might only be off 70 feet per second.
Something like that.
That's about an average, I would say.
It could be off over 100 feet per second, which changes your ballistics and your trajectory quite a bit.
Okay?
And sometimes you're going to find that the ballistic coefficient that they give for the bullet they're using is not always correct.
Now one reason for that is when they made the ballistic coefficient figures for the different shapes of the different bullets, it was a long time ago, and there's been a lot of changes in bullets and different shapes of bullets and a lot of improvement in bullets and all kinds of things.
Load from a disc will give you the real ballistic coefficient of whatever bullet you're using.
Also, if you're a reloader, it'll tell you, you know, well, I'm not going to go into that.
We could get, you know, I could do the whole broadcast on there.
But if you've got a computer, you can help yourself quite a bit by getting load from a disc.
And you're going to be interested in the trajectory.
Okay.
Now I'm not going to teach you how to use that, but I am going to teach you how to bore sight your rifle and how to zero your rifle tonight.
So start taking notes right now.
I mean right now.
A lot of people think they have to take their rifle to a gunsmith to have it boresighted.
Now here's what boresighted means.
It means that you're going to line up the bore of that rifle with the crosshairs of the scope.
at a certain distance on the exact center of a target.
Now to get the crosshairs of the scope to line up with the center of the bore, here's where the discrepancy comes in, where everybody thinks that a bullet rises once it leaves the muzzle.
You have to elevate the barrel in relation to the center line of the crosshairs in the scope in order to get the two lines to intersect at a certain point in front of that rifle.
How do you do that?
Well, you do it this way.
Now, I have a rifle wrist that can be, it has adjustments on it.
I don't care how you do this, but this is what you've got to do, folks.
The way I do it, I take my rifle to the range I put it in my rifle rest.
I take the bolt out of the rifle.
You have to take the bolt out of the rifle.
If you don't know how to do it, read your instruction manual.
Take the bolt out of the rifle.
Make sure the rifle is unloaded and pointed downrange all the time.
Never ever point a weapon at any person unless you intend Never point a weapon at anything unless you intend to shoot it.
Okay?
That's the rule.
Don't even point it at the moon unless you intend to shoot the moon.
That's how accidents happen.
I set my rifle on the rest.
Now remember, my rest can be adjusted to the right or left or up or down.
Either on the front or the back or on either side.
So I can make my rifle exactly parallel to the ground.
And I can make the plane of the center of the barrel and the center of the scope exactly perpendicular to the ground, which is what you need to do.
Point your rifle toward the target.
Now, I've seen so many people take a brand new rifle to the range and they're going to zero it at 200 yards.
They have no idea why they're going to zero it at 200 yards, but they've heard that figure bandied about.
And so they're going to zero it at 200 yards.
And so they get on the 200 yard target range.
They set their target 200 yards in front of their rifle.
And they come back, and they start shooting bullets, and they waste an unbelievable number of bullets, cartridges, just trying to get one of them to hit the target.
I mean, they're not even on the target when they start.
Once they get on the target, then they start this painful, this painful trial and error method of turning the scope adjustments Until they start to get close to zero.
It's not that hard, folks.
Now, somebody who understands weapons and somebody who knows how to zero a rifle would take load from a disc, figure the muzzle velocity of that rifle and that cartridge, which they have usually obtained by using a chronograph.
But you don't need to do that.
If you know the length of your barrel, and you're using a cartridge manufactured by Whoever.
Doesn't matter who it's manufactured by.
They can give you tables that will give you a velocity or close enough velocity to get you on target for the rifle or the length of the barrel that you're using.
You just plug this information into load from a disc.
And here's what I worked up for my rifle.
Okay.
Tonight, just to demonstrate to you how this works folks.
Because my rifle is a long-range shooter, and because I don't want to memorize tons of tables, and if I ever use it, it's only going to be used in self-defense against an armed attack against me, or my community, or my country.
I only have a few things that I need to know in order to be able to figure a trajectory for my bullet and figure where I want to zero at.
In other words, what range.
So here's what I know.
I know for the average soldier it's 29 inches from his crotch to that little hollow point at the base of the throat between his shoulders.
It's 29 inches.
