SmallCaliberCentral

If this post doesn't scream "newbie" I don't know what does.
I am a fairly experienced shooter, but very new to the 204. I am shooting a Tikka varmint with a 16x scope. I bring it to the range a lot, consistently do 1/2" 3/4" groups at 100 yards with a bi-pod. I hunt near my house daily, often a couple times a day. I spent most of this morning making sure my gun was sighted in properly, until I read the post on here about sighting in 1.5" at 100 yards I kept it zeroed at 100. Today I set it up perfect, I thought.
I left the range this morning with the gun shooting 39 grain Sierra's 1.5" high at 100 yards, consistent as I can get from factory ammo.
Went up the road and laid on a cement pad along the railroad tracks, 10 minutes later a weasel crossed the tracks at about 200 yards, as I racked in a shell I seen a fox come up right behind him. I missed, racked in the second shell, missed again. He disappeared and I sat shaking my head. 10 minutes later it resurfaced, 2 more misses.
I am perplexed, I have no idea what I am doing wrong, I am a decent shot, I shoot a lot in my backyard, usually popping paint balls at 75 yards with my .17 HMR until it gets boring. I can't make this .204 connect! Any thoughts as to what may be going wrong? Scope is tight, groups are consistent I am on a bi-pod.. All I can think of is varmints with Kevlar.
A little advice/help would be appreciated.
David

Back the scope down about 1" and you should be fine. 1.5" high should put you on around 300 or more That's my 2 cents.

You're probably shooting high, I would sight-in 3/4"-1" high at 100 yds. Only way to find out for sure, is to shoot at 200, 300, etc and see just where your shots hit. Keep us posted.

If you knew you missed, why didn't you hold a little under and see what happens? If I knew I missed(and it felt right), I would be changing aimpoint...........

I will back the scope down an inch today, I was thinking that having it set at 1.5" high I should still be on target with a fox..
Huntsman, I didn't try holding under because I didn't know I was shooting over. At first I thought I was underestimating the range. I was shooting straight down railroad tracks, there was no indication where my shots were hitting.

There is a chance I am not understanding a simple ballistics table, I thought 1.5" at 100 yards would keep me relatively close out to a few hundred yards.

Depending on how fast your bullets are going, a 1.5" high sight in would put you around 260-270 yard zero. When the bullet reached that 200 yards it was about 2 inches above your line of sight. A fox is a small target and if you held off of dead center by accident, you could have easily missed.

piper: Under those circumstances, when you blow a shot you felt good about, and the target has vanished, try this:

Find a dirt clod, rock, or other small target right where you missed, located at the same range. Aim dead-on at the rock or whatever, and see where your bullet hits by the dust signature. This will tell you right away if you're shooting high or not. As the 204 is so flat shooting, you most likely shot over Mr. Fox as the others have noted with a 1.5" high at 100 scope setting.

This is where the Leupold Varmint Hunter Reticle comes into play, or my favorite method of first shot hit probability: zero at 100 and use a custom come-up chart for each rifle and caliber, and dial the range for each shot to ensure a hit virtually every time (well....almost )

Good advice from Rick as usual.
Thinking along his terms I would go a step further.
Go back to that cement pad, set up a target near the place the fox was and shoot a few groups.
This should tell you exactly whats going wrong.

Looking back I wish I had left my scope alone and set up a box where that fox was standing (laughing at me) just to see where I was hitting. I am confident now that I was shooting high. I got up this morning and brought the scope to 1/2" high at 100 yards. I don't really see many 300 yard shots so I was being a bit optimistic going that high with my line of sight, it cost me a shot and a bit of pride.
Thanks for the help guys, sometimes I think I put way, way too much thought in to this stuff.

My reloads, a 32 Gr V-Max bullet with a MV of 3900 ft/sec is set at 3/4 " high at 100 yards. At 150 yards its about the same and zerroed in at 200 yards . At 225 yards its about 3/4 " low and 1 3/4" low at 250 yards. At 275 yards the 32 Gr bullet is 3 " low.

after sighting at 100 yrds you need to shoot at 150, 200 ,250. 300 to see what YOUR GUN WITH THAT AMMO DOES, dont go by what my gun or his gun shoots, you will only know what YOUR GUN AND AMMO DOES IF YOU SHOOT YOUR GUN AND AMMO AT DIFFERENT RANGES.
Sportingly
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