Tips for sighting 7mm Rem Mag
 

Hi All,

This is my first gun (with scope and expensive ammo) that I am sighting.

Specs:
Caliber: 7mm Rem Mag
Gun: Tikka T3
Scope: Leopold VII 3-9x40
Sighting Distance: 200 yards

I bought Winchester 150gr and Remington 164gr ammo. Went to crown land and after spending 15 rounds i took the target to 110 yards and found I am doing something wrong. I was not using a rest and thats why everything was messing up. I decided to go and buy a rest and go to a range this time for accurate distances.

Please let me know if you think I should include something else and any other way so that I waste less ammo and sight it better.

Thank you

I would shoot at 100 yards before I shot at 200 yards, it will be easier to shoot decent groups, which will help adjust your scope properly.

Pick one load, and stick with that load, changing the load, even with the same bullet weight, can change the point of impact, and the trajectory. Do not adjust the scope after every shot, or you will just chase the point of impact around the target. Don't let the barrel heat up. Don't rest the rife on a solid object, and never have the rifle supported on the barrel when shooting. Basically, choose one load, fire three rounds, then let the barrel cool, then make a scope adjustment. Then fire three more shots and check the point of impact. let the barrel cool, and adjust the scope if required.

This^^^^
I’d only add that you bore sight as well.

BW

elkhunter,

Really appreciate your feedback. Thank you

I would also suggest finding out if your rifle prefers a particular bullet weight over another. My 7mm RM seems indifferent for the most part, shoots 150 gr TTSX and 165 gr partitions pretty consistently (but I do have to adjust a click or two for 200 yards). My 7mm 08 is very particular to 140 gr bullets, and doesn't care for 150s at all. Learn what your rifle likes, and shot that weight. You can adjust bullet for game if you need, but there are lots of bullets that just work (Partition, TSX, Accubond, and a load of others). I'm shooting 1.5" high at 100 and that's pretty much zero at 200.

With 7 mag suggest you sight in 3" high at 100. That will make you point and shoot to about 360 yards, you will be about 4" high at 200.

Zero at 29 yards then move to 100 (1.9 high) and 230 (0) to verify. Things will change a bit with different ammunition but mpbr charts will get you close and save you some ammo

www.shooterscalculator.com max point blank range calculator

Well your first mistake is not using a rock solid rest for sighting in.
Bags front and rear,bipod and rear bags,Lead Sled.....wutever.....but you gotta have a solid rest to sight-in,otherwise you will be chasing impacts for days shooting offhand,NOBODY is that good or would expect to shoot much better then 3-4MOA offhand,much less a new shooter.
Strive for sub-MOA groups first of all at the range with a solid rest which for most people translates to minute of pie plate under actual field/hunting conditions.

Buy a front rest and bag, and a bag for the rear, don't bother with a lead sled, or any rest that uses weights, or that the rifle is clamped or strapped to. For a new hunter/shooter, I would zero at 200 yards, and not shoot at animals much farther, you have already seen what happens when you don't have a solid rest. and you aren't likely to have a solid rest in the field.

Bingo.^

Don't know your skill level, but if this is a first for a scoped big game caliber, then your SECOND MISTAKE was buying that cannon.

Alot of new shooters buy more gun than they need, and the recoil, the noise, the pain, all impacts on the accuracy of the SHOOTER, not the gun.

Get yourself some good hearing protection and shooting glasses. THEN get yourself a shoulder pad so you can take the repeated recoil.

Next, just go buy a plastic fold up table and a good quality fold up chair, and get some sand bags for rests for the fore end and the gun butt. The stability alone from sitting down and resting on sand bags will help your accuracy. Being able to take the repeated recoil will do the rest.

Now that you have eliminated the "shooter" from the equation, you will be ready to determine what is needed to make the gun accurate. As said above, a few rounds, stop, let cool, then another group, and you can gauge the adjustments needed to the scope.

Noting is worse than developing a flinch when shooting, and it really affects the accuracy in a hunting situation when instincts suddenly take over.

Drewski

amen !!

If you do not know how to bore sight your rifle here is an easy way .
Set the rifle in the bags of rest at 200 yards and make sure it’s solid .
Take the bolt out and sight through the bore at the target , then check the scope . Move the cross hairs until they are on the target and the bore is on target when you look through both .

Take a shot and mark the impact .
If the bullet strike is off, get the rifle solid again sight at the target then move the cross hairs to the bullet strike is while making sure the rifle does not move- this works best with two people .
This should put you on the target quite easily to where you can then shoot a group .
Cat

A 7mm rem mag is now deemed to be a "cannon"? :thinking-006:
Brother shot his first whitetail buck when he was 14 with one of my .300 wby's (one shot, 150" buck). Have we gotten that soft a 7mm is now a cannon? Sad

To some people a 7mm remmag is a canon, while a 30-06 that is slightly lighter, and actually recoils more is perfectly acceptable. The most uncomfortable rifle that I have fired recoil wise, was an ultralight 270win.

And if one happens to be recoil sensitive, that is fine. But to tell the OP'er his first mistake was that he 7mm because it is a "cannon" is wrong.
Personally, if I believed a 7mm to be a cannon....I'd probably keep it to myself...
:sHa_sarcasticlol: (actually running up to Lesliville today to grab a 7mm from gunworx that Bob cerakoted and cut the brake off for me as it came with one when I got it. Guess someone else figured it was a cannon as well)

And yeah, I have shot the same ruger ultralight in a .270
It whacks pretty hard all right, but a .270 is a LONG ways from being a cannon.

