laser bore scoping
- Thread starter conmaesta
- Start date
It's easy if you've got a lead sled, a clamping tripod, or something like that but not everyone has a good rest and without one it can get frustrating.
I just use my rest and bags, you just have to avoid touching the rifle.
Boresighting is like anything else; practice makes you fast, smooth and efficient. With a gun that allows an easy look down the bore like a bolt or single shot, carefully supporting the gun in sand bags and eyeballing the bore view vs scope view can get you on paper surprisingly quickly, without firing a shot. This is indeed important for folks who can't actually fire a shot without jumping through the hoops of driving to a range, etc.
But that still requires a solid supporting rest that keeps the gun rigidly immobile. Fine if you are shooting from a bench; but maybe you just want to get the bore-sighting done while mounting the scope at home the evening before shooting? If you have a laser, just mount your scope as usual, pop the laser on, and step outside or open a window. Pick a target 100-yard-ish target, shoulder the rifle and compare red dot to crosshairs; I use the wall of an outbuilding that's about 100 yards from my back deck.
Adjust the crosshairs to put them an inch or so beneath the red dot; doesn't matter how much they bounce around on the target or wall, you just hold the gun normally and the relationship of crosshairs to dot is all that matters. Usually this will put your first shot fired, whenever you actually do that, near the centre of the paper, often requiring very little fine-tuning and saving ammo, time and frustration.
My laser boresighters are the type that adhere magnetically to the face of the muzzle, with no projection into the bore itself, no arbors required, literally go on and come off in fractions of a second.
Once you do the final shooting and tuning, it's a good idea to find a target at exactly 100 yards, 50 yards, 200 yards, whatever. Set the scope to maximum magnification, observe the relationship of dot and crosshair on that target, maybe even snap a pic on your cellphone. If you are on a hunt or elsewhere at some future time and bang or drop your rifle and are worried that you've knocked your scope off, just find or set up a target at that exact same distance, set the scope on maximum magnification again, put your laser on the gun and see how it compares to the pic. Getting the same target distance is more important here than initial bore sighting, and you also need to remember to once again set your scope on the same magnification so you're comparing apples to apples. This will let you see if the scope has been significantly knocked out of its sighted-in setting.
Done carefully, this is much more precise than just squinting down the barrel of your rifle.
But that still requires a solid supporting rest that keeps the gun rigidly immobile. Fine if you are shooting from a bench; but maybe you just want to get the bore-sighting done while mounting the scope at home the evening before shooting? If you have a laser, just mount your scope as usual, pop the laser on, and step outside or open a window. Pick a target 100-yard-ish target, shoulder the rifle and compare red dot to crosshairs; I use the wall of an outbuilding that's about 100 yards from my back deck.
Adjust the crosshairs to put them an inch or so beneath the red dot; doesn't matter how much they bounce around on the target or wall, you just hold the gun normally and the relationship of crosshairs to dot is all that matters. Usually this will put your first shot fired, whenever you actually do that, near the centre of the paper, often requiring very little fine-tuning and saving ammo, time and frustration.
My laser boresighters are the type that adhere magnetically to the face of the muzzle, with no projection into the bore itself, no arbors required, literally go on and come off in fractions of a second.
Once you do the final shooting and tuning, it's a good idea to find a target at exactly 100 yards, 50 yards, 200 yards, whatever. Set the scope to maximum magnification, observe the relationship of dot and crosshair on that target, maybe even snap a pic on your cellphone. If you are on a hunt or elsewhere at some future time and bang or drop your rifle and are worried that you've knocked your scope off, just find or set up a target at that exact same distance, set the scope on maximum magnification again, put your laser on the gun and see how it compares to the pic. Getting the same target distance is more important here than initial bore sighting, and you also need to remember to once again set your scope on the same magnification so you're comparing apples to apples. This will let you see if the scope has been significantly knocked out of its sighted-in setting.
Done carefully, this is much more precise than just squinting down the barrel of your rifle.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Then how you know its actually centered to the bore? Or if the bore is true. So that method might not work with all guns, and actually give you a false indication.
Then there is the whole is even the laser calibrated center. As many are made in China.
How do you know before trying it? Obviously, you don't. If the muzzle face were not perfectly perpendicular to the bore, it wouldn't work. If the laser itself were out of whack, it wouldn't work. And I'm sure that somebody will buy an out-of-whack laser, and will be disappointed and frustrated.
But the simple fact is that both of my lasers are cheap-o Sightmarks, made in China...and both have worked beautifully on every gun I've tried them on. So I'll amend my statement with the proviso that if you get a good one a laser makes your life easier. If you get a bad one, it won't...just like getting a bad rifle, or a bad scope, or a bad box of ammo, or a bad...anything.