I know that.
I also know that it's 41 inches from the crotch to the top of his head.
Now, if I know that, I know that I want to put a bullet in there somewhere every time
I have to fire my rifle in self-defense, in defense of my community or my country.
If that ever has to happen, that's where I have to hit.
And I know that on the average soldier, it's 18 inches between the shoulders.
18 inches between the shoulders.
So here's what I have.
I have a target that's 29 inches from bottom to top and 18 inches wide.
Every time I shoot, I want to put a bullet somewhere on that target.
I don't care where, as long as it hits that target.
The only reason I have to know from crotch to the top of the head is when you get to extreme ranges, you have to hold over the top of the head.
But you don't have to memorize tons of tables.
I know shooters who memorize, hold over, and hold under for every 25 yards up to 1,000 yards.
And you don't even need to know all that stuff.
Period.
You don't.
If I know that from crotch to the hollow point of the throat between the shoulders is 29 inches, here's what I have to do.
I have to find a place to zero my rifle with this program, or with ballistic tables, or trajectory tables, that will keep my height of bullet above the line of sight to the zero point less than 25 inches.
Because I want to give myself some leeway.
And I'm giving myself 4 inches leeway.
In other words, I don't want to be trying to hit the very edge of my target.
That's not very smart.
We all know that.
It's not smart to try to do that because that's when you begin to miss.
So I'm going to give myself 4 inches leeway.
And in this program I plug that information in and what it gives me is a zero for my rifle of 550 yards.
It's perfect for me In order to be able to use my rifle all the way out and hit my target every time I fire my rifle all the way out to 700 yards.
Now, if I wanted to do farther than 700 yards, then I would have to re-figure my table.
But there's only three things I have to remember.
And I'm going to tell you why.
Because the highest point, ladies and gentlemen, The highest point between me and 550 yards that my bullet travels above the line of sight is 24, or excuse me, 24 inches.
Exactly.
24 inches.
Exactly.
Now let me tell you what that means.
That means All I have to do to make sure I hit the target every single time I fire my rifle at anybody who's between me and 550 yards is aim always at the crotch.
Now, don't think that's perverted because I'm never going to hit the crotch.
Never.
Period.
That's not my intention.
My intention is to hit my target.
If my target is a man, I'm going to aim at the crotch if that target is between me and 550 yards, which is my zero.
Okay?
Beyond my zero, well, I'm getting ahead of myself because that's really not the purpose of tonight's, but we're going to get into this.
But you can already see some of the things that you're going to learn here.
How to use a ballistics table, a trajectory table, an external ballistics table, to determine how you can hit your target every single time you fire your weapon.
It's really quite easy.
You don't have to memorize all this stuff.
And you don't ever have to be aiming at the exact point where you want the bullet to hit.
In this kind of shooting, you don't care where the bullet hits as long as it hits your target.
And I'm going to make sure that you know how to do that.
Okay, here's how you boresight your weapon.
Set it on your rest.
Remove the bolt from the rifle.
Look through the barrel of the rifle and adjust the rifle on the rest or adjust the rest however you are going to do it.
I'm told the exact center of the target is in the exact center of the barrel as you're looking down through the center of the barrel.
Now to do this, your target should be at 25 yards.
Listen to me carefully.
25 yards.
No more.
Set your target at 25 yards.
Look through the barrel of your rifle.
Make sure that the exact center of that target is in the exact center of the barrel as you're looking through the barrel at the target.
Make sure that when you're doing that, that you don't have your eye to the right or to the left or to the up or to the down in relationship to the size of the barrel.
You should be able to see the same amount of interior of the barrel all the way around the barrel As you're looking through to make sure that your bore is pointed directly at the center of the target.
Now clamp everything down at that point because at this point you don't want your rifle to move again.
Look through the scope and see where your crosshairs are.
See where your crosshairs are.
If your crosshairs are above the center of the target in your scope You want to move up.
Remember, when you're adjusting a scope, you're not moving the crosshairs toward where you want the bullet to hit.
You're moving where the bullet is hitting to the crosshairs.
If you do that, you'll see that as you turn the range adjustment or the elevation adjustment up, what you're doing is you're moving the center of the target to the crosshairs.
