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Fred's
Columns
20 Jan 02: ONE-SHOT ZEROING
With winter full on us, but spring just ahead, here is a little something to help you quickly zero next time you sight-in a new rifle, or re-zero an old one.
It’s called the one-shot zero, and it’ll show you to be a man who knows his way around a rifle. (Think of all those poor hunters - and others - down at the range, who waste a 20-rd box - and still aren’t anywhere near zeroed.)
You can do it at any distance. The easiest - and best, certainly for initial zeroing - is at 25 meters [82 ft]. At that distance, adjusting your sights so your point of aim is the same as point of impact will usually put you in the money for a 200-yard shot (or any shot from muzzle out to 225 yards).
But, if you’re going to pull it off, you need to have the skills of a rifleman.
You have to know how to fire a good shot, and part of that is knowing how to take up a good position.
But once past that, grab any rifle - how about that M1A over there, rusting in the corner - take up a solid prone position, & squeeze the round off. Being a rifleman, you called the shot ‘good’ - that is, the front sight was right where it ought to be, on target, when the rifle went off. You know, because as a rifleman, your eye was on the front sight when it fired, so you know where the bullet went when it left the barrel. Now, go down to the target. Yep, there’s the bullet hole, just out from the black at 11 o’clock.
Now, you need to do the ‘inches, minutes, clicks’ routine so you know how to adjust your sights. Let’s see, the bullet went about 3/4 inch left, 1 1/4 inches high. Being a rifleman, having read Fred’s Rifleman Guide, you already know that an moa at 25 meters is a quarter-inch. So, that’s 3 minutes left, and 5 minutes high.
With a US Garand, or M1A, all you need do is run the sight down 5 clicks, and right 3 clicks. That should put you in the black at 200.
But say, wait a minute. Being a rifleman, you don’t want a 200-yard zero. No way. You want your Battlesight Zero [BSZ] so you can aim dead-on at any target out to 300 yards, and knock him over. So the initial adjustment should be to your BSZ of 275 yards, which is about 2 clicks up from your 200 zero. Hence, to adjust from your one-shot sighter to your BSZ, you want your shot to hit the target 2 clicks high; hence, you come down THREE clicks, not five. [Remember this: it’s on the “Rifleman’s Pop Quiz”, in the Guide to Becoming a Rifleman.]
Now, simply aim at any target at 300 yards or less, and take the shot.
Yet, as a rifleman, you realize the limitations of a one-shot zero. Sure, it’s quick. Sure, you look good zeroing in one shot. But you also know that your group size, the standard that as a rifleman you strive to meet, is 4 moa. Being an experienced rifleman, you know that with a rack-grade rifle and good surplus ammo, you can usually better that to 3 moa, maybe even, with extra-good ammo, 2 moa.
Be conservative, and assume 3 moa. A single sighter shot represents a group which falls in a 3 moa circle - at 25 meters, a circle 3/4” in diameter. While chances are it is closer to the center of that circle than not, you have to assume that it is possible that you are adjusting based on a shot near the edge of the circle.
Hence, your ‘one-shot zero’ can be up to 1.5 clicks [moa] off, in either windage or elevation.
You’ll definitely want to zero with 3 shots if you need to make a good shot at or beyond 300 yards. The ‘one-shot’ zero will get you within 4.5 moa on the target, worse case - your basic 3 moa, plus the 1.5 moa potential error. As a practical matter, it will put you within 3 moa on the target with 50-50 odds. Out at 300 yards, that’s 13.5 inches at worse, nine inches on average on a 20-inch-wide target; not bad for a ‘one-shot zero’, but maybe a tad marginal for rifleman work beyond 300.
Out at 500, where you want to have capability to hit a man-sized target reliably, that 1.5 moa ‘error’ could, worse-case, put you 11 inches off the center of the 20-inch wide target - a miss. The probability of a hit drops from near 100% to about 70%. And remember, other errors - range estimation, wind, etc. - may cancel out, but you know in real life, they also cumulate, knocking you clean off the target for a miss.
Compare these numbers, representing the relative area of your group size at 500 yards [the rifleman 4 moa standard equals the target size]:
Group Size Area at 500 Yards
3 moa 56
4 moa 100
4.5 moa 138
The 3 moa group covers slightly more than half the target area, leaving room for error. The 4 moa group leaves no room for error - you have to do your job! And the 4.5 moa group overlaps the target, with about a 30% chance of an outright miss.
So you trade speed for some loss in precision. Best bet: fire two more shots to base your zero on a more accurate 3-shot average, keeping you close to 3 moa on the target. Save the ‘one-shot’ for when you’re in a real hurry, short of ammo, or simply confirming zero.
The ‘one-shot’: quick and dirty zero confirmation. It offers a challenge. YOU fire a good shot, and you’ll get quick information of value to a rifleman.
THE M14 AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS
Think about it. Both the M14 rifle and the Bill of Rights are products of the best minds of their day. Both were labors of love, the desire on the part of imperfect men to create perfect things for this country. Both things designed to protect liberty in this country.
We have argued here that the M14 is the best and highest development of the battle rifle. Historians as well as thoughtful people have argued that the Bill of Rights is a mile-post in human political evolution.
So, naturally, the liberals want to stick their oars in, and destroy both.
