Carlos Hathcock Method of Sighting in a Rifle

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 9/7/20 | C Cocole

[w1n1]

Sighting in a rifle is an important thing to do if you want your rifle to be dead on when taking a shot. Which brings us to the Carlos Hathcock way of sighting in a rifle. For those that don’t know who Carlos Hathcock is, he was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills.

What many people don’t realize is that the Unertl scope back in the day doesn’t have glass amplification. There also isn’t any internal adjustments to zero. The scope adjusts with turrets integral to the rear scope mount, and the tube of the scope floats inside adjustment pins. The scope reticle does not have Mil Dots like the modern-day sniper scopes. Mil Dots gives you accurate unit measurements to compensate for gravity and wind drift, this is like “Kentucky windage”. So in other words using this Unertl requires lots of downrange practice. It is such an accomplishment of what he can do using what he had at the time.

The following is a story by Gus Fisher a retired MGySgt USMC who talks of the time he met Carlos. As mentioned before, I was a very young Marine Sergeant when I came up to THE Marine Corps Rifle Team the first time as the junior Armorer.
My introduction to both high power shooting and long range shooting was in Marine Corps Boot Camp. On Qual Day in Boot Camp, I ran 7 consecutive bullseye’s from the offhand position at 200 yards. The 8th round was a pinwheel bullseye, but it was on the target next to mine, so I got a maggie's drawers. Knee High wind got me after that and I fell apart and only shot Sharpshooter in boot camp.

So after I came up on “The Big Team,” I asked the second senior Armorer – Ted Hollabaugh, if he could show me how to REALLY sight in a rifle with a scope. He said sure and he would do it, but since we had all the talent in the world at MTU, why didn’t I ask one of the shooters?
Well, I was a young kid and I didn’t know any of the shooters that well – most of them were much older than I. That’s when he suggested I ask Carlos Hathcock for some help. I didn’t know Carlos then and did not know of his exploits in NM and Sniper shooting. Ted talked to Carlos about it and Carlos stopped by the shop later that afternoon.

Carlos looked at me and said, "So you want to sight in your rifle, eh? OK, thoroughly clean the bore and chamber. Dry the bore out with patches just before you come down to Range 4 tomorrow at noon on the 200 yard line. Have the sling on the rifle that you are going to use in hunting." Then he went on about his business.

When I got to Range 4 the next day, he had a target in the air ready for me. He told me to get down in the best prone position I had. He checked me and adjusted my position just a bit. Then he said, “Before you shoot. The MOST important thing I want you to do is take your time and make it the best shot possible. It doesn’t matter how long you take, just make it a good shot. ALSO, and this is as important, make sure you give me an accurate call on where you think the bullet hit the target.” After I broke the shot, I told him where I thought the bullet had hit.Read the rest of Hathcock method of sighting in a rifle.

[mylife]

I know, and not all semi autos or aototos are easy t look down the barrel

[mylife]

Bot I use the writers method, I plant one on the paper and adjust the reticale in the optical to the hole.
It gets me close enough.