Changed Scopes

[Mortblanc]

Many shooting clubs will have a sighting device you can use at the range to sight your rifles. It saves time and money, as well as making for happier shooters on the line.

Here is a trick I use in place of the bore sighter or laser sighter. Those devices have not always existed and I began shooting before they were popular/available. "Back in the day" we did a simple bore sighting operation. I do this so often that I have a bottle lid nailed to a tree which is exactly 25M from my back porch.

Pull the bolt from the rifle and secure it on a table or firm support such as a vise or cleaning crib. Make sure it can not easily move.

Looking through the open bore, center the bore on a mark 25 yards away and immobilize the rifle in that position.

Move the cross hairs on the scope to center on the mark. Check the bore to the cross hairs and insure nothing has slipped as you did the scope adjustments.

You can do this adjustment even in the middle of the city with the rifle indoors and looking out a window with the curtains only pulled back a slight bit with the aiming point across the street, ally, or garden. No one knows you are sighting your rifle but you.

Just like with the mechanical devices, this system will usually get one on the paper at 25 yards, then comes the move out to 100/200.

Usually I am within a few inches of the center when I move to 100m. With most high velocity cartridges setting the cross hairs 5cm high at 100 will put one to centered at 200, 20cm low at 300m.

I have both the laser trinkets and a collator with a grid but I find the old fashioned trick of "bore sighting" still works best in many situations.

Many times I have used the sighting devices and found the rifle so far off when I got to the range that I was required to "bore sight" at the shooting bench to get on paper.

I also use the bore sighting trick to check the "sights" on my shotguns. Especially if they have been equipped with slug sights or the bead has been replaced with a fiber optic. Either of those things can mess with the point of aim/point of impact.