Lots of hot topic debate issues out there in the gun world. Many revisited and many will be for years to come.
Ones of my faves is whether a rifle zeroed to me is zeroed to you. Some of the gray area in this debate lies in lack of understanding. Understanding on what zeroed is and how it’s done.
If I am shooting BRM next to a shooter who is consistently knocking out the X ring at say 100 yards – consistently doing so – it would stand to reason that not only is his rifle zeroed to that distance but he probably knows what he is doing and he is doing it consistently. His trigger control is excellent, his cheek to stock weld is true to ensure he is looking directly through the center of his aperture to mitigate any parallax. He finalizes trigger squeeze on his respiratory pause.
Now, if I am replicating what he is doing with my own rifle, the same should stand true for me. We are both zeroed, we can both shoot.
I’ve been through this dozens and dozens of times; I can switch up with him and yield the same results. There are caveats to this however. For instance, if this shooter next to me is shooting irons only, I would need to know what his hold is.
So, my answer is “Yes. A zeroed rifle is a zeroed rifle.”
I’ve got lots of empirical data to back up my finding. If you do not, don’t chime in with mindless thoughts. The rest of us however, dive in.
Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)
Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.
His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.
While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.
Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.