It is that time of year again to chase the devil dogs as they try to find a mate in the northern woods of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. We have a trip planned for this coming weekend and I haven’t had the varmint rifles to the range since last summer, so since we had some nice weather for a change I decided today it was time to tear some paper.
It didn’t take long for me to convince my youngest boy to help me get the rifles into the car and load our ammo bag to hit the range. He was more than happy to help dad with this task, with anything else it would have been a fight to get him out from in front of his video game. 
I knew that the last time I had the AR-15 at the range it was fairly close but that it still needed some work to make sure it was dead on! I also wanted to make sure that the scopes on the Ruger M/77 HMR .17 and the Ruger M/77 .22 Hornet were just as I left them. I received a neat little tool to take care of that problem last summer but I have yet to use it to tune the Leupold scope that sits atop of my Bushmaster varmint dispatcher. The item I’m talking about is the Leupold Zero Point bore-sight tool. This neat little gadget is a great addition to any shooter’s ammo bag; I don’t think I will ever head out on a hunting trip again or to the shooting range without mine!
This tool makes sighting in your rifle easy and quick! If you’ve put a new scope on a gun, just turn on the Zero Point by pushing the slide switch on the side and stick the unit onto the muzzle. Next look through the scope and you’ll see an orange grid pattern with numbers along the sides. Move the Zero Point up or down to get the grid located in the center of your scope’s image. Next, turn the power ring of your scope back and forth (if it’s a variable) to get the best amount of magnification on the grid. Now orient the Zero Point so the grid and the scope’s crosshairs are aligned both vertically and horizontally. Then use the scope’s adjustment knobs to move the crosshairs till they’re perfectly aligned with the center of the Zero Point’s grid.
Once you have everything lined up, take the Zero Point off and fire a shot on target at 100 yards. Chances are the shot will not be dead center but still on the paper somewhere. Now put the Zero Point back on, and square its grid to the scope’s crosshairs again. Now look through the scope and get the crosshairs on the center of the target. The Zero Point is so small; you’ll be able to see its grid and the 100 yard target at the same time. Now use the adjusting knobs and move the scope’s crosshairs over the bullet hole (It’s very important that the gun not move during this process). The scope is now perfectly zeroed. Now, replace the Zero Point and see where your crosshairs are in relation to the Zero Point grid, mark this on your range card for future reference, for example at a hunting camp or at the range. You can recheck your sight for an accurate zero position by comparing your range card to the Zero Point’s grid when placing it on your muzzle without having to test shoot the rifle.
The cost of this little tool can be equivalent to a pricey box of cartridges. Think of the time and money it can save you at the range! I used it today to put three of my scopes dead on at 100 yards to make sure they 
were ready for this coming weekend’s hunt.
Now that we have that out of the way, I turned my youngest boy loose to do some shooting. He punched holes with precision today and a smile on his face! What was even better was that we had the range all to ourselves the whole afternoon, we couldn’t have asked for more. Well maybe a little warmer weather!