Same with right or left.
In other words, your boar is pointed at the center of that target.
So you're going to imagine a bullet hole in the center of the target, and you want to move that bullet hole into the center of your crosshairs.
Okay?
So if your crosshairs are to the right of the center of the target, if your crosshairs are to the right of the center of the target, You want to move the windage knob to the right.
You don't want to move it to the left because that'll take your crosshair farther away.
Okay?
Remember, you're always moving the bullet, not the crosshairs.
So since you've centered your bore on the center of the target, just pretend that you've already fired a bullet and there's a bullet hole in the center of that target.
Now you want to move that bullet hole under the crosshairs.
So up means move the bullet hole up.
Down means move the bullet hole down.
Right means move the bullet hole to the right.
Left means move the bullet hole to the left.
Not the crosshairs.
Okay?
That's how you do that.
Once you've got the center of that target Directly under your crosshairs.
In other words, the place where those two reticles cross inside your scope are absolutely dead center on the target.
And you've already lined up the center of your bore of your rifle on the center of the target.
Now you can unclamp everything.
Get into your firing position.
Make sure that there's nobody down range.
Make sure that it's okay with the range officers to fire.
And fire one bullet with the crosshairs set on the dead center of your target.
You're gonna be on the target.
If you're extremely lucky, and I mean extremely lucky, you might hit in the center of the target.
But usually you won't.
You'll still be off.
Now, what you want to make sure that you do is that the bullet, wherever your bullet hit, you're not going to be concerned with elevation right now, you're going to be concerned with windage.
You want to adjust, again, the windage to bring that bullet directly above, excuse me, above or directly below the center of the target.
Now I don't care where you hit, above or below.
What we're talking about now is did you hit left or right, above or below.
If you hit left of the center of the target and below the center of the target, don't try to bring the bullet up into the center.
Try to bring it directly below the center.
Okay?
Now you should know the minute of angle adjustment of your scope.
See the first time you fired you just wanted to see where the bullet hit.
Now you saw where it hit.
If you have a quarter minute of angle scope and you understand how that works and I'm not going to go into this with you on the radio tonight because every scope has a different adjustment.
Mine for instance is 1 eighth minute of angle which means every time I make a click adjustment it moves the bullet or where the bullet's going to fall one eighth of an inch on a target at a hundred yards.
Okay.
One quarter inch or one quarter minute of angle moves the bullet or where the bullet's going to fall one quarter of an inch at a hundred yards.
Now you read your scope instructions and it will tell you how many clicks you need to move on your windage and your elevation.
or your range adjustment in order to move where that bullet's going to fall however many inches it's off.
Okay?
For instance, if your bullet hit two inches below the center of the target and two inches to the left, you need to turn the adjustment on your scope for your windage to move that bullet to the right, where it's going to fall, to the right Two inches.
Now after we've done that, after we have the bullet absolutely lined up beneath the center of the target or above the center of the target, if your first shot fell above the center of the target, after you feel that you have it perfectly lined up either above or below, now you're going to fire another round and see where that hits.
If it hits exactly above or below the center line of the target, then you are through with your windage.
If it did not, then you have to make another adjustment to bring where the bullet's going to fall directly above or below the center line of the target.
Once you have accomplished that, you're through with the windage.
And now you want to do The elevation.
And here's what you want to do with the elevation.
If you have a trajectory chart and you have figured out where you want your zero like
I have done here, which is 550 yards, look at the 25-yard range.
Thank you.
And I always do all my ballistic tables in 25-yard increments.
And for my rifle, which is a 375 H&H Magnum Ackley Improved Wildcat with a 300 grain Hornaday Boattail Softpoint bullet.
Traveling at a muzzle velocity of 2,870 feet per second with a ballistic coefficient of .46, the table tells me that at 25 yards to zero at 550 yards, when I am looking through my scope with the crosshairs exactly dead center on the 25-yard target, When I fire that weapon, the bullet should hit 2.36 inches above dead center.
So right now, on that 25-yard target, I'm going to adjust my elevation so with the crosshairs centered in the center of the target, the bullet is going to hit 2.36 inches above the center of the target on a direct line through the center of the target, directly above the center of the target.
