I'm a bonehead newb with target turrets, & MOA's, etc. Up until now I hunt with a 300 yard zero, so I just usually aim low or hold over if necessary. However I just bought a used 3.5-10 x 40 Vari-X III with target turrets. This will be mounted on a 20" 5.56/223 AR. This is for informal shooting-coyote hunting.

No paperwork with the scope and surprisingly I'm not finding alot of info on the interwebz. I know how to zero and how to zero out the knobs but my confusion starts with dialing in for distances and I have stupid questions such as do you pick a load and punch it into a ballistics calculator to get a rough starting point on ballistics and then confirm?

I'll zero at 100 yards (correct?).

If some kind soul wouldn't mind emailing me directly to answer questions so I'm not advertising my ignorance to the whole world, that would be great. Or you could point me to a web tutorial, that would work too.

I'm just getting started here, haven't even mounted the scope yet.