Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Bore-Sighting Problem

I'm having a problem with a new-to-me rifle. I took it to the range to sight in, laid it on some sandbags, and bore-sighted it. When I began firing, the POI was consistently 24 - 30 inches high at 50 yards. I re-checked the bore-sight, it was correct. Fired a few more, same thing. Picked up the rifle and fired off-hand, same discrepancy between POA and POI.

I've never encountered this before. The crown looks good. I'm using iron sights, so it's not a scope problem. I'm thinking perhaps the barrel is bent. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for your help.

WW

I don't know if this is your problem or not,but this maybe.All my rifles are free-floated except one newly acquired pre-Garcia Sako that has the riflesmiths name written inside the barrel channel.Before I was going to removed the pressure point at the end of the stock,I decided to shoot it like that to see how it does.I too had a hard time bore-sighting the rifle.I think it may have been the pressure point was causing the point of impact to be off from were I was sighting through the bore.Once I finally got it on paper,the rifle shot really accurate,so I'm going to leave it as is.Hope this helps.

Are the Iron sights factory? Or have the been replaced?
Use this formula to check your sights.
I had a rifle that had the wrong front sight installed and it shot something like that.

https://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=13093/GunTechdetail/Sight_Correction_Calculator

With irons I'd not worry with a bore sighter. Or on a scoped gun for that matter.did you run the rear sight all the way down and were still hitting that high? If so I'd say you have the wrong front front.

If the barrel were bent you'd likely notice it during bore sighting. Never tried that with irons. Just shoot at a big enough target at range close enough to get on paper and go from there.

What type of rifle? AR's have iron sights way over the bore and they complicate zeroing at close range.

What type of iron sights?

Mike

Does it shoot groups? If so who cares about bore sight vs impacts...

In fact thats pretty much the way things should be answered... don't get hung up in the WHY part, just accept or not, the results and move forward.

You are welcome.

If its a 30-30, your good to go!!!

Thanks for the input, everyone. Regarding how it groups, I honestly didn't get that far. I lowered the rear sight (non-factory, XS peep) as far as possible and it made very little difference. I would definitely need a much taller front sight to make the irons work.

I might drop a scope on it to evaluate how well it groups. If my suspicion of a bent barrel is correct, I'd expect the bullet strikes to walk a lot when the barrel heats up.

What kind of rifle is it? If someone here on the fire has the same model, they could measure the height of the front sight and you could compare that to the height of yours.

It could be a problem of sights but I think it would be hard to get that much error at such short range with any reasonable front/rear sight combination.

It's a sporterized Mauser. One of the reasons I was so surprised by the point of impact is that I have another with the same chambering, same barrel length, and same sight-heights for front and rear. Also, every other bolt rifle I own has the sights lined up with bore. I just don't understand why this one would be off so radically. More than 2 feet at 50 yards is a BIG difference.

2 feet high at 50 with a 19 inch sight radias and you will need a .250" taller front. 24 inch sight radias and you will need a .320" higher front. A XS peep almost always needs the factory front replaced with a higher front. Check with XS or Skinner and look at their file to adjust front post.

I agree with the above. Previous owner put the peep on it but didn't change the front blade.
If it still has the original rear sight, remove the peep and see if it is closer. If so order a new front and you should be GTG

Or a .270 win.

I sure appreciate all the input. Does no one else think it strange that a bore sighted rifle would have POI so far above the line of the bore?

I haven't personally seen one that far off, but looking down the bore and eyeballing it on paper is not a very precise method. It's just meant to get you paper.

I'd be more concerned with the accuracy after you adjust the sights. If that's OK I wouldn't be concerned with how far off you were when you bore-sighted.