Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fastest Way to Sight in a Rifle

Yup.

Ed, If ya ain't cheating ya ain't try' in. Rio7

Remember sometimes you need a big hammer and someone to hold up the side of
A USFS fire ring to get a rifle sighted in!!! 😉😂

Edit! There were several other campfire members present!! You know who you are! 😂

A gun vise is the only way to go. Sandbags are next best, but shoulder aimed is useless for this method. I do it like it is described, but with a vise. I have saved quite a bit of ammo over the years this way.

HORSE SCHITT!

Whatever bobs your cork. Here is what I do if I lack ANY conficdence at all in the rifle or load.

1. Bore sight (bore or device) first. (if new to me rifle, or I've rebedded, rescoped, etc)

2. One shot at 25 yards to confirm I and/or device isn't cockeyed, or the barrel pressure-point stressed out of all reason. All but two of my rifles are free-floated from about 2 inches forward of receiver. No problem. The M98 with heavy barrel is full-length bedded. No problem. The Rem 700 .243. REQUIRES a light pressure point at the fore-end tip (that's a valuable piece of information, that took over 100 rounds of "sight in" to get it from 2.5 MOA to one). Not that 2.5 MOA has been ineffective in cleanly killing game to 300 yards over the last 40 years... the MOA is just more comforting...

3. Three - repeat- 3 shots at 100. The rifle is likely more accurate than I, but this not only tells me something about 2 above, but gives me an "average" for more realistic hunting situations, both on the rifle's ability, and on mine. Mark center of 3 shot group with a Sharpie.

4. Adjust scope from original aim point to Sharpie mark. Test fire one to 3 shots to confirm.

"One-shot sight-in" makes me nervous if ANY factors are in doubt or may have changed, or if I haven't shot the rifle in quite some time. I trust my RU77 in .338WM implicitly, but since I haven't shot it in 8 years, it is getting the above treatment from #3 down before I next take it hunting. I expect to have to fire only 3 shots- maybe two. With no scope adjustment needed.

If I have hunted with it the year before, it gets a one shot "sight-in" to confirm zero, and we are good to go. In a good year, I fire 3 shots with it.. the third being the stand-off insurance shot. In a really good year, only two.


Video works with already known rifle/ammo accuracy with rest and procedure caveats others have mentioned.

Back in the mid 70's, I was shooting in the IBS Nationals, I believe in Mainville, PA when the guy next bench over had his scope break after his second record shot. He had maybe 4 minutes to finish the target or be DQ'd. He unscrewed his scope and ran back to his car, got a new scope, ran back to the line, screwed on the new scope, bore sighted it, fired at a rock next to his target frame, made some adjustments, went to his sighter, made another adjustment and fired the next three shots into his group. He finished the record group with maybe a few seconds to spare. It was a bug hole group, probably no more than .250" It was an impressive performance. After bore sighting, all he did was move his crosshairs to the bullet hole. Simple.

I use 2 shots to sight in. As long as the first shot is on the paper, that is all I need. I sand bag the long gun, fire one shot with the crosshairs zeroed at target center. The gun will move, no matter what, so don't worry about it. Reset long gun to same aim point, and sand bag it again. Confirm zero, then move scope crosshairs to hole in target, take second shot. It should hit original hole.

(Ammo is expensive, I try not to waste it.)

Agreed. It works fine with a gun of known parentage and upbringing.

I've been able to sight in even the surliest bastard that way. 😉

I'm thinking groups, not patterns....

One can chase bullet holes all day long, one shot at a time. Ask me how I know...

That has worked for me over the years. A couple years ago I had a rifle built and used this system. The bullet missed the whole 2'X4' target board. Upon further investigation I discovered the barrel was bent toward the right. When I was really careful looking through the bore I could see the slightest vertically oriented oval shape rather than a round bore.