They’ve done a good job on the rifle, good enough to get an “A”, by classroom grading. Over 90% of M14s have been destroyed by ignorant politicians bending to liberal pressure. M1As have also been the target of ‘assault weapons’ legislation. Face it, they’d like to hunt down every M1A out there, seize it, and crunch it up. You don’t have to guess at that one. You can hear them salivating.
The Bill of Rights too is a target about to be stood on its head by facile reinterpretation - reinterpretation a child - but not a liberal - could see through. And, soon, to be replaced by the UN’s [read: liberals’] “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, basically a liberal redraft of the Bill of Rights. If you think the future is gonna be bright and easy, you need to stop and read the declaration for a true pic of the your socialist future.
They are taking this country away from you, even as you sleep in front of the TV. Why, you can even hear King George’s military aide, laughing about soon-to-be gelded American males. [You! Resolve that it won’t be so!]
THE GARAND RULES! 55 Hits Per Minute!
Fred,
I enjoy your articles every issue of Shotgun News, and that is usually the first thing I read; however, I believe you are overlooking one of the best, if not THE best, battle rifles of all time. You call the m14/m1a the ultimate in firepower, accuracy, and reliability; under those categories, criticize the greatest battle implement ever designed, the M1 Garand.
As far as accuracy goes, our tests up here in Wisconsin, out to 500 meters, have shown that the standard M1 Garand is just as capable of hitting the target as the standard m14, provided the shooter has mastered the technique of shooting the m1 [my underlining - Fred]. i would like to point out that en-bloc clips are MUCH MUCH cheaper and more widely available than '14 mags and do not require any tactical reloads, thus suiting the rifle prime for any period of sustained fire [?]. Reliability wise, the m14 was based of the m1 garand, and the Garand's battle tested and proven ability is not something simply to turn your shoulder at.
Lastly, the Garand wins in the firepower category. as far as the cartridge goes, the fact that the 30-06 can do everything the 308 can, but a little better, was well established. Rifle-wise, we did not know, so we devised a simple test: 200 yards, 20" circle, 1 minute. pitting two of most skilled riflemen we could muster against each other, the Garand spanked the ‘14; the shooter on the '14 could only provide 47 hits, while the M1 gunner PRESENTED AN ASTONISHING 55 HITS. Everyone else can keep their ak's, ar15's, fal's, sks's, or whatever else they bring, the garand beats 'em all! Ride it like a pogo stick !! email, bk, happy customer & shooter - Garand forever! PS: And your combat article was excellent, keep up the writings, I’d like to see an article about a cheap 50 BMG and/or how riflemen should know how to use it, ballistics, etc etc
BK, always great to run across a shooter full of enthusiasm. The Garand makes second place on my list, tying with the FAL, so I don’t think I’m underrating it. You didn’t mention one definite plus: the Garand is certainly cheaper to buy! But remember the ‘14 is an improvement of the battle-tested M1, correcting its major fault - the en bloc 8-rd clip. Say you are attacking, and you’ve fired 4 rounds. You have a moment, maybe you want to top up your ammo. About impossible with the Garand. You gotta eject the clip, usually spilling the 4 rounds in the dirt, losing ‘em. Remember, dust, noise, confusion, excitement, fingers shaking, etc. And every clip you fire in combat is, usually, a lost clip, unless you make a point of stopping and searching for it on the ground. Heck, why not go ahead and police up your brass for reloading! Sooner or later, you’re gonna run out of clips. And while Garand clips are cheap - for the moment - how about that .308, much cheaper and easier to find than surplus 30-06. Stock up!
On paper and in real life, the M1A wins a rapid fire fight with a Garand, as the Garand shooter has to reload twice before the ‘1A shooter has to reload once. You make a good point, though. Given a Garand, and motivation, you, the skilled rifle shooter, will turn that Garand into a real killing machine, or in PC-terms, “maximize the effectiveness of the rifle”. The M1 shooter who got 55 hits at 200 in one minute is going to give any shooter a run for his money, regardless of his rifle, proving a point about rifleman skills, that they can trump the choice of rifle. That skilled M1 shooter is going to outshoot 99% of those ‘better’ M1As out there, simply because their owners don’t bother to get the skill needed to beat him.
In “the 2nd” context, .50 bmg will play an extremely limited, specialized role at best. It’s not a top choice.
SOMETHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
With slavish media adoration of the UN, you’ll not have heard - or learned the answer to - this question:
Of the first 14 UN Undersecretaries who controlled the UN’s military, all 14 were:
a. communists b. heads of state
c. generals d. ambassadors
Go ahead, take a guess. Made your choice?
The correct answer is - surprise! - a. communists. At the UN’s founding, it was agreed that the Undersecretary for Political and Security Council Affairs would be chosen by the Soviet Union. [Why not? We’re all liberals, aren’t we?] See why you can never trust liberals to look out for freedom?
THE RIFLEMAN'S POP QUIZ
Taken from Fred’s “Guide to Becoming a Rifleman”, let’s see if you can answer it:
12. Why does the Rifleman need to be effective out to 500 yards?
a. To outshoot potential opponents.
b. To show and prove his skill.
c. To make use of the capabilities of his rifle.
d. To impress new shooters.
Only one answer is correct. An easy one - for a rifleman, but you gotta think! And keep those resolutions! |
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