Help dialing in a green dot scope

I'm looking for someone to help me dial in a Green dot scope I used to replace the iron sights on a Marlin 1894 I recently bought. I'll obviously pay your range time and if you want some extra for your time I open to it.

I originally had Romeo 5 red dot that I zeroed on a special target at an indoor range that was made to shoot ton one spot and would hit the lower spot at 100.
When I got to an outdoor range It was not even close and outdoors turning up the brightness seemed to make a splotchy looking double red dot.

This is when I found out about astigmatism and red dots. Went back to the eye doctor to have him re-correct for astigmatism. Got a set of polarized set of shooting glasses then swapped the Romeo for a Holosun green dot. Took that to a range and even though the green dot looked good could not hit jack at 25 yards. Got a cheap laser boresight dropped that in an indeed noticed the dot was was way off looking at the target at the other end of my condo.
d
Adjusted and went back to the indoor range. Still could not hit crap at 25 yards. Pulled the target in towards what it would have been in my condo distance wise and now it's showing right hand corner of the target.

Obvioulsy I do not grasp how many clicks to move the dot correctly( I do know elevation right turns go up right with windage per the sight's guide).

At this point I'm wasting time and money and ammo is dear right now and a hard to come by so I'm looking for direct instruction.

Where are you located?

wb3jma said:

I'm looking for someone to help me dial in a Green dot scope I used to replace the iron sights on a Marlin 1894 I recently bought. I'll obviously pay your range time and if you want some extra for your time I open to it.

I originally had Romeo 5 red dot that I zeroed on a special target at an indoor range that was made to shoot ton one spot and would hit the lower spot at 100.
When I got to an outdoor range It was not even close and outdoors turning up the brightness seemed to make a splotchy looking double red dot.

This is when I found out about astigmatism and red dots. Went back to the eye doctor to have him re-correct for astigmatism. Got a set of polarized set of shooting glasses then swapped the Romeo for a Holosun green dot. Took that to a range and even though the green dot looked good could not hit jack at 25 yards. Got a cheap laser boresight dropped that in an indeed noticed the dot was was way off looking at the target at the other end of my condo.
d
Adjusted and went back to the indoor range. Still could not hit crap at 25 yards. Pulled the target in towards what it would have been in my condo distance wise and now it's showing right hand corner of the target.

Obvioulsy I do not grasp how many clicks to move the dot correctly( I do know elevation right turns go up right with windage per the sight's guide).

At this point I'm wasting time and money and ammo is dear right now and a hard to come by so I'm looking for direct instruction.

Click to expand...

I’m not sure where you are located but there are many things that could be going on. I’m going to recommend A few things you can do at home.

1) Make sure your device is secured tightly to your rifle/rail. If you are insure grab ahold of the optic firmly and try move/bend/twist it while attached to the rifle. If you can detect ANY movement, then it’s not secure enough. Make sure it’s tight.

2) set your elevation and windage to the median point of the optic. You do this by turning the adjustment screw counterclockwise until you reach the endstop. Then turn clockwise and count the number if clicks. When you reach the end, note that number. Then divide by 2 and turn counterclockwise exactly that number of clicks. Do this for both elevation and windage. This should put you roughly in the middle of the optics adjustment limits.

3) Try bore sighting. You can do this from a window sighting something outside. I painted a 2” yellow spot on a tree about 50yds from my rear sliding glass door. However you can use anything that you can see clearly from 50 to 100 ft away. Something 6-8” diameter at 100ft is pretty good.

You setup the rifle in shooting rest or bipod or create some home method of securing the rifle. Then remove the bolt and look through the barrel and adjust the position until you can see that distant feature you are using as a reference.

Then while keeping the rifle in the same spot you adjust the dot on the optic to move towards your reference object.

You may need to look through the barrel a few times as it’s easy to move
It while adjusting the optic. However after a few successive attempts you should be able to position the dot directly over the reference object and confirm that the object is in the center of the bore too.

At this point you should be hitting paper at 50 yds no matter what rifle round you are using.

I'll add to ToolAA's advice one additional pointer. When testing, fire three shots and calculate the median of all of those. Make your adjustments based on that derived POI. Adjusting based on only one shot will have you "chasing zero." The unreliability of a single shot is verified by the fact that your three shots likely didn't all hole out at a single whole. Rinse and repeat.

Just curious why you went with a green dot, they are generally more difficult to see outdoors than a red dot.

hillbilly grandpa said:

I'll add to ToolAA's advice one additional pointer. When testing, fire three shots and calculate the median of all of those. Make your adjustments based on that derived POI. Adjusting based on only one shot will have you "chasing zero." The unreliability of a single shot is verified by the fact that your three shots likely didn't all hole out at a single whole. Rinse and repeat.

Click to expand...

For getting it near center, one shot is fine.

Once you have it close for the desired sight in distance, then a 5 shot group is best to fine tune. If needed.

Laser bore sighters are utterly useless, and you likely would have been closer to zero without ever messing with it. If you chamber that bore sighter multiple times i'd bet my bottom dollar you get a different aiming point each time.