Now, that may sound a little complicated, but it's not.
Basically, here's what it means.
If I aim my scope dead center on that target at 25 yards, my bullet is going to hit 2.36 inches directly above where I aimed.
It's as simple as that.
And so I make my elevation adjustment from where the bullet has constantly been hitting as far as elevation is concerned.
Remember the only thing that we've adjusted is the windage.
Now I'm going to move the point of impact of the bullet above the center of the target 2.36 inches.
I'm going to keep my scope centered on the center of the target.
In other words, remember, you're always moving the bullet.
You don't ever try to move the crosshairs.
Then I'm going to fire a round.
I'm going to fire a round.
And I'm going to see where that round hits.
If it hits exactly 2.36 inches above the center of that target, and I mean directly above the center of the target, perpendicular to a horizontal line that would be moving through the center of the target, then my rifle is zeroed now for 550 yards.
It's real simple.
I never fired a shot at 550 yards.
If the bullet didn't hit where I wanted to hit, then I have to continue this process until it hits exactly where I want it to hit at 25 yards.
Now you have to do this on a day where there's no wind.
Don't ever try to zero a rifle on a windy day, or when there's any wind.
You want to be at the range on a day when there's no wind, or almost no wind.
Sometimes you just, you live in an area where there's never, not any wind, but at least you can go on a day where there's the least possible amount of wind that there is.
And we're going to talk about wind later.
If you zero your rifle when the wind is blowing, You're not really going to have a true windage zero.
You're going to be off unless you figured the effect of the wind on your bullet.
And one of the good things about zeroing your rifle at 25 yards is that the wind has less effect upon your bullet than it will at any farther range.
The farther down range you're shooting, the more effect the wind is going to have upon your bullet.
Okay, folks?
So let's pretend now that we have this rifle Perfectly zeroed where I want it at 25 yards, which is 2.36 inches directly above the center of the target.
When I am aiming the crosshairs of my scope directly at the center of the target, my bullet is going to hit 2.36 inches above the center of that target.
Okay?
Now I'm not finished because I have to confirm my zero.
And there's only one way to do that.
You move to the 100-yard range and you set up a target.
If I did everything perfectly and if my trajectory table is correct, when I fire at the 100-yard target, my bullet is going to hit.
If I am aiming dead center through the scope, I've got my crosshairs dead center on the center of the 100-yard target, my bullet is going to hit.
Twelve and one quarter inches directly above the center of the target.
Directly above the center of the target.
If that happens, my rifle is truly zeroed for 550 yards.
If that doesn't happen, then I know from this table that something's off.
Now it's never going to be off very much.
Might be off an inch.
Might be off a quarter inch.
It might be that I yanked the trigger instead of squeezed it.
Might be one of 10,000 different things.
Okay?
Actually, that's an exaggeration.
It can be only one of a very few things.
But what I want to do now is I want to start firing groups at the 100-yard target.
And I'm going to fire five round groups at that target.
And after each group, I'm going to patch the target with little sticky things that you put over the holes.
And I'm going to keep firing groups until I figure out why my rounds are not hitting at 12.25 inches above center.
Now there's another thing that you can do to confirm your zero.
Once you get in that ballpark of 12.25 inches and you're pretty consistent with your groups centered right where you want You're zero to be.
And if you've got a good rifle, they're going to be well within one inch.
And if you have a real good rifle and you're an expert marksman, you're going to have your bullets falling within a half an inch on that hundred yard target.
If you don't, don't worry about it.
Get them as close as you possibly can with what you've got in your skill level.
Because I'm going to give you all kinds of leeway to make all kinds of mistakes and you're still going to hit your target every time you pull that trigger.
Excuse me, folks.
Squeeze the trigger.
Gotta be careful what I say to beginners or people who are not very experienced.
Don't ever pull the trigger.
You must squeeze it gently.
The truth is that when the rifle fires It should surprise you.
If you know exactly when the rifle is going to fire, you pulled the trigger.
If you pulled the trigger, your bullet is not going to go where you intended it to go.
It's going to be off.
Might be just a quarter inch off.
Might be a half inch off.
