Zeroing is an Ongoing Process?
In this video, Chuck Pressburg reports frequently putting clicks on his fighting rifles to refine his zero:
https://youtu.be/kQj6JiWyslc?si=fgldvyBjkbSagz5W
Questions:
- If zero is a mechanical alignment between a rifle and its sighting system, why and how do things like clothing, shooting position, lighting conditions, gun mount, cheek weld/head position, etc. change the point of impact to where adding/removing clicks is needed?
- If zeroing is an ongoing process as Chuck says, how do you take a good cold bore shot if the point of impact changes so often?
- Bonus question: On a rifle, does resetting the trigger in recoil have any effect on accuracy or consistency compared to pinning the trigger rearward until the sights settle?
Zeroing is an Ongoing Process?
Interesting topic. I'm going to send a possibly spicy response below!
A confirmed zero is important in all guns, and essential in precision rifle shooting. But I'm skeptical about this approach for a few reasons.
Zeroing requires stable, repeatable conditions. Deviations from zero can be caused by factors other than the mechanical zero and ballistics. Especially in a long gun, I'd be reluctant to change my zero unless I can control the conditions. If I had reason to think that the mechanical zero was jacked, I'd have no alternative than to do my best to get a field zero.
I have not changed the zero on my main precision rifle (S&B PM2/AIAE .260) in years. The effect of atmospherics is accounted for in my ballistic software. Of course, I'm not shooting F class where tiny changes make a big difference.
On carbines with LPVOs, I have not observed changes in my zero above the 1/2 moa range. On carbines with dots, the zero is stable within my ability to measure it.
I do not adjust my zero based on my technique (or position like prone, bench, etc). I zero in a consistent way, and rely on that consistency.
@Cdub_NW, @JCL any thoughts?