Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire bore sighters

bore sighters whitch is best laser or mechanical i dont live in a place that lends itself to a box of shells and a screwdriver youre thoughts if you please.

I have an old optical bore sight tool that uses arbors. It works for me. Close enough to get on paper at 50 yds then fine tune at the range you desire. Also works to reference should you need to remove the scope for some reason. Never used a laser version.

With a bolt action or AR-15, remove the bolt, setup the rifle in a solid rest and dial in the scope. You'll be on paper at 100yds. I've bore sighted several rifles on my kitchen table using a fence post as a aiming point. I've also done the same at the range using a bullseye target.

You'll still have to dial in the scope with a bore sighter.

i just pull the bolt out and eyeball it, always gets me on the target usually pretty darn close. takes a couple of shots to zero it afterwards.

I have both but I like my my Bushnell with arbors the best.

One shot at 25 yds, do the math, run the clicks and you are in the neighborhood to fine tune at 100. You won't shoot a box but if you did, the practice never hurt.

Guess you can tell I never use a bore sighter.

Never tried the laser. Got a BSA arbor type. Piece of junk. Exchanged it and the second one failed to work also. Went back to removing the bolt as described above and haven't looked back.

The BSA is low end. But never even got me on paper. Save yourself the headache and learn the "real" way.

Exactly. I eyeball things down the bore and through the scope, adjust until things jive, pop one at 25yds, dial for corrections, and pop another. Usually using a "jam-it" style plastic target stand. The third shot is typically at 100yds and should be very close to the proper point of impact. It's rare that I'm not very close at 100yds after 3-4 shots.

I have had many lazer and arbor style boresighting tools. The above is THE best way to bore sight a rifle, bar none. Remove the bolt, place the rifle in a mechanical rest of some sort and get the bore lined up with a distant small object lke a power line insulator 100-200 yards away. Line op the crisshiars with that same object and you will be VERY close to on at 100 yards. This will also alow you to use offest inserts, shims or whatever you have and use to properly align the scope with the rifle and not use up a lot of the adjustment motion in the scopes erector aka crosshair adjustment assembly. Screwing the erecotr / turret adjustments WAAAAAYYYYY out to get the crosshirs lined up means that youare bending the light going through the scope and are not getting the best eye box and optical clarity that the scope can offer.

Put on the correct arbor dial it in and rock in roll..you guys are making it way too hard.

I use a Bushnell with arbors, but was forced to do the "look down the barrel" thing a couple of years ago because I couldn't find an arbor for my .50 cal Remington ML. I parked the Ranger about 35 yds from the porch and stuck a 3" Targ-Dot on the side. Put the rifle in the cleaning rest, centered the dot in the bore and adjusted the scope.

Went out a couple of mornings later and shot at 25 yards. The shot went close enough to the 1-inch bulls eye that I went ahead and shot at 100 without making any adjustments. Damned thing was only 3" off at about 3:30 at 100 yards! Had to be a fluke...

Eyeball bore sighting is easier for me, and imeasuaby more relaible IME.

Just remember guys-if your scope is 4 clicks to an inch at 100 yards, it's 8 clicks to an inch at 50 yards, and 16 clicks to an inch at 25 yards. If you're off 3 inches at 25 yards, you'll need to move the scope 48 clicks to come on center.

My tasco with arbors works great. I adjust it at home then start on the 25 yard target at the range. Most of my rifles are about 2 1/2 inches high at 100 yards when sighted in at 25.

tom

They are all a huge waste of money. I zeroed 3 scopes at the range today. These are the 50 yard targets with the 1st shot after just looking through the bore and adjusing the scope.

http://s1129.photobucket.com/albums/m513/jmr40/?action=view&current=001-10.jpg

I fire 1 shot at 50, measure the distance from zero, adjust and fire the 2nd shot at 100, and re-adjust the sights. I then fire shots 3-5 for a three shot group at 100 and it is almost always right where I want it to be.

Even with a rifle where it is impossible to see through the bore I rarely need more than 4 shots to have it right where I want it at 100 yards. I cannot imagine one of these things saving me a dime in ammo costs.

Have never used a laser boresighter so "no comment" on those. Always pulled the bolt; stuck it in the rifle vise and did it the old fashioned way. Then a few years ago I got an inexpensive BSA boresighter complete with arbors so I could do stuff like lever guns and semi-autos. So far that thing has performed flawlessly; and I wasn't expecting so much from a cheap set like that. Last year just for kicks I used it on a bolt gun without my usual eyeball it method. The gun was almost dead on at 100 yds. with the first shot. Also did a 7.5" Redhawk that was getting a 2x Leupold, (first time I ever used it on a handgun). First round at 50 yds. was right where I wanted it. So I've come to the conclusion that a cheap setup like this can really work well. Haven't priced any laser sets lately but a few years ago the BSA was on sale at Natchez in the 25 to 30 dollar range IIRC. It's a keeper.

Just make sure you remove the bore sighter before firing that first shot. More than one barrel has been bannana pealed by a nimrod so excited to get his rifle quickly on target...

When I worked at the rifle range, we had a Belgian Browning BAR out there with the barrel peeled back. Nimrod figured out real fast that the guns don't work real well with obstructions in the barrel.

For sighting in when I know I don't have to monkey with anything but the scope adjustment screws that's sort of what I do after wasting too much time with bore sighters over the years. Except that I check a trajectory table to find how far the bullet will hit from line of sight at 25 yards for my desired zero. You can be surprisingly close after adjusting for the first shot, better than with an inexpensive bore sighter. I bought Sierra's ballistics program but I've read here that there are free ones on the web.

Safari man,
Your sighting on insulator made me laugh ! That is exactly what I do . Top insulator about 100yds. away.
Have a USA made laser , can't seem to hit the dirt behind the target using the dang thing.
Cisco