How to get a good zero with your weapon

[Rifleman]

Comming from a military background, and living in Kansas I have seen some people make a few mistakes trying to zero thier weapon. Here are a few tips that I picked up in the military, if you have a system that works better go on ahead and follow up with the post.

For Iron Sights
First things first, you have to get your weapons sights to a neutral position, what is called a "Battle Sight Zero", this wont get you hitting the center ring, but it will get you on paper and prepair you to get a proper zero.

The easiest way to explain this is to use the AR platform weapon as an example.

1. Adjust the elevation knob (1) counterclockwise, as viewed from above, until the rear sight assembly (2) rests flush with the carrying handle and the 8/3 marking is aligned with the index line (3) on the left side of the carrying handle. Then adjust the elevation knob one more click clockwise.
2. Position the apertures (4) so the unmarked aperture is up and the 0-200 meter aperture is down. Rotate the windage knob (5) to align the index mark on the 0-200 meter aperture with the long center index line on the rear sight assembly.
   (picture and explination used from www.armystudyguide.com)

Now on to getting a proper zero for the weapon. You will need a good zero target to accomplish this in the shortest ammount of time, I prefer a 25m M-16A2 target, here is an example.
If your weapon has 1/4 MOA (minute of angle) adjustable sights, each box is one click on your adjustments when zeroing at 25m
The real secret here is to fire 3 shot groups (groups, not bursts for you Rambo wanna bes out there) after firing your first two (one to see where your rounds are striking, the second to confirm) adjust your sights to strike the center of the target from the center of your group.
Apon firing a single three shot group on center target you are NOT finnished, fire atleast one more three shot group to confirm that you are in fact on target, you will now have a zero'ed weapon.



Scoped Rifles.
You can quite nearly follow the procedures for zeroing a weapon with iron sights to accomplish a scoped rifle zero, just skip the battle sight zero section of this post.