How to Sight-In a Rifle

[huntersjournal]

Let us say you just purchased a telescopic sight and are mounting it on the rifle. How do you exactly align the barrel with the scope?

Once you have mounted a telescopic sight on a rifle, you need to sight-in the weapon; i.e., make the necessary adjustments to align the optical device and the barrel.

You may adjust the telescopic sight using a laser, firing a pellet or you may do it the old- fashioned way by just looking through the barrel (bore-sight).

Bore-Sighting
The old way requires looking through the bore. To that purpose, you will have to remove the bolt that blocks the near end of the chamber.

1. Place the gun on a gun rest (you can make your own with a couple of socks filled with sand), or use anything that allows you to keep the weapon level. Place it at 10 yards in front of a wall.
2. Next, place a target on the wall in front of the barrel.

3. Looking through the bore, move the rifle slightly to the right or left until you pick up the target.
4. Still looking through the barrel, lift the gun to center the target in front of the barrel.
5. Now, that you know the barrel is aiming at the bull’s eye, you must see through the scope. Set the zoom to maximum magnification and adjust the eyepiece until you get a sharp view.

Most likely, the crosshairs do not cross over the center of the target. Use the adjusters on the elevation and windage turret.

Left-right and up-down deviation:

6. If slightly offset to the right or left, adjust it with the windage screws, loosening one of them and tightening the one on the opposite side. Then adjust the elevation. Some turrets have caps covering the screws, which you have to remove before the adjustment.

Sight-In Adjustments with a Pellet

1. Place the gun on a gun rest (you can make your own with a couple of socks filled with sand), or use anything that allows you to keep the weapon level. Place it at 10 yards in front of a wall.
2. Next, place a target on the wall in front of the barrel.

3. Load one pellet, aim at the center of your target on the wall and shoot.
4. Again, most likely, you missed the center.

5. Adjust the windage and elevation screws to place the crosshairs over the hole you made on the target. Make sure the rifle remains motionless.
6. Now, slowly move the whole rifle and aim for the center of the target.

7. Fire again.

8. Repeat the process until you hit the exact center of the bull’s eye.

Now that you bore-sighted and made a quick sight-in at 10 yards, do the same at 25 yards.
Then, find a safe site and place the target at 100 yards.
As a rule, for every inch you miss the target you must adjust the screws on the turret about 4 clicks.

Important:

• Use the same caliber and cartridges you will be using when going hunting.
• Usually, you want to hit the target about 3 inches high at 100 yards. Aim for the center of the bull’s-eye, but adjust the elevation until you hit above the center.

Follow these steps and you can rest assured you will recover the game and bring that trophy home whether it stands at 25 or 300 yards.

[Der Aulte Jaeger]

Great starting point post. I use a similar method for boresighting in the house, removing the bolt, acquiring the target and bringing the scope to the bore sight point. Next I adjust my scope to the hunting loads I'm using so that somewhere out there around 22 yards, my bullet intersects with the line of sight. I get it there with slight adjustments to the scope at the range. Next I shoot a target at 100 yards and look for a bullet strike above the point of aim by a tad over 4 inches. Once there, I check at 200 yards to make sure the bullets are still striking just over 4 inches high. Lastly I check out at 300 yards for a bullet strike about right on the point of aim. I use my scope's duplex crosshairs for approximate ranging and can aim dead center on Antelope, Deer and Elk when in a hurry at any range out to 300 yards. With a bit of thought, I can aim low if the range is between 100 and 200 and right on, up close or out further until I reach that 300 yard point. I use the lower point of the duplex post as a second aimpoint for when I have near bench rest conditions at game in that 325-450 yard range. Given the Wyoming wind I seldom take any shot over about 250 yds.