Bore sighting by eye is easy and you will quickly know if your dot and barrel are both on paper, that's all you want to confirm. Although the logic is backwards when bore sighting by eye. If the barrel is looking right, meaning you need to have it looking more left, you actually want to move your red dot windage "left", unlike when you are making adjustments while shooting. When you move windage "left" as indicated on the red dot, you may notice that the aiming point is actually moving to the right. Think about it for a second - If the dot moves right and you take another shot with the same aiming point, that same aiming point as now moved the barrel direction to the left, and is therefore moving the POI to your intended zero. Sorry if this is confusing, I am doing my best to explain this.

But since it seems you are on paper still, skip the bore sighting and get a good sandbag rest and take some controlled, deliberate shots at your intended zero and as ToolAA recommended, measure the average spread (don't be scientific, just rough average of center), and then measure how many inches you are off from your original aiming point and make the appropriate adjustments.

When sighting in, first you should determine at what range that you want to sight in your firearm. Depending on caliber, a 25 yard zero will be quite high at 50 and sometimes unusably high at 100. I don't know enough about the Marlin and your caliber to make a recommendation here.

Additionally, use a sand bag rest and take controlled, deliberate shots. I've yet to meet someone who can accurately zero a rifle off hand. If you think you can, you are lying. Minute of man at 50 yard zero? maybe. Reliable and useful zero, no.

When aiming at a target, it helps me to aim for the corner of one of the squares on the target, because it's an easier and more repeatable reference point than just aiming in the center of the bullseye, just my opinion.

Most red dots have 0.5 MOA adjustment increments, so 2 clicks equals 1 inch of point of impact (POI) shift at 100 yards. At 50 yards, it takes 4 clicks to move POI by 1 inch.

At 25 yards, 1MOA is equal to 1/4 of an inch. So to move your POI by 1 inch at 25 yards, you would adjust your windage/elevation by 8 clicks


If you are shooting "bottom left of the target" at 25 yards... let's just call it 5 inches low and 5 inches left, then you would adjust your windage by 40 clicks "Right", and 40 clicks "up" on your elevation.

Someone feel free to check my math.

Some dots are just trash too. Not saying they're all bad, but I recently tried to help my dad with a Vortex that simply wouldn't hold zero. Depending on what you have, that could be the issue.

hillbilly grandpa said:

Where are you located?

Click to expand...

Belcamp, MD in Harford County

sailskidrive said:

Just curious why you went with a green dot, they are generally more difficult to see outdoors than a red dot.

Click to expand...

Read the above about astigmatism.

WildWeasel said:

Some dots are just trash too. Not saying they're all bad, but I recently tried to help my dad with a Vortex that simply wouldn't hold zero. Depending on what you have, that could be the issue.

Click to expand...

Holosun HE403B-GR-ELITE $299

sailskidrive said:

Just curious why you went with a green dot, they are generally more difficult to see outdoors than a red dot.

Click to expand...

HE403B-GR-ELITE $200

ToolAA said:

I’m not sure where you are located but there are many things that could be going on. I’m going to recommend A few things you can do at home.

1) Make sure your device is secured tightly to your rifle/rail. If you are insure grab ahold of the optic firmly and try move/bend/twist it while attached to the rifle. If you can detect ANY movement, then it’s not secure enough. Make sure it’s tight.

2) set your elevation and windage to the median point of the optic. You do this by turning the adjustment screw counterclockwise until you reach the endstop. Then turn clockwise and count the number if clicks. When you reach the end, note that number. Then divide by 2 and turn counterclockwise exactly that number of clicks. Do this for both elevation and windage. This should put you roughly in the middle of the optics adjustment limits.

3) Try bore sighting. You can do this from a window sighting something outside. I painted a 2” yellow spot on a tree about 50yds from my rear sliding glass door. However you can use anything that you can see clearly from 50 to 100 ft away. Something 6-8” diameter at 100ft is pretty good.

You setup the rifle in shooting rest or bipod or create some home method of securing the rifle. Then remove the bolt and look through the barrel and adjust the position until you can see that distant feature you are using as a reference.

Then while keeping the rifle in the same spot you adjust the dot on the optic to move towards your reference object.

You may need to look through the barrel a few times as it’s easy to move
It while adjusting the optic. However after a few successive attempts you should be able to position the dot directly over the reference object and confirm that the object is in the center of the bore too.

At this point you should be hitting paper at 50 yds no matter what rifle round you are using.

Click to expand...

I know that its not loose. Rail tight to recevier with loktight and sight to the rail same.

I'll try the other two things you mention although resetting to center is laborious.

Regardless I'm still serious about getting out with someone who knows that their doing. Range time these days is limited to and hour for indoor ranges and ammo is expensive and hard to come by.

wb3jma said:

I know that its not loose. Rail tight to recevier with loktight and sight to the rail same.

I'll try the other two things you mention although resetting to center is laborious.

Regardless I'm still serious about getting out with someone who knows that their doing. Range time these days is limited to and hour for indoor ranges and ammo is expensive and hard to come by.

Click to expand...

Ammo is freaking outrageous right now. It sucks.

