What's your routine start to finish? I was out today with my 7mm Mag, my shoulder hurts and I still haven't nailed it down.

4 inch black dot at 25 yards,then move it to 100,bore sight by eye,adjust the scope if necessary (or the iron) then fine tune with groups of 3.
If I can put every shot in a 4 inch circle at 100 yards I can kill anything around here as long as I know the range.

i shoot a 7mm Rem mag too

i shoot 3 shot groups ONLY , if they're good at 30yds
Go to 100 ( 3" high at 100) yds 3 shots check target...adjust scope 3 shots continue until good
Same at 200 yds. should be dead on at 200 by then.

139 gr bullet No shoulder pain

Sight in dead on at 25 yds. Then check zero at 100 like 2 inch high…..try putting a limbsaver on if it kicks that bad.

Solid front and rear…a vice if you will. Shoot one shot, leave gun as is and move crosshairs to bullet hole. Shoot again to make sure it’s dead on…
If your scope is the BDC reticle type just count over and up/down and move crosshairs with appropriate clicks.
Generally 3 shots and it’s on. My son sighted in 3 rifles for the owner this afternoon in 7 shots. He went the wrong way on one adjustment, lol.

When I’ve had that problem I start at 10 feet with the gun sand bagged so it shouldn’t move much and work my way out to 100 yards in about 20 foot increments, it’s time and ammo consuming but it does work, this method has helped me find other issues such as scope mounts moving when you can’t zero at 10 feet there’s something seriously wrong.

This ^ also if you shoot it when it’s hot it might hit differently when it’s cold just shooting and shooting is not your friend.

lead sled and ear muffs are the key to a good sight in, don't get to flinching from recoil or sound plus your rock steady. What you spend on a lead sled you will save in ammo sighting in a few rifles.. Also you will immediately know if there is a mechanical problem with scop, mounts etc.

I was was talking to an ex Army sniper instructor today picking his brain about various shooting topics. I asked him how often he cleaned his rifle between shots. He told me a dirty bore shoots more accurately than a clean, cold bore. That sure sounded counterintuitive to me.

If your shoulder hurts and you haven't been able to get a tight group, you might need to dial in "Posco" before you spend any more money on bullets.
Sore shoulder can come from a single shot while not having a tight plant of the stock into your shoulder. Thick clothing can trick you into thinking that the added layers will protect your shoulder. Not so if you don't completely compress those letters with an extra amount of rearward force.
Once I have a sore shoulder, its time to give the big gun a rest, and I pull out a rimfire rifle which I know is dead nuts on.
Then I can work on getting "Carl" dialed back in. It's amazing how that calms me down and allows me to focus on the fundamentals of proper position, and everything else required of me to them make the big gun do what it supposed to do.

I shoot 2 shots off the bench at 100 yards to make sure it is still on.

I have a sled. Not the one I wanted but I am getting a rocksolid hold. I double up on the hearing protection and squeeze to trigger. The trigger is crisp with no slack. I don't know what it breaks at but it's not heavy. Maybe it's the factory ammo, I don't know.

I like to hit dead on at 25 yards then finish up at 300, not good to shoot till your sore. You will start jerking the trigger. No need to do it all in one day. some rifles I dont shoot that far. 30-30 or 556, 22 hornet and the like.

I clean pretty regular. If you wait till your groups open up the carbon buildup takes awhile to get out.

I have decent tolerance to pain. I used to reload for my .300 Win Mag and I'd typically take two boxes to the range. I could make it through the first box pretty good but the second box wasn't as fun.

That's where I am at,.I feel confident with it,..not out west needed.

I sight in at 50yards. If I just scoped a rifle, I use a laser bore sight at 20 to get me on paper. Then shoot one round at 50 and move the cross hairs over to the hole. Shoot one more to verify. Sighting in and shooting groups are two very different kettle of fish.
I shoot groups at a 100 but using the 50 yard zero so depending on the cartridge I am a bit high at 100 and thats fine with me as that does not destroy the bulls eye of the target that I use to line up on. 5 shot groups for developing loads .... 3 shot groups to just test if the rifle is " on "

Solid support front and back. Pull bolt and bore sight at 50 yds looking down barrel, that gets me on paper about 90% of the time at a 100 yds. Back out to a 100 yds fire one round. If it's on paper I do as several have mentioned and setup gun so it's cross hairs are on bulls eye then adjust scope to bullet hole. Then 3 shot group. If it still need a bit of tweaking I'll measure target and dial in adjustment. Ultimately on varmint guns I go 2" high at a 100, deer guns 3"" high at 175 yds and for playing at my range I'll zero at 300 on the bigger guns.

Muzzle brakes are nice on the shoulder if your wearing good ear protection.

Pain is just an intense form of pleasure. I used to "enjoy" shooting the 375 H&H off the bench.

These pics are from the last time I sighted the rifle in. It's four hundred yards from where I took the pic to the target on the tree line. I'm very careful around my guns as far as bumping them and whatnot. I'll check the mounts to see if something might have worked loose. You can see a couple of flyers next to my fingers. I Don't recall where they were in the sequence.

IMC Inches Minutes Clicks

I start at 25 yards on a 1/4 inch graph paper with a 5 one inch squares

prone with a sling or at a bench with a rest I lay in the best 3 shots I can holding the bottom edge of that square but center left right

then with those 3 rounds if I have a group and I should I count squares at 25 yards every square is 1MOA dial in that correction for left right.
I will dial in an elevation correction to stay about an 1 to 1.5 inches low at 25 yards then I fire 2-3 more rounds if they are grouped center but about an inch to inch and a half low time to move to 100 yards.

a 1/4 inch is 1 MOA at 25 yards so on a 1/4 minute click scope 4 clicks to every 1/4 inch square I need to move.
you can measure but the light graph with the dark squares makes it easy to count off.

at 100 yards it depends on the optic or irons for what target I use about a 2 inch square on point works for most optics the vertical and horizontal cross hairs line up with the points of the square on point
the diagonal of a 2x2 inch square is 2.82 so very close to 3 inches I want that 100 yard group say for a 223 , 308 , 30-06 to be 1 1/2 inches above point of aim so just off the point of the square I fire 2-3 then adjust if I felt they were good shots.

same thing measure how far vertical and horizontal I want to go then dial it in at 100 yards 1MOA =1.047" until you get to 500 yards or further.
round to 1 inch and if you shoot 100 meters which is 109 yards close enough technically 104.7 yards would be the point it is 1 inch so close enough it works for both yards and meters at 100

when I have it just off the tip of the square which is about 1.5 inches high I will move to 200 for confirmation often at 200 I will just paint the steel black and shoot I can see the impacts with my binoculars I am shooting for the center or I may paint a dot I want all my rounds to impact in a group where I am aiming

what I am shooting determines if it is 200 yards or 200 meters 218 yards. that is the extent of my regular range.

if I need to collect data farther I have to go to the farm.

at 200 I may fine adjust left right to make it center or fine adjust the elevation to hit point of aim

at 200 on a 1/4 moa click scope each click is 1/2 inch

at 300 it is 3/4 of an inch

at 400 it is an inch.


make sure you read the manual for your optic some are 1/2 moa and that will have you double what you intended on every adjustment.

Mrad or Mill Radians is for another time if you have an optic in mrads