Hey everyone. I have a few questions about zeroing my lever guns. Due to money issues Ive had to sell my ARs so I am down to using my lever guns for home defense, out in the woods and at the range for now on. ( I couldnt bring myself to sell the lever guns ) My question is this. What distance should I zero my 30-30s at and what distance should I zero my 38/357 at? The farthest I can shoot at my range is 400 yards but for protection, hunting ect I would be 200 yards and under for 80% of my shots.

The rifles I am using are a 1894 Trapper, 1894 Ranger ( both in 30-30) and a Rossi with a 20" octagonal barrel in 38/357.

I zero everything at 100 yrds

100 for the 30/30, 50 for the 357.

100 yards ..

x2

This is the correct answer!

Thanks everyone! Going to take them out on Sunday and will make sure to take pictures.

I zero my .30-30s for 125 or 150 yards.  But, it really depends on what you're planning on doing.  IMO, if it's a hunting rifle (read self-protection also), I don't want the range limited for 100 yards or less... and if you are totally honest, exactly, what level are your range estimation skills at?  If all you're doing is plinking at the range, then yeah, sight it in for 100 yards... but... if you're likely to encounter game at an unknown range, then sight it in for the best effective range.  To me, effective range means keeping bullet travel above and below the line of sight to within 3".  That's gives you a 6" margin of error.  Well within "minute of deer".
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/sass93/30-30Traj150zero.jpg

Compare that to the same load sighted in for just 100 yards.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/sass93/30-30Traj100zero.jpg
If you're a 3" off-hand shooter, and what you're shooting at is actually at 180 yards instead of 150 you think it's at, you've lessened your chances for a hit by a bunch!

Likewise, I sight in the .38Spl. Rossi '92 at 75 yards, or about 3" high at 100.  Even if most of my shooting is done far under that...  
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/sass93/38SplTraj75yards1200fps.jpg

There ain't a "right" or wrong distance to sight in your rifle... but, some options give you a bit more leeway.

That's the conventional wisdom, but it's wrong.

For the .30-30, the answer is more often than not 200 yards, or 225 yards.

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Don't over think it, but also consider the practical range of the .30-30 and take as much of the potential error out of the range estimation as possible by using a maximum point blank range approach.  

A 100 yard zero is very limiting.  It will give a lower mid range trajectory but will give you excessive drop past about 150 yards requiring you to make both an accurate range estimate and an appropriate amount of hold over.

Generally speaking for a not so flat shooting caliber like the .30-30, you want to zero at between 80% and 100% of the maximum range you expect to shoot at.   A 200 yard zero with a 150 gr round nosed bullet in a 20" iron sighted 30-30 will leave you about 3" high at 50 yards, 5" high at 120 yards, zero'd at 200 yards and 5" low at 230 yards.  Given that 200 yards is realistically the maximum effective range of an iron sighted .30-30 anyway.  And it means you can hold dead on from 0 to 230 yards and expect a hit in a 10" vital zone.  

If you want to be more precise and are sure of the range, you can hold dead on out to about 80 yards, hold a little low(-4 to -5") from 80 to 160 and then hold dead on again out to 200.   With either approach you also are holding under the point of aim and will never be obscuring the target with the front blade.

If you've scoped your 30-30,  the higher mounted scope and a 100 yard zero will give you a very flat mid range trajectory but you'll be 5" low by the time you get to 180 yards.

However with a 200 yard zero your mid range trajectory is only +3.5" at 100 yards and you can go all the way to 240 yards before you're 5" below line of sight - a gain of 60 yards with no need for a precise range estimate.  

So in essence, with the +/-5" point blank range approach and a 200 yard zero you can hold dead on and shoot to 240 yards and expect a vital zone hit based on the trajectory (whether you can shoot that accurately is another matter), and that means range estimation on deer less than 250 yards is a non issue.

To take the +/- 5" point blank range to the extreme, you can zero at 225 yards with a scoped 30-30 and be about 5" high at 130 yards and 5" low at 260 yards, which still leaves you with about 1500 fps and 760 ft pounds of energy with a 150 gr RN.     So if you can shoot that well, a 225 yard zero on a scoped .30-30 will add another 80 yards to the effective range compared to a 30-30 sighted at only 100 yards.


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Practically speaking a regular NRA 100 yard small bore target has an 8" bullseye, so if you zero your .30-30 to hit center of the bull when you are holding on the bottom of the bull at 100 yards, you'll have what amounts to a 225 yard zero with a scoped .30-30 with out having to have access to a 200 yard range.  

The same logic in the previous post also applies to the .357 where 100 yards is a far more useful zero range.  

WIth a 140 gr bullet at around 1500 fps out of an iron sighted carbine, a 100 yard zero leave you about 2" high at 50 yards, and 5" low at 135 yards with about 1130 fps and 400 ft pounds of energy left.  

In contrast with a 50 yard zero, you are already 4" low at 100 yards and falling so fast that you're 5" low by 106 yards.  Consequently, with a 100 yard zero you'll never notice the mid range trajectory at 50 yards, but you'll definitely notice the drop after 50 yards and you'll be giving up at least 30 yards of effective range.

100 yards.

Agreed.

While I sighted in my weapons at 100yds per conventional wisdom for years, about 10 years ago I realized that it made more sense for me to sight them in at the expected shooting range I planned to use them at.  That means for scoped hunting rifles, I use 250yds because here in the west, we have longer shots and that is a typical distance to shoot at.  My military style rifles iron sight rifles are set up for 225yds and my open sight 357mag and std pressure 45colt rifles, I zero in at 100yds.  I find that those give me the most flexible ranging options while sighting.  However, YMMV

 
 

Correct answer:


If it's scoped, up to 100yds.  Open sights, 50 yds.

You should know based on your shooting capability. You should NOT do anything based on someone else's experience. Take the time and find out for yourself. Test fire the rifle and figure out what is best.

Maybe sight your 30/30 in for 150 yards because grandpa shot a deer at 250 yards. Down hill in a blinding snow storm with visibility of 100 yards. That was a few years ago so he says.

We sighted everything for an inch high at 100 yards just because my Dad and Granddad did it that way..  It was rare to get a longer shot in the deer woods of PA.

This would make sense to me. I have zeroed all my ARs to 100 yards, both my 30-30s and all my SKS rilfes. I have my .308 bolt gun zeroed to 200 yards, plan to zero the M1A there, and will zero my 1894 .44 mag to 50 yards.