Zeroing in a shotgun sight

[Irish B]

As I wrote in an earlier post I recently picked up a red/green dot reflex sight for my tac 870. Usually when i mount a new optic i take the rifle in and have it sighted in professionally and then make minor adjustments myself. With a smooth barrel shooting different loads id imagine the variables are endless for accurate sighting in. I want it zerod in for slugs and then make adjustments as needed for other loads. Should I just take it in to have it zerod like I do with the rest of my guns. I would assume you would zero in a setup like mine at 25-50 yards?

[Irish B]

No one knows anything about reflex sights?

[tAKticool]

Well if your local place will "sight it in" for free then by all means, why not. And then exactly right, you take it and shoot it and make minor changes.

My Mossberg 930SPX came with expensive LPA Ghost Ring Sights from Italy and I also added an Aimpoint Micro. I needed not sight in either really, the ghost ring sights were fine at 25 yds with 00 Buck and when I put the Aimpoint Micro on the factory rail, I made just MINOR adjustments to put the red dot just about on the front fiber optic sight "dot" , just a little above it. It also became about perfect at 25 yds with 00 Buck ... Now for the info, my local indoor range is 25 yds and I figured, I am gonna use it for HD and use 00 Buck and if I am inside a person torso target with the 00 Buck at 25 yds, I am golden for home because I wouldn't even be firing if something was 25 yds away.



Now I certainly understand, if you're hunting deer or hog with a slug at 100yds you will need maybe some more fine tuning, but yeah I would just treat it like a rifle and scope. Put the reflex sight on, if they can boresight it for you good, then just shoot and adjust shoot and adjust as best you can, really is that simple.

[Irish B]

Thank you very helpful. The first function of this gun is bear defense. Honestly we have a huge bear problem so the local dow encourages rubber slugs to deter bear. They prove very effective. So my shots are usually from about 20 yards or so. They don't have to be dead accurate but in the worst case scenario where I have to switch out the rubber shot for brenneke magnums I want it to be very accurate.

[hogdogs]

Shoot the ammo you will use in action to regulate the PoI & PoA... There is likely a 12g bore sighter with so many rifled and scoped shotguns.

Brent

[arizona98tj]

Maybe it is just me....but shooting at a bear, 20 yards away, with a rubber bullet .....not me.

[Virginian]

I have sighted in several. First I get the dot approximately pointed where the bead is. Then I just use a piece of cardboard and get it shooting to POA at about 10 yards with cheap loads, then I back up and double check. I have found ALL shot loads to shoot to the same POI out to 75 yards. Never did slugs, but I bet if you sight in with slugs the shot goes to the same place.
I assume you are talking black bears roaming around the neighborhood looking for garbage. Different animal than a big one that thinks you are food from the get go. Still, I don't know if I'd try a rubber slug without a real one right behind it just in case. Good luck.

[Irish B]

Rubber slugs are very successful at getting rid of marauding black bear. Many people seem to think bear react like african lion in that if you disturb them in any way they'll come after and charge you. Usually you can scare them away by just charging at them and yelling but then theyll be back the next day. Nothing puts the fear of God into a bear like a rubber slug. It prevents them from ever wanting to come back. Also I've never shot a rubber slug at a bear that was facing me or walking towards me. Always after i've started to chase them that way they're already submissive and by them running they're showing that you're dominant. This has proven effective in keeping bear away for a lot of DOW agencies. You usually only need to hit a bear once with a rubber slug to drive the point home. Unloading a magazine of rubber into the bear would not only be cruel but extremely dangerous. On a side note I would never use a rubber slug on a bear that was acting aggressive towards me or I thought was putting me in danger.

[TheKlawMan]

Thank you very helpful. The first function of this gun is bear defense. Honestly we have a huge bear problem so the local dow encourages rubber slugs to deter bear. They prove very effective. So my shots are usually from about 20 yards or so. They don't have to be dead accurate but in the worst case scenario where I have to switch out the rubber shot for brenneke magnums I want it to be very accurate.

Are you saying that you shoot a rubber bullet at 20 yards and if that doesn't deter the bear you swith out the rubber bullet for slugs? Does the time it takes an angry bear to cover those 20 yards give you the time to switch out ammo?

