Let me start off with some background. In contrast to most other shooters, bullets in EFT actually come out of the barrel of your gun, and when ADSing you look through the scope somewhere above the gun. The difference in height between the barrel and the center of your scope is known as "Height-over-Bore", and it's the reason why bullets in tarkov tend to hit a bit low at short range.
I always assumed that a 5 cm HoB deviation would simply cause bullets to hit 5 cm low at all ranges and that changing the zeroing distance would only adjust for bullet drop. However, this is NOT the case. I recently figured out that the scope elevation does adjust for HoB, and you should hit targets spot on regardless of your scope's height as long as your zeroing distance is set up correctly. Seems pretty sweet right? Well, not so much if like me, you always leave your zeroing distance at the minimum and simply adjust for bullet drop manually. When using a weapon with a "high scope mount", the HoB compensation at 50 meters is much more significant than bullet drop, and will massively overcompensate and cause you to overshoot at distances beyond 50 meters.
I did some testing using an ak-74n with significant Height-over-Bore (approx. 15 cm or 6 freedom units) and checked my results with some quick calculations using data from the tarkov-ballistics website. When setting my zeroing distance to 50 meters, my shots would impact about 20 to 25 cm above my point of aim when engaging targets 150-250 meters away. IMO this deviation is very significant since I was expecting my shots to land well below my reticle and definitely not above it.
My advice on this issue/feature is the following:
- When building a "precision rifle", it's actually worth it to minimize HoB.
- Alternatively, you could take the time and effort to properly set up your scope elevation before taking a shot. Jaeger LVL 1 sells a basic rangefinder for a bit over 9k roubles.
- If this is too much of a hassle, you could use a default zeroing distance of 100/150 meters. Your shots may hit a bit low at short range, but long-range shots will be much more accurate.
- If you're still missing those "easy" headshots, you can just blame the game and feel a bit better about yourself 😉
