I've been shooting a long time like most of us in here. Every once in a while we come across that rifle that we slip the bolt out of, get it lined up at an object and then tweek our scope to line up. We fire the rifle and we have no idea where that round went. But we have done this simple sighting technique with many other rifles with success. Hec many times I can remember being near bullseye at 100 yds after bore sighting a rifle. But as I said every once in awhile bore sighting is way off. I wonder what makes some rifles do this?
Rifles that don't bore sight well
- Thread starter Chaparral
- Start date
Well I kinda feel stupid. It doesn't happen often, but when it has I wondered if the barrel could be misaligned, scope base holes off center, or as you say barrel bent. Strangely the times I remember it happening it was on expensive, new rifles. One I traded off after many days scratching my head at the range, and the other one I still have and it shoots great groups once I figured out where the bullet was going.
If the barrel was bent I'd think you'd see it when bore sighting. If the the bull is centered in the bore, and the cross hairs are in the same spot, the bullets will impact within a couple of inches.
If there were problems with the scope, mounts, or holes in the receiver you could still get the rifle zeroed unless you ran out of adjustment. That is why they make windage adjustable mounts.
I'm going with you just have a bad day once in a while.
I bore sight at 50. Most of the time the 1st shot is almost dead on, but occasionally may be 5-6" from where I'm aiming. Which doesn't matter, as long as I hit paper I can figure out how much to adjust the scope and how far.
If there were problems with the scope, mounts, or holes in the receiver you could still get the rifle zeroed unless you ran out of adjustment. That is why they make windage adjustable mounts.
I'm going with you just have a bad day once in a while.
I bore sight at 50. Most of the time the 1st shot is almost dead on, but occasionally may be 5-6" from where I'm aiming. Which doesn't matter, as long as I hit paper I can figure out how much to adjust the scope and how far.
Yeah I bore sight identically to your method. I bore sight at 50 then fire at 100. I wish I could blame it on just having a bad day. I finally resorted to buying the Burris rings with adjustable plastic shims. Finally I just had enough one day thinking that I shouldn't have to do all of this just to make an $1800+ rifle shoot correctly.
I bore sight at about 50 feet in my cellar, using a "target" that came with the bore sighting laser, but shooting on the range, first target at about 25 yards usually produces a hole in the target, which I adjust on, then shoot at 100 and always hit paper.
Semi-autos, levers and pumps are sometimes bore-sighted using a small mirror in the breech. Bore sighting laser tools work okay, but are not perfect and shouldn't be relied-on for final sighting. (Some stores will try to tell you that their bore-sighter works perfectly and that the rifle is ready to hunt with. That's a bunch of malarky, unless you happen to be hunting barns.)
Semi-autos, levers and pumps are sometimes bore-sighted using a small mirror in the breech. Bore sighting laser tools work okay, but are not perfect and shouldn't be relied-on for final sighting. (Some stores will try to tell you that their bore-sighter works perfectly and that the rifle is ready to hunt with. That's a bunch of malarky, unless you happen to be hunting barns.)
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There are a number of factors that can affect things, the thing being affected is the bullet's flight, compared to the line of the bore.
A bore not centered in the barrel, a bent barrel, an uneven muzzle crown, bedding, forearm pressure on the barrel, barrel whip, and other things, any one of which can case a deviation in bullet flight from the line of the bore.
A bore not centered in the barrel, a bent barrel, an uneven muzzle crown, bedding, forearm pressure on the barrel, barrel whip, and other things, any one of which can case a deviation in bullet flight from the line of the bore.
"...what makes some rifles do this?..." All rifles will do that if the thing wasn't securely held in place when you were bore sighting by looking through the barrel. That method works but not as well as using a proper bore sighter. Doesn't work well with small calibres either.
Bore sighting only gets you on target. It's not sighting in. It's good for getting the vertical reticle absolutely vertical too.
Bore sighting only gets you on target. It's not sighting in. It's good for getting the vertical reticle absolutely vertical too.
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
T. O'Heir said:
I always thought it worked better with smaller calibers... the area you can see is smaller (like trying to aim a laser instead of a flash-light) and being off-center is more obvious, almost like scope shadow.
Do it with the rifle clamped in a cleaning vise. With the bolt out, bump the vise and/or shim it until you can look down the barrel to see a target in the center of the bore then without moving the rifle adjust the crosshairs to match what you see through the bore. Something large and round that stands out works well for this - like a basketball.
ever think it might be a scope issue at times ? Even good scopes can get wonky. I had a Leupold vx III that absolutely refused to work on one of my rifles. The windage needed to be almost all the way to the right. I unmounted and mounted that scope three times convinced it was something wonky about it sitting on the rail cockeyed. never could get it to center. Swapped it out with a scope on another rifle and everything is working as intended on both rifles to this day
Sometimes it's not the scope, but the way the action and/or barrel is bedded. I've seen barrels bearing on one side of the channel, probably due to stock warping and that caused bullets to hit several inches away from where they're bore-sighted. That's one reason I recommend free-floating barrels because wood isn't static, and often changes during the hunting season, especially if taken out in the rain.
LineStretcher
New member
Usually, I find the problem in the scope bases. I've gotten so that I now check my bases for level across the action both front and rear. I rarely find them to be exactly the same so what I do is try to adjust them to split the difference which lessens the amount of torque on the scope tube. If I can't adjust them then I bed them in JB Weld using the recoil lug of the barrel as my reference to level. Sometimes the recoil lugs are out of whack too but that's not very common.