My two canons
 

The only guns that I have shot that were canons were a 500 A Square some crazy fella had at the range. Oh my. Took your breath away.

I had a 338 Rum in a Remington 700 with a flimsy tupperware stock that I took in trade on a day I was feeling curious. It also was exceedingly unpleasant. One trip to the range and up for sale she went.

Back to the topic at hand... at first blush, a 7 Rem for your first rifle may be a tad too much and contribute to a flinch. That's my 2 cents.

OP, don't let anyone tell you what cartridge to shoot. The first centre fire rifle I ever owned was a 300 Win Mag. I got it when I was 15 years old, was about 5' 5" at the time and didn't weigh a buck forty. No brake and just the old fashioned hard recoil plate. I wore the barrel out on it by the time I was 17, replaced it with another 300 Win Mag and a 7 Rem Mag. I wore out the 300 again along with a number of 300 mag barrels since then, and the 7 is on its 4th barrel. I never developed a flinch from any of them. I didn't find the 7 Rem Mag to be a hard kicking gun, I actually preferred it to the same exact model in 30-06 (being Left handed there weren't a lot of cartridge options on factory guns back then.)

Dean, SNS, etc,

What is so funny about all the advice given before me was that only one poster talked about a sold rest to gauge accuracy.

No one considered the human factor before I posted. Ideas like hearing protection, eye protection to avoid "scope burn", a shoulder pad to reduce recoil felt, all go a long way for a beginner shooter to develop confidence with their rifle.

Most new rifles are very accurate out of the box these days. Laser measurement for Quality Control of scope lenses, CNC machining, superior metallurgy, all have made modern scoped rifles very accurate.

Go to the range in September and watch how many people come unprepared to address recoil but are packing a serious calibre rifle. Their accuracy complaints really are the human factor, not the scope or the gun or the ammunition used.

But anyway, my point is to work up to larger recoil rifles and develop good shooting skills first. If the OP is 7 foot tall and 400 pds, he may STILL develop a flinch from a 7 MM which could have been avoided if he started out with something like a .243 or .308, and worked up from there.

That is the point.

Drewski

And my father gave me a 12 gauge single shot Cooey when I was in grade 7 that slapped my face and bruised my hand badly too, but doesn't mean it was the wise thing to do. Sometimes we succeed in spite of less than ideal choices.

And sometimes we succeed by actually getting enough practice to become really good at something and working through any of the issues created by lack of expertise. I have seen people who have never shot anything bigger than a 243 with a nasty flinch. Flinching is as often caused by noise and the failure to abate it sufficiently, as a flinch caused by recoil.

Reading your comments about how a "real gun will make a man out of you" is well, quite frankly ridicules....and short sighted.

I have a flinch due toooooooo a 30-06, poor stock fit (old sporterized p17)..I have fired hundreds and hundreds of rounds...flinching does not go away...IT can get worse and it can get better but it NEVER goes away. (Ask any archer with target panic). WHY would you want to recommend a larger caliber to start out on? Pick a nice gentle round, learn the basics, wear ear, eye protection...THEN move up in cartridge size, till you find your upper limit, then go back to a "safe" round and stay there.

FIND a rifle that fits !!!! is much more important then what is stamped on the case.

First gun + no rest + not wanting to waste ammo + sighting in at 200 (likely off the hood of a vehicle) = a low likelihood of working through issues. Just a thought.

That I absolutely agree with. Was sort of my point that the cartridge wasn't really the issue.

I don't provoke that easily, it is your statement that is "ridicules" without basis in fact. Not once did I say that shooting a larger cartridge has anything to do with your Testosterone levels.

When I bought my first CF rifle in 1971 there were two choices for Left Handed guns. Savage and Weatherby. The Savage came in 30-06 and 300 Mag. The Weatherbies were all magnums. Being 15 years old and paying for my own guns, Weatherby wasn't really an option.

What I did say is the difference in recoil between an 06 and a 300 mag or 7 Rem Mag isn't all that big. If you are going to flinch with a 7 Rem you will most likely flinch with a 30-06. By the time I bought my second LH rifle, Remington was now making them. Choices were 30-06, 270 and & 7 Rem mag. Again, relatively little difference in felt recoil.

My current go to hunting rifle is a NULA in 308 Win. At 6 Lbs scoped, sling and full mag, it actually kicks harder than my Rem 700 in 7 Rem Mag. Like I said before, noise is as likely to cause a a flinch as recoil. I have helped cure quite a few flinches with better hearing protection. A flinch can be cured, it takes a lot of effort and work but you can get rid of one.

My point to the OP was shoot what you like. Like SNS2 said, there are a whole bunch of things he needs to worry about far more than the cartridge if he is going to get to shooting well, not the least of which is a bunch of practice, proper shooting form, good hear protection etc. The others on here did a fine job of explaining that, did not feel the need to cover it too. Only thing I would add is if you have not done much shooting buy a 22 RF and use that to get good with, whole bunch cheaper than shooting the 7 mag to learn on.

Get yourself some snap caps and get used to the feel of the rifle / scope combo making sure your doing every thing the same. Looking through the scope differently can have an impact on POI. Next for range work get targets with a one inch grid this will help determine how far you have to move your cross hairs. The bullseye should be just big enough you can see it. Lastly have fun and enjoy range time its better than workin.

You don’t need snap caps. Dry fire to your hearts content

True dat

And once the rifle is sighted in, you need to shoot it at various ranges to verify the trajectory of the specific load, and then , you need to practise shooting from field positions.

A 7mm doesn't kick much more than a 3006. I can barely tell the difference. Certainly would never call it a cannon.