66% of gun stores I visited say these optics helps are absolutely worthless....

[Walkalong]

I assume most folks know this technique. Am I wrong?

It doesn’t seem like it’s as well known as it was 30/40/50 years ago.

 

[Varminterror]

It doesn’t seem like it’s as well known as it was 30/40/50 years ago.

In fairness, I've met a lot more guys in older generations which had no idea how to zero a scope than I have from the younger generations - and hadn't had a clue, despite owning firearms for decades, and even counting themselves as "shooters".

 

[Walkalong]

lol, you might be right, but it was common among the crowd I ran in.

 

[Varminterror]

I have a couple of muzzle-insert laser bore sighters, they work, none of mine are the cartridge shaped inserts, except I believe I do have a 12ga laser somewhere now that I think about it. I got in the habit of using the muzzle inserts when I was doing a lot of install work and preferred the laser over boresighting on a double bull target across the shop - I’d use a Bushnell arbor collimator to level reticles then use the lasers to boresight, and hand the happy new owner a sheet of instructions for how to zero in the field - knowing more than half of them would just go start banging away at deer or coyotes without ever following the instructions…

More often than not these days, I optically center my scopes, dial up 1 mil for gravity and mount height plus whatever angle I might have in the rail or rings, then mount the scope - this usually puts me on the page at 100yrds. I usually peak through the bore to validate before sending a round, but it’s not really a thing of much concern - 3 pages on something so mundane as boresighting, with a laser or otherwise, seems odd.

 

[Crosshair]

I assume most everyone knows this but stating the obvious is natural gift of mine.

Pull the bolt and sight through the bore. A three inch paster at 100 yards centers in the bore nicely. Keep the rifle steady and adjust the crosshairs to align with the target. You’ll hit it on the 1st shot nearly every time.

You can do the same with an AR, just remove the lowers and rest the upper on a bipod and bags.

For a lever rifle, roll off a 3 foot sheet of freezer paper and staple it to a target stand at 50 yards

Yes I know that, except that way is a massive time sink. You know full well that "keeping the rifle steady" is largly impractical if you don't have a rest that allows you to clamp things down. You're going to be constantly having to re center the bore. I'd rather slam my hand in a car door than boresight that way.

A $150 boresighter saves so much time in that regard. Put it in the muzzle, go out the back door, aim it at the back shed, and adjust accordingly.

 

[trackskippy]

I guess we have a different idea as to how hard it is to just look down the bore. I just throw the gun or upper in my cleaning rack and look down the bore at something out the window and across the yard. No time sink at all. Takes all of about 5 minutes to get it done.

I guess Im just cheap and would rather spend the $150 on ammo and/or components.

 

[Varminterror]

You know full well that "keeping the rifle steady" is largly impractical if you don't have a rest that allows you to clamp things down. You're going to be constantly having to re center the bore.

um... Nah... It's really pretty straight forward... Just don't handle the rifle so much. One sand bag, or any front support plus a rear sand bag, pull the bolt, line it up on target, and look from behind the buttstock, easy peasy. For some of my stocks, I can pull my cheek riser and see through both with my head closer to the action, but either way works just as easy.

Without question, knowing how to actually stabilize a rifle on target, it's much faster to pull the bolt and boresight than use a laser in the muzzle. The laser cartridges might be faster, might be, but they don't align well to the bore, so we chase our tail longer on the back end.

I use a laser boresighter in the muzzle a lot more often than boresighting by eye - because my eyes absolutely suck now - but I know for sure, it's not difficult to level a rifle onto target without clamping it down. And if it's easy for me, then it should be easy for anyone.

 

[tjmga]

Checking gun stores around Gettysburg, PA I have been told by a majority of gun stores that using in-chamber cartridges with lasers for bore sighting is a worthless gesture. They sight unreliability factors such as poor machining, canted bullets, weakening batteries and etc. as reasons.

what do you think?

I agree fully.

 

[Nature Boy]

Yes I know that, except that way is a massive time sink. You know full well that "keeping the rifle steady" is largly impractical if you don't have a rest that allows you to clamp things down. You're going to be constantly having to re center the bore. I'd rather slam my hand in a car door than boresight that way.

A $150 boresighter saves so much time in that regard. Put it in the muzzle, go out the back door, aim it at the back shed, and adjust accordingly.

There’s a lot of exaggerated nonsense in that.

Practically speaking, your $150 laser and my eyeball looking through the bore are doing EXACTLY the same thing,

Traditional boresighting only needs the rifle to be in a supported position steady enough to align the scope reticle to the bore axis. No clamps or vices required.

Massive time sink? It takes me all of 5 minutes to complete and that includes walking the 200 yards round trip to hang the target.

Back to the OP’s question on cartridge lasers. I bought one on a whim. The laser in that one was too weak to show on the target in daylight. By any measure it was a waste.

 

[5whiskey]

I see the cartridge shaped bore site lasers a waste of money. Admittedly, I haven't used them... but I have relevant experience that tells me they're likely suspect.

I HAVE used a bore inserted LBS with great success. It is the one issued by the US military, and itsnused to bore sight PEQ-4 IR lasers. Actually sighting in an IR laser the manual way must be done at night, and it's a pain in the arse. Only done it a couple of times. Most of the time (as in almost always) both Army and Marines simply boresight an IR laser. And it works. But here's the trick... the boresight used by the military had to be collimated to the bore of the rifle. Collimating the LBS to the rifle was a process in and of itself, at least as complex as actually zeroing the rifle. But good hits COM at 100 yards could be done from boresighting alone using that tool.

For everything else, I also used the old fashioned "look through the bore myself" way

 

[CraigC]

Yes I know that, except that way is a massive time sink. You know full well that "keeping the rifle steady" is largly impractical if you don't have a rest that allows you to clamp things down. You're going to be constantly having to re center the bore. I'd rather slam my hand in a car door than boresight that way.

A $150 boresighter saves so much time in that regard. Put it in the muzzle, go out the back door, aim it at the back shed, and adjust accordingly.

I don't think any of that is true.

 

[Walkalong]

Yes I know that, except that way is a massive time sink. You know full well that "keeping the rifle steady" is largly impractical if you don't have a rest that allows you to clamp things down. You're going to be constantly having to re center the bore. I'd rather slam my hand in a car door than boresight that way.

It's super easy. Sight down the bore, set the crosshairs on the target, double check, tweak if needed, shoot, bingo, you're on target. tweak by shooting now.

 

[wesmonster]

Agree the cartridge boresighters are usually not worth the price.
I do have a Bushnell bore sighter with the adaptors for various calibers, It's far from perfect but I can use it in my shop at 20 feet to get me in the ballpark. Not an issue if I'm going to my local indoor range as I can set my target where I want. But that's only good to 25 yards, and my public outdoor range is good for 200 yards but doesn't allow centerfire targets less than 50 yards. And it's not hard to be 12 to 18" off center at 50 yards on a new optic.

For the $20 I paid for it, it's saved me that much in ammo. Not so much for dialing in elevation but puts windage just a few clicks away.