I know resetting the sight to zero sounds like a pain but it’s just sort of one of those necessary steps to make sure you are at least starting off close to the center.

I looked up the specs for your optic. If you bore sight the rifle at 25yds like I described then get back to the range I’m pretty sure you will be on the paper at 25yds with your first shot. At 25yds your 2moa dot covers up an 8” diameter circle. So just grab a paper plate and staple it to a tree 25yds from your window.

At the range shoot at a larger say 16”x16” grid target. Aim right for the center and take a shot. If you to your part and have the gun totally steady you should be able to dial in from there. At 25yds each click of the dial will move the bullet impact 2”. So if your first shot was 6” low dial UP 3 clicks. If the shot was 8” to the left, dial right 4 clicks.

Then take another shot. You should be pretty close to center. Iike some posted above take 2 more shots and measure the center of that 3 shot group and make a final adjustment from the center of that 3 shot group.

If you are satisfied with your result at 25yds move the target back to 50yds. Your shots should be a little lower but still on the paper. At 50yds each click will move the point of impact 1”. So if you are 1” low dial up 1 click. Your windage shouldn’t change.

If you are close to center at 50yds move back to 100yds and do it again. Your first shot should again be low. This time at 100 yds each click will move the point of impact 1/2”. So you may beed to dial up 3-4 clicks to get back to the center. At this point I would take my 5 shot group and make my final adjustment from the
center of that 5 shot group.

This procedure should consume between 12-15 rounds.

ToolAA said:

At 25yds your 2moa dot covers up an 8” diameter circle.

Click to expand...

UUUUHHHH, no.

At 25 yards a 2 MOA dot covers 1/2". At 100 yards, it covers 2 inches. And 200 yards it covers 4 inches.


Easier.

Bore sight as mentioned.

Got to range, put target at 25 yards. Fire ONE shot with rest.

Now, using the rest and set up the rifle with the dot on the aiming point. Then you, or someone else, adjusts the dot to be on the hole in the target.

Don't worry about which way to turn or how much. Holding the rifle very steady with the rest, just adjust to have the dot on the hole.

Then move to the range you want to zero at, and repeat the above.

You can dial in a scope or dot in 3 rounds.

ToolAA said:

Ammo is freaking outrageous right now. It sucks.

I know resetting the sight to zero sounds like a pain but it’s just sort of one of those necessary steps to make sure you are at least starting off close to the center.

I looked up the specs for your optic. If you bore sight the rifle at 25yds like I described then get back to the range I’m pretty sure you will be on the paper at 25yds with your first shot. At 25yds your 2moa dot covers up an 8” diameter circle. So just grab a paper plate and staple it to a tree 25yds from your window.

At the range shoot at a larger say 16”x16” grid target. Aim right for the center and take a shot. If you to your part and have the gun totally steady you should be able to dial in from there. At 25yds each click of the dial will move the bullet impact 2”. So if your first shot was 6” low dial UP 3 clicks. If the shot was 8” to the left, dial right 4 clicks.

Then take another shot. You should be pretty close to center. Iike some posted above take 2 more shots and measure the center of that 3 shot group and make a final adjustment from the center of that 3 shot group.

If you are satisfied with your result at 25yds move the target back to 50yds. Your shots should be a little lower but still on the paper. At 50yds each click will move the point of impact 1”. So if you are 1” low dial up 1 click. Your windage shouldn’t change.

If you are close to center at 50yds move back to 100yds and do it again. Your first shot should again be low. This time at 100 yds each click will move the point of impact 1/2”. So you may beed to dial up 3-4 clicks to get back to the center. At this point I would take my 5 shot group and make my final adjustment from the
center of that 5 shot group.

This procedure should consume between 12-15 rounds.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info very much appreciated problem with sighting on over 25 yrd is there is nothing but 25 yrd indoor ranges near me and I have to get a reservation at that outdoor range in Westminster. Although now that it's getting colder that may be easier.

Pinecone said:

UUUUHHHH, no.

At 25 yards a 2 MOA dot covers 1/2". At 100 yards, it covers 2 inches. And 200 yards it covers 4 inches.

Click to expand...

Whoops. I’m glad someone was paying attention....

wb3jma said:

Thanks for the info very much appreciated problem with sighting on over 25 yrd is there is nothing but 25 yrd indoor ranges near me and I have to get a reservation at that outdoor range in Westminster. Although now that it's getting colder that may be easier.

Click to expand...

You can use a ballistics calculator to determine the offset at 25 yards for any zero range.

I just JBM Ballistics - https://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmtraj-5.1.cgi

So an AR with a 55 grain bullet at 3000 fps, you would adjust your sights so the bullet hits 1.1 inches low at 25 yards, and the rifle will be zeroed for 100 yards.

If you wanted a 200 yard zero, you would set the sights to hit 0.7" low at 25 yards.

The reason you adjust to hit low at 25 yards is that due to the high sight height on an AR, the bullet is rising from below at short ranges.

If you were closer to frederick, you could come to my range and we'd get you straightened out quick. Hope someone close can help you

40 clicks seems like a lot of adjustment for a scope or red dot. Maybe something else is off with the installation?