Make the final elevation adjustment with the rifle by squeezing on the rear bag, which will lower the crosshairs.

The rear bag and table height should allow the rifle's buttstock to fit snugly into your shoulder. If the rests are adjusted properly, sliding the rifle forward in the bags causes the crosshair to move downward. Sliding rearward causes the crosshair to rise on target, but the vertical crosshair should split the target as the rifle moves. Position the rifle and pedestal so that the sling swivel studs do not grab the bag during recoil.

If you have a rabbit ear rear bag, the buttstock tracks between the ears of the bag. If you have a relatively light-kicking rifle, say under .270 Win., position the non-firing hand on the base of the rear bag. Squeezing this bag lowers the crosshair on target. Just prior to final aiming, align the crosshair slightly above the aiming point, then squeeze the rear bag to bring the crosshair into final alignment with the target.

If you're shooting a hard-kicking rifle, you can move the non-firing hand to the fore-end behind the front pedestal to control the rifle and prevent it from jumping off the pedestal. But remember, aiming is done with the bags. It is not done by holding the rifle on target with your muscles or with shoulder tension. The firing hand pulls the grip straight back until the buttstock meets your shoulder with no twisting or torquing force applied to the grip.

The crosshair should be completely steady on target. When you are sighting in, the idea is to see where the rifle is shooting in relation to where the crosshair is aligned. Dry fire the rifle a few times to see if the crosshair moves on target as you pull the trigger. It shouldn't. If it does, adjust your setup and dry fire until the crosshair does not move on target when you pull the triger.

Again, make sure everything is clear downrange and it is safe to shoot. Now load the rifle with the ammunition you intend to use on the hunt, hold solidly on the aiming point and carefully squeeze off a shot. You should be on paper at 100 yards. Fire at least two more shots in the same manner before you make any sight adjustment.

Three shots are usually enough, but sometimes, after having removed the barreled action from the stock and the scope from the rifle, it takes a shot or two to settle everything in. You may need to ignore the first shot. After no more than a couple of shots, the rifle should cluster its shots reasonably well--say within two inches at 100 yards.

Determine the center of the three (or four) shots, make sight adjustments and fire again. If you're shooting a scoped rifle, it is convenient to use a target with one-inch squares in a grid pattern. This way you can see through a high magnification riflescope or spotting scope the amount of adjustment you need to make in your crosshair. If the scope has quarter-minute clicks, four clicks will move point of impact approximately one inch--one square--at 100 yards.

With American scopes (and some European scopes as well) you can think of the adjustments as screws with conventional right-hand threads. If you turn the top knob clockwise as if you're tightening it, point of impact will move in the same direction: downward. If you rotate the right side knob clockwise, point of impact moves the same way you are tightening, to the left.

If I am sighting in a rifle for big game with a modern, flat-shooting cartridge, I like to sight in so that bullets impact about 2 3/4 inches above my aiming point at 100 yards.

If I am sighting in a varmint centerfire, I sight in one or 1 1/2 inches high for small varmints or coyotes respectively.

Sighting in an iron-sighted rifle is a different ball game. Here I would use a bullseye target for a well-defined six o'clock hold. Adjustments are made by tapping the front or rear sight laterally with a hammer and brass punch.

I like to zero an iron-sighted rifle dead on at 100 yards. Most of these guns are lever-action carbines chambered for relatively short-range cartridges. In addition, aiming with open iron sights is less precise than with a scope. The carbines are designed for woods hunting and shooting at shorter distances, usually inside 125 yards or so. This is why I zero an iron-sighted gun dead on at 100 yards.