Scope height miss

[AncientSword]

I meant to post about this a few weeks ago. Davidsng’s post on missing a coyote brought this back into my mind.

My son and I were out in the middle of the night with thermal, trying to stalk some hogs. I ended up having one pop out of the brush behind us, literally 20 yards away and head right at us. It didn’t know we were there, right in the open. I heard it and tried to turn around and get a shot off, but the thing was right on top of us. I missed, I’m guessing the shot was about 10-12 yards. The pig took off, heading away from us thankfully. 
I couldn’t believe that I missed the shot up that close, but I aimed where I normally would at 50 yards. Later I could have kicked myself for not adjusting my poa. Thing is, when I put my numbers into StrelokPro, I couldn’t believe how low my .457 hits that close, with a 50 yard zero. With the Texan and a pic rail adapter on it, my scope height over bore is pretty extreme. At 10 yards I’m hitting almost 3 Mils low. I assume that I ended up shooting under it. It all happened so fast that I didn’t get a chance to hit record on my scope.
Needless to say, I took a couple close range shots at the range the next time I had the chance. I never expected to be taking a 10 yard shot that night. 
I wish I could get the same ballistics out of my Texan as a .243 but that’s sadly not the case. 
I was a little nervous taking the shot on my next pig, but that one hit properly. It helped that I had plenty of time and more distance, but if I ever get another shot that’s up close and personal, at least I know where to hold now… that’s if I guess the distance right which is hard at night. 

 

[Ezana4CE]

@ancientsword I can relate. I’ve had at least three types of animals pop up on me within 5-15 yards and caught me off guard. It seems that the best thing to do is practice at close range to prepare for those shots. When they’re that close events unfold really fast. 

 

[L.Leon]

Those sub 15 yards to 5 yards are the trickiest and where I've had most of my misses.

 

[dizzums]

for anything serious a '50y' zero is just not conducive to reality ...in your software you need to find and take advantage of the zero that gives maximum point blank range for the speed of the projectile and scope height ... everying outside of it is holdover and once youre familiar with it and use a fairly consistent speed across platforms, then youll start getting good and not missing reasonable shots ...

 

[AncientSword]

I haven’t really taken many shots closer than 25 yards and I can’t really remember missing much on easy shots…. That’s why I found it kind of crazy. I’ve shot pigs and then struggled to find them before in the swamp though. That’s also why I’m taking neck or head shots pretty much exclusively now. The air gun is pretty much the same as bow hunting when it comes to finding game, except I can more effectively target the head and neck with the air gun over my compound or crossbow. Broadheads do leave a better blood trail to follow though.

I try to never take a bad shot, I will pass before I send a bad shot most of the time. I also don’t hunt small stuff like squirrels or birds. Raccoons are about the smallest thing I shoot. I used to hunt squirrels as a kid but I just don’t get excited about that anymore for some reason. I also don’t shoot birds. I guess if I was pesting it would be different, I just don’t do that at this point in my life.

Deer and hogs get me fired up because we fill the freezer and I love cooking it up on the Traeger or in a crock pot. 
I’ve also got the itch to get rid of coyotes now. Raccoons are a pain eating corn that we put out for the pigs and deer. Hoping to maybe get a Turkey this year.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@AncientSword I meant to ask, how high is that scope mounted (how much space is between the top of the barrel and the bottom of the objective? Is it mounted on a flat dove-to-pic rail, did you shim your rings, or does it have at least 20 MOA built into it?

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

Try a 40 yard zero. Here's a drop chart from my 457 Challenge and 220 grain slugs.

 

[AncientSword]

@AncientSword I meant to ask, how high is that scope mounted (how much space is between the top of the barrel and the bottom of the objective? Is it mounted on a flat dove-to-pic rail, did you shim your rings, or does it have at least 20 MOA built into it?

It looks like it’s about 3”, but I didn’t measure it, just eyeballed. It’s a picatinny to dovetail adapter, no rings as I have my thermal mounted.

I’m thinking about going to a lighter slug to get a little more velocity out of it, but I can’t get the scope much lower very easily. I want to be able to use the quick change mount so I can move my thermal but keep my zero. Otherwise I would use the insert adapters.