[Irish B]

That's never happened before. I always have two rubber slugs loaded followed by real slugs. Should the bear decide to turn on me and charge Im not sure he'd be willing to wait for me to swap out loads. Like I said also I never fire on a bear that's a threat to me. Only ones that in already chasing away. If it was an aggressive bear I'd get back in the house and wait for him to leave. Rubber slugs are just a way to further convince him that leaving is a good idea.

[skifast]

I think it is better for you to sight it in. If there is sight has parallax, then where you mount the gun is important.

However, I think I would run without a sight. With a bear coming at you it will be faster to find a bead than worrying about a dot.

[Irish B]

Reflex sights are the only type of add on optic id trust in this situation as It has no magnification and is just as easy to use as bead sights. It's basically a heads up display cross hair. Extremely fast and easy to use. Again this is in the situation of me pursuing the bear not the other way around.

[TheKlawMan]

Again this is in the situation of me pursuing the bear not the other way around.

And if the persued decides to become the persuer. . .

[Irish B]

I have slugs and would probably just go back in my house and wait for him to leave. Again a lot of people don't understand bear behavior. Bear aren't Tigers. Most bears are extremely passive and avoid any confrontation whatsoever and will bolt at the first sign of trouble. Bears know when they're on another predators territory. This means their behavior is a lot different then when you wander into their territory in the woods. If you are aggressive enough in chasing a bear out of your territory there's a likely chance he won't come back. They've found this to be very effective amongst grizzlies in town in some Alaska cities. Again like I said this is very different then when you wander into a bears territory in the wild. It's just like with a dog. If a stray dog wanders into your yard he's usually skiddish and just curious and will usually leave if you yell at him. That's a lot different than if you go into that dogs backyard and act aggressive towards it.

[tAKticool]

Irish it's funny because some of this is similar to me.


I'm in Jersey and we actually are developing a (black) bear problem. Let me start out by saying we are the left liberalist state in the world and our rich yet liberal and anti rights and pro controlling people just love to be loved. So we have absolutely no rifle hunting in the state because, gasp, animals could die!!!! And it's dangerous!!!!!

AND WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW, the deer population explodes into the highest concentration of the deeries in the country and all the auto insurance companies leave NJ because we have so many accidents and they are traced back to deers.

Now we got the black bears coming from north down the Delaware River from the Water Gap, right into suburbia in central Jersey nice neighborhoods. and of course YOU HAVE TO BE NICE TO THOSE BEARS theyu're just hungry! BUT OH my! Liberal state senator found one in his backyard while Timmy Junior was playing lincoln logs! OH NO THE BEARS ARE A MENACE !!!!

Now people like me, I could care less what any state or animalist or whoever says. I am only concerned with protecting me and mine and particularly my dog. I have a large retention basin and some woods in the back yard and for some reason the town next to us (and the area from my back yard to about 5 miles around) has been the locale of all the local bear sightings for the last few years. Something about how they get down here and then roam in our area. I am honestly a tad bit worried, I'll be letting my cattle dog run one day and Smokey will show up looking for salmon and honey but find an Aussie canine. And at that moment, Mans Best Friend is going to be protected because I Will blow that bear to Kingdom Come if he is threatening my dog. Normally I would use 00 Buck because I trust that load with about everything, but in the event my dog is close to the bear, I would want a slug because I dont want a stray pellet fragging my puppeh and I want that slug to one shot one kill first time every time.




And as I've stated previously, I have a fairly nice shotgun that cost a decent penny in the Mossberg 930 SPX, obviously there are more expensive and "nicer", when you own a M930SPX you generally wouldn't have it any other way; and I have an Aimpoint Micro R-1 on it. With my training and practice, and combined with the M930SPX and Aimpoint, I am absolutely confident I can deploy my combat shotgun effectively in a fighting scenario and home defense scenario let alone an animal control scenario. But of course, let me add so you don't get the wrong impression: I'm not out bear hunting on the weekends or setting up fields of fire from pillboxes in the event a bear wanders into my AO, not in the least lol. I have never even shot a deer because I just don't get off on killing animals, you can do it and I haven't a problem with it it's just not a sport to me, not something I want to participate in. But if it's threatening my best friend in the whole wide world , it's game time.

[Irish B]

I took the setup into a few shops to have it sighted in and everyone said they couldn't do it with their mirror sight equipment so I just decided to get a laser bore sight from Amazon for $10. Considering the price of slugs and trying to sight it in the old fashioned way I think that's my best bet.