If you're afraid of buying something because you might get a lemon...then simply don't buy it. Easy. When you buy anything, you run the risk of getting a bad example that doesn't do what it should do. But if you don't buy and try one, it's 100% guaranteed that it won't work for you.
Bonus: I know mine work; when/if I get a crooked muzzle face, this method won't work on that gun...and it will have pointed me in the correct direction to look for the problem.
FatCatsDad
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I've got the wheeler magnetic laser....like my post above, it gets you close, but at least your on paper at 100 yds with your first shot. I use big pieces of paper when sighting in a new setup.
Like 3'x3' cardboard
- Location
- Nova Scotia
How do you know before trying it? Obviously, you don't. If the muzzle face were not perfectly perpendicular to the bore, it wouldn't work. If the laser itself were out of whack, it wouldn't work. And I'm sure that somebody will buy an out-of-whack laser, and will be disappointed and frustrated.
But the simple fact is that both of my lasers are cheap-o Sightmarks, made in China...and both have worked beautifully on every gun I've tried them on. So I'll amend my statement with the proviso that if you get a good one a laser makes your life easier. If you get a bad one, it won't...just like getting a bad rifle, or a bad scope, or a bad box of ammo, or a bad...anything.
If you're afraid of buying something because you might get a lemon...then simply don't buy it. Easy. When you buy anything, you run the risk of getting a bad example that doesn't do what it should do. But if you don't buy and try one, it's 100% guaranteed that it won't work for you.
Bonus: I know mine work; when/if I get a crooked muzzle face, this method won't work on that gun...and it will have pointed me in the correct direction to look for the problem.
Jesus christ, I didn't mean to twist your panties. I was just pointing out that you could run into issues with those. Not everything is true.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Panties were never twisted.
I was just pointing out that you can run into issues with anything...and nothing is 100% true. But...good enough is good enough.
Now educate me how it centers to the bore? AS I'm curious. Because I can stick a magnet anywheres on the muzzle and not always gonna be centered.
I just stick it on and eyeball it for center. It'll never be off by more than an 1/8-inch or so, likely less. That will make literally no practical difference to the end goal...which is simply to get onto an 8x11 sheet of paper. Again: good enough.
Is there anything more irritating and frustrating than taking your first sighter shot, and missing the paper completely, often with no hint as to high, low or...?
I can't remember that ever happening with a normally mounted scope on a zero-MOA rail with a laser.
Something was definitely up with his setup. Being too close would make it so you can't get the reticle low enough to meet the laser, but he couldn't get ABOVE the laser even at max elevation. Longer distance wouldn't solve that issue, it would only make it worse.
The only thing that makes sense to me is his scope was somehow canted, either one ring was WAY out of spec or the scope itself was catching on a base or something. I've seen the magnification adjustment hit the base on rings that were too low for example.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Not as easy on a semi auto, even with the bolt removed you often have the rear of the receiver blocking a through view doesn’t the barrel. It’s the way to go on a bolt, very quick and works well.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Even the ones that slide into the bore with a pilot aren’t centered, when inserted and you spin them you quickly see the lazer dot move in a circle. They’re not precision made that’s for sure, but they do the job of getting you on paper at 10-25m, which is about as far as you can see the lazer in the sun on a white paper target.
You’re lucky if you can see it on a cloudy day at 50, I haven’t used mine in years as the battery is dead but I only used it on semi autos in the first place. Bolt guns I just look through the bore and adjust by eye.
Well Im only going to relay my experince with laser bore sighters. I have one with different sized arbors that thread on the end of the bore sighter. You tighten the screw until its snug sliding down the bore, The end of the laser is shaped so it centers in your barrel. If you read the instructions and keep the alignment mark at TDC it is very accurate on getting you on paper easily with one round at 100 yards. I use mine in the house at 20 feet and just measure the bore to scope height and adjust it accordingly. so if the bore of the rifles 2 inches from center of bore I adjust scopoe reticle 2 inches above laser dot on wall. Ive sighted in at least 200 hundred or more firearms and never had any problem. With an accurate rifle its three shot sight in, DONE, I only own accurate guns.
Longstud, Exactly my process except I do it in the evening in my back yard (NOT where neighbors can see me) at ca 20 yards. As you say, "... The end of the laser is shaped so it centers in your barrel..." That gets me within a couple inches of Z at 50. Usually get Z with 2-3 shots for MOA. Even when I do the "... across the street..." with the laser, I still need a couple shots to refine the Z. As Butcherbill said, you can see the 'dot' rotate on the wall if you spin the laser in the barrel so the 'precision' is vague.
