Frank Proctor’s zeroing technique is on target
Recently I attended a training in which some of the participants brought along personal weapons. Most of these were AR-15 variants. The general consensus was that shooters wanted to try out different techniques and gear that would assist with their skill at arms
Some of those in attendance were newer shooters and they seemed a bit taken back by the zeroing process. Others were using department rifles that were not their individual weapons. It took quite a bit of time for them to zero their rifles and the number of rounds was high for achieving the desired results.
Enter Frank Proctor and the two-dot sight-in system. Proctor is a former United States Army Special Forces member serving 18 years, including several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, Proctor served as an instructor with the Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course.
Aside from his obvious pedigree, Frank has a way of taking the most complicated ideas and making them sound much simpler as he assists “us regular guys” by putting theory into practice.
Shortly before this training I had attended another rifle course in which we sighted in ARs at 25 meters (U.S. military style). After zeroing both iron sights and optics on our weapons we were mostly hitting what we were aiming at. In this military manner, targets can be theoretically engaged out to several hundred meters. For our purposes, it worked but was slower and more cumbersome than I’d have liked. We shot at distances much closer than the intended method allowed for.
It occurred to me that at an earlier training an instructor friend, retired staff sergeant J.D. Morris, a former Green Beret, tossed me a six-inch-by-four-inch grid target with a pair of quarter-sized dots spaced about two inches apart; 1.9″ to be more precise. This target is used by Frank Proctor and accompanies his sight in video. The top dot is darker with the bottom dot lighter gray. Because the target is shot at 10 yards, you should be on paper to begin with, immediately, speeding up the process. Secondly, since the red dot optics that we were all using sit about 1.9 inches above the bore axis, if we aimed at the top, black dot, then the rounds struck the bottom, gray dot, once properly sighted in. Given that all rounds strike inside the gray dot at 10 yards, zero is confirmed on a 50-yard target. The bullet intersects the line of sight initially at 50 yards, giving a 50-yard zero, continuing to arch above the line of sight out to about 200 yards where the bullet crosses the line of sight for the second time, on its way down, achieving a 200-yard zero.
The bullet drops below the line of sight more drastically at distances beyond. With the Proctor system, you zero your AR-15 at 10 yards for a 50/200-yard zero. Hits can be made out to 300 yards without holding over the target. I have never considered myself a long-distance marksman but was immediately shooting more effectively than I ever had before.
I like that the Proctor system is quick and easy. It gave me the confidence to hit targets from zero to around 250 yards, well within the distances that I might normally encounter for practical shooting. Since there is no need to hold over the target beyond 50 yards, it is pretty much point and shoot.
One adjustment that must be made in one’s aiming process is that from close proximity to the target (about 0-15 yards) one must aim high or hold over the target by approximately two inches to strike precisely. Since the optic sits 1.9 inches over the barrel, aiming two inches high at zero to 15 yards fixes the holdover problem.
After passing out the two dot targets, guys went to work. Easy to follow directions are included with the targets. Participants were able to zero their rifles quickly and efficiently and were soon hitting targets with confidence. Bottom line, if this information was so helpful to members of the law enforcement community, maybe those citizens planning to use the AR-15 for personal defense or sporting purposes could benefit as well.
I know that there are many zeroing techniques out there and this is just one, but Proctor’s system made sense to me as well as the others. Many thanks to Frank Proctor for sharing his knowledge and valuable skillset. Additional thanks to J.D. Morris for passing along this much needed information.
If you’d like to watch Frank’s sight in video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-FUsH8jt6E