Range & Optics

Sighting in a muzzleloader is the same arithmetic as any other rifle and a completely different afternoon. Every shot is a full reload, the bore condition changes between shots, and the barrel needs to cool, so you get very few shots per session and each one has to count. Pick one load, pick one swabbing […]

Sighting in an air rifle follows the same logic as any other scoped gun, but the pellet’s flight path is far more curved over short distance. That means your line of sight and your pellet path cross twice within the space of a back garden, and the hold changes noticeably between those two points. Zero

A three-pin sight is set in order, not all at once. Zero the top pin at your closest working distance and get it truly centered, then walk back and set the middle and bottom pins using only their own vertical adjustment. Move the whole housing when every pin is off in the same direction, and

The 100 yard zero is the default for hunting rifles because it is simple, honest and confirmed. Most shots taken at game fall inside it, the trajectory inside that distance is flat enough to hold dead on, and it requires no mental arithmetic at the moment you least want to be doing arithmetic. The important

The 25 yard zero exists because of one fact about how bullets fly: the bullet path crosses the line of sight twice, not once. Set the near crossing at a short distance and the far crossing lands somewhere useful a long way downrange, which is why people say a close zero gets you on at

The short answer: a pistol red dot zeros with the same adjustments as any other optic, but on a handgun the optic is rarely what is wrong. Confirm the pistol is unloaded, make sure the optic, the mounting plate and every screw in that stack are correctly fitted and torqued, then shoot deliberate groups from

A bore sighter aligns your sights with the barrel so your first live round lands on the paper instead of somewhere in the dirt. It is a pre-step, not a zero. Done well it saves the rounds and the frustration normally spent hunting for that first hole. The three common types, visual through the bore,

The short version of how to sight in a thermal scope: you cannot see a printed target through thermal, so the first job is building an aiming point that shows up as heat, not ink. Once the target is visible, most thermal units let you fire one shot, freeze the image, and drag the reticle

The short version of how to sight in a compound bow: confirm the peep is aligned and the sight is levelled, set your top pin at 20 yards until three arrows land centered, then leave it alone and set each remaining pin at its own distance by moving only that pin. Windage is set once

The short version of how to sight in a bow and arrow: shoot a small group at a close distance from a repeatable stance and anchor, then move the sight pin in the same direction the arrows landed. Arrows hitting low and left means the pin moves low and left, which is why archers call

To sight in a rifle: confirm it is unloaded, build a rest that removes your body from the equation, get on paper at short range, then shoot three-shot groups and move the sights to the center of the group. With iron sights you move the rear sight in the direction you want the group to

The short version of how to sight in a red dot: confirm the firearm is unloaded, check the mount screws, fit a fresh battery, then get on paper at close range before you back up. Pick one zero distance and commit to it, shoot three-shot groups from a solid rest, and move the dot to