Might be two inches off.
Depends upon how hard you pulled that trigger.
Remember, squeeze the trigger gently.
Practice good breath control.
We'll talk about these things on another night.
Right now, last night and tonight is... You've got your rifle.
You've got your scope.
You mounted your scope.
You bore sighted your rifle.
You are zeroing your rifle.
You've got it zeroed.
Okay?
Now, to really, truly check your zero, On a day with no or very little wind, go to the 550 yard range.
If you don't have one, find a place somewhere in the country where you can set one up and make sure it's exactly 550 yards.
Either with a laser rangefinder or actually measuring the distance in any way that you can best do that.
Make sure it's safe.
Make sure there's something behind your target to stop the bullet dead in its tracks.
Remember, just because you hit the target doesn't mean you stopped the bullet.
And you don't want that bullet to continue traveling and maybe hurt somebody or some animal or someone's property.
Make sure that you're in an area that is safe and proper and legal to fire.
Okay?
Now, If you have really zeroed your rifle for 550 rounds, set yourself up, practice good breath control, make sure that your rifle is on a steady platform, are on bipods.
Don't try, don't try to fire your rifle off hand at a 550 yard target.
Okay?
We're talking Pinterest stuff here.
Now, I know guys that can do that, but there are not very many of them.
Believe me.
Now, here's what you've done when you zeroed your rifle at zero.
It means that if you put the crosshairs of your scope exactly in the center of the target at 550 yards, and you squeeze off that shot, Your bullet should hit the center of that target at 550 yards or damn close to it.
If it does that, you have accomplished the task that we set out to teach you tonight.
Now that's what I've given you tonight is the easiest way to bore sight your rifle so that you're on target and to zero your rifle so that you are either right on at the range that you want to zero at are pretty, pretty close.
Now we're going to talk about what you do on another night if you're not exactly in the center of that target when you're firing at 550 yards or whenever your zero happens to be.
See, you're going to pick your zero according to the height of the bullet above the line of sight in your trajectory table that will keep it, keep it, Listen to me folks, below 25 inches.
Got to do that.
The only alternative to doing that is memorizing the trajectory table at every range, every 25 yards out to 700 yards.
And I'm trying to keep it very simple for you so that you don't have to do that.
Between yourself And the zero yardage, where you zeroed your rifle, you don't have to remember anything except aim at the crotch.
Aim at the crotch.
Now, on another night, we're going to talk about wind.
Everything up to this point is assuming no wind or very, very little wind.
Okay?
Nothing above a slight breeze.
Now, just so you'll know, If there is a slight breeze, and the breeze is blowing from right to left, you would center your crosshairs on your target, on the right side of the body, on a line even with the crotch, and you're still going to hit your target every time you pull the trigger.
Every single time, if that target is between you and the point where you zeroed your rifle.
If they're at the point where you zeroed your rifle, well, you put your crosshairs on whatever you want to hit.
And we're going to talk about what happens if every time you fire at your zero range, you never hit the center of the target.
If that happens, it's always going to consistently be hitting in one particular point, a certain distance from the center of the target, right, left, up, or down.
Our combination of two of those.
And we're going to talk about that.
In other words, you get to know your equipment.
You get to know what your equipment will do consistently.
And I'm going to teach you how to hit your target every single time you pull the trigger.
And you don't have to worry about all of this stuff that all of these guys are always talking about.
Hitting a dime at 700 yards means nothing in a war.
Okay?
It's great for the guys that can do it.
Most guys will never in their life do it.
Won't even come close.
And it's you that I'm talking to.
It's you that I'm trying to teach.
It's you that's got to learn how to hit your target every time you pull that trigger.
And if you listen to me, you will do it every single time that it happens.
I promise you that.
When the wind really gets up in an uproar.
I was trying to search for a word.
I guess that'll do it.
Good night folks.
God bless each and every single one of you.
Good night.
Annie Clune Allison.
I love you.
There'll be love for you and for better.
Faith will come through and you're going anywhere.
Stand for the things you know are right.
It's the girls that's the truth, make it so tight, yeah.
All the things you want and will, Folks, this series of broadcasts will not ever appear on the website.
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