Aiming Point

M

mothball10x

Guest
I would like to know what you shooters use for your aiming point on the BR targets.
Do you use the mothball or the aiming square ?
If you use the aiming square that means the scope must be set so the bullet hits in the mothball area,is this correct ?
If the aiming square is used,am I correct in thinking that the scope is adjusted too have the bullet hit the target about 11/4 inches below POA ?.............thanks,Tom
 
mothball10x said:
I would like to know what you shooters use for your aiming point on the BR targets.
Do you use the mothball or the aiming square ?
If you use the aiming square that means the scope must be set so the bullet hits in the mothball area,is this correct ?
If the aiming square is used,am I correct in thinking that the scope is adjusted too have the bullet hit the target about 11/4 inches below POA ?.............thanks,Tom
Click to expand...

The aiming square is a throwback to the days of 20-24 power scopes being the best we had. I would say that most shooters have their scopes dialed somewhere in the mothball area. I use a hold of tangent left and tangent top with impact center to 5 o-clock. That way I do not shoot out my hold point. The key is to develop a HABIT and stick with it. That way, in the heat of battle when all goes to hell, at least auto-pilot will get you close.

And BTW, what you call the BR target is a GROUP target. Score shooting is BR too!!!:D
 
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You should get lots of answers on this .... me, I try and have my POA = POI by sighting in the scope when it is reasonably calm .... In Tony Boyer's new book he seems to pick a POA of 12 o'clock on the mothball .... unfortunately for me I am not good enough to make the mental transitions of that type of POA when I need to modify my hold for a wind condition.....
 
Primarily as an aid in dealing with mirage at 200, I touch the top edge of my horizontal cross hair to the bottom edge of the line that defines the mothball, and split the mothball with my vertical cross hair. I set up my still air point of impact so that it is centered just above the mothball. In any case, one should not shoot holes in one's aiming point.
 
I hold the exact opposite of Master Boyer :)

6:00 dot on the mothball

I've recently experimented with shooting at my crosshairs at 600yds.

It's weird!

al
 
Smack dab in the middle

I still like aiming right in the middle of the good old mothball and to let the group form just above it so I don't blow the aim point out. I center the group so a L-R blows the bullet right and vice versa. This teaches you to eye ball how much a condition is worth and is good for wind reading training. I guess I like symmetry. I prefer the group to form above and not below because sometimes oil in the bbl will cause the first shot to drop and I don't want to chance dropping it below the legal area to shoot on the sighter target.

I like aiming in the center because when I'm letting bullets fly I want to spend the least amount of time as possible figuring out where I'm aiming. To me, it's just easiest (and fastest) to aim in the center of a circle and I find it easier doing holdoffs. I can't explain this last one, it's just a perception thing. You may find something different.

Before we all say the black square is just a throw back to an earlier era with lower power scopes, I have found when shooting at 300 yards (yes, we do that on occasion), mirage can be so bad that the square is all you can see to aim at so it still has a purpose.

When you're facing a stiff cross wind you may have to hold off several rings upwind or click the scope (remember what you did) and use your original aimpoint.

I think Mike Ratigan outlined a pretty complicated strategy for dealing with this in his book as well.

As you can tell, this is one of the more personal things we do with many variations. The important thing is to find something you can easily acquire the target with and what you're the most comfortable doing.

Good luck.....
 
For what its worth, which ain't much. I like to use the aiming square. Sometimes that is about all you can see. I have the bullet strike about 1inch below. I usually put the horizontal crosshair at the bottom of the square and center the verticle thru the center. Hold off is how much I hold off on the square. For score shooting I try to get the bullet strike to hit the dot. Cause your just gonna shoot that target once. Just different opinions. Use whatever makes you comfortable.

Donald
 
Score shooting. POA and POI are the same.
Group low mirage. Center mothball. POI right of Mothball.
Group Heavy mirage. Bracket mothball. Depends on wind. Usually 3:00 and 6:00. POI right. for left to right wind.
 
I place the moth ball in the lower right corner of the upper left quadrant. So that the cross hairs touch the right side and bottom of the moth ball.
 
For score POA is POI, for group I shoot with POA at 6 Oclock in the moth ball, and set POI about 1" high of my POA, for group as it doesn't matter where in the bull the group prints as long as it is not in my aiming point!
 
Aptitude

Depends a lot on your aptitude concerning hold off. Sooner or later you're gonna have to shoot a sighter and hold way off. Pick a POA where you can handle that circumstance easily and quickly.
 
I hold at 3 if the wind is coming from the right and 9 if it's coming from the left. If the wind picks up more, I hold the next ring, then the next ring and then the next ring to get my bullets to hit somewhere in the center of the target. Picking an aiming spot is quite a bit different shooting in Texas where winds are 20 mph on up than shooting in light switchy winds which we seldom get.
 
Mike

You are right about that.
At the blue bonnet this year I put one right inside the left line of the record,
Later it got so bad a mutual friend of ours held off the right side of the target and the bullet still landed OUTSIDE the line on the left side of .... the record.
What a day that was.
 
Another factor

One HOF member tries to form his group such that it doesn't touch the thicker ring of the mothball. His theory is that the scorer can get "lost" trying to locate the actual bullet hole and will likely write a larger than actual score in the corner. Not sure, but I believe he holds 6 oclock and the group forms below that hold.
 
10x
Different Ranges can and do require different hold points. For a blow range like Phoenix choose a ring that will allow your center hold POI calm day hold to hit the mothball. Hard to do sometimes but at 200 you have plenty of space to form your group in the mothball. As you shoot move your hold towards and away from your ring, hold to keep the group forming in the moth ball. If you get a letoff big time that will allow you to finish your group with a dead on hold do it like now to finish your 200 group maybe a 3 hopefully a 1 or 2, been there done that.

For 100 shoot the center of the mothball and hold off left and right as needed. Try yourself out on this advice.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
I have heard that from an HOF member. Put your group to the side.
The other thing is check your target at ceasefire. For a cross fire.
Happened today.
 
Although it's hard to argue with the flat-out elegance of those groups which form a little hole right in the center of the mothball and don't touch ANYTHING! ((A couple of SW shooters come to mind...)

al
 
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