100 Yard Zeroes

Recently, Reid Henrichs made a YouTube video regarding  some new policies at Valor Ridge. The most criticized was his decision to disallow home-build rifles. Additionally,  number of persons online mentioned the fact that they don't like his adherence to a 100-yard zero. Particularly for AR15 rifles.

As is often the case, the arguments against were not founded in fact, but in feeling. Here are a couple of counter-proofs to these arguments.

A Rifleman knows his holdovers.
Regardless of your zero, you should know your holdovers. My ACOG was zeroed at 100, as per manufacturer specification. However, during Rifleman I, we zeroed and checked zero at 50 yards. I knew to hold over by an inch, because a Rifleman knows his holdovers. My first three shots were in the 10-ring, and grouped within an inch, prompting Reid to remark to me, "good shooting!"

So, a real Rifleman would simply know his holdovers and apply that knowledge, rather than kvetch about the 100-yard zero. And as that is common knowledge among folks who shoot rifles, said kvetching is just that person being intentionally obtuse.

You haven't received the instruction.
Complaining about something like a class - without having attended that class - leaves one open to rebuke due to lack of knowledge. This is he case here. Notice I said above - "we zeroed and checked zero at 50 yards." Most of the participants were already zeroed. Two in my group of 6 were not yet zeroed. That was accomplished first thing... at 50 yards. Red dots were to be zeroed dead-on at 50 yards.

[I can hear the moaning now] "But Reid said to zero at 100 yards!"

Fun fact - with a 4 MOA red dot, if you are zeroed at 50, the bullet impact will be right about where the upper middle edge of the dot is at 100 yards. Maybe just a tad over that. And that was the 100-yard Zero that Reid was referencing.

This is about what the dot would look like on a target at 100 yards.




And, thanks to the folks at Arma Dynamics, here is an illustration of point of aim vs. point of impact for an AR15 with 50, 100, and 300 yard zeroes:

You will note the 100 yard zero and 50 yard zero (which is really close to a 200 yard zero) are really similar. Certainly similar enough to warrant a similar holdover strategy from 100 to 300 yards. If you argue the bullet won't strike at exactly the same point... you are intentionally being obtuse. Red dot shooting with an AR15 is not the same as precision shooting with a bolt gun.

Rifleman I is not a precision shooting with a bolt gun class. And nobody pretends it is.