I have a bit of a rookie question, but after zeroing a scope at say 50/200 yards, would I realign the turret so that it lines up with 0 or the corresponding mark it's been zeroed at. (ie. .5 or 2?)

It would seem to make sense to line it up at the distance the scope has been zeroed at, but I may not be thinking very clearly! Thx.

I set mine to zero on all my rifles.  That way if I have to make an adjustment for wind or distance it's easy to get back to zero.

I came to post this.....

Some suggest setting the zero at zero but adjusting the zero stop couple clicks under .

I thought maybe he was crossing between the two but after rereading what he typed that wasn't the case.

Thanks for the feedback guys and clearing that up!  Seemed obvious at first but then I started to overthink it.

I was thinking for elevation if I zeroed at say 100 yards and I set the dial to 1 rather than 0, I would always be able to correlate the dial marks to the yardage I was shooting at.  But I'll set the zero to 0!

You need to do a lot more research on this.  For the vast majority of scopes (that don’t have a BDC turret matched to your specific rifle, load, and environmentals), the marking on your turrets correlate to the graduations that the turrets adjust in (be that .1 MRAD, .2 MRAD, 1/4 MOA, 1/2 MOA, etc.), NOT the distance that you’ll be shooting at (1 for 100y, 2 for 200y, etc).

You need to figure out the ballistics of your specific load (projectile characteristics, velocity, etc) out of your specific rifle and plug that all in to a ballistic calculator to figure out your drops for different ranges.  You’ll then want to get out to a range and confirm/modify those drops as needed at actual distance.  Doing your homework beforehand will save you a lot of headaches and wasted money/ammo down the line.

@ARBertch

ETA:  Here’s a simplified ballistic drop chart for one of my rifles shooting Mk262.  As you can see, the drop numbers don’t numerically line up with the yardage they correlate to.

Attached File

I always give myself a half mil downward adjustment ability with standard zero stops, mainly in case I want to shoot unsuppressed (which is pretty rare).  My two suppressors on my “precision” rifles always exhibit a near perfectly vertical shift measuring .2-.3 mils when removed.

Some turrets (like the Zerolock on ATACRs) give you a built-in ability to dial below zero (by 2 mils in the Zerolock’s case), even with the actual “zerostop” set to your actual zero.

Thanks for the info RJeff.  Yeah I've been trying to soak up the knowledge all over and thought I was starting to get a grasp of things and realized I still have a ways to go.  I recently finished a MK12 build and will be using the MK262, and do have a BDC turret for the MK262 load which I'm finally understanding has the bullet drop markings above the MOA graduations..  Now I just need to understand what I'm looking at, but I guess I should have known better that the 1/2 MOA graduations don't correlate to the distance I'm shooting at.

I'm really enjoying this rifle however and precision shooting.  Once I figure everything out I'll enjoy it even more ha!  But I'll take your advice and calculate the ballistics for the load/rifle combo and go from there.

It’s no worries, and there is no “knowing better” when it comes to a lot of things, especially shooting.  I’m always learning and for every 10 retards I meet at the range, I meet 1 dude who knows his shit and is able to impart some valuable knowledge.  Attend some matches and talk with some competitors after you’ve picked up the basics, they may all not be open to sharing, but a lot of guys will be willing to help you out as long as you’re open and receptive.  Do your research and eventually you’ll get the hang of things.