So about a week ago one of our viewers asked two questions. We broke these two questions up into two articles. Today we are talking about how to properly bore sight a rifle using no equipment other than a bag at the range and your amazing capability of pointing things at targets while staying as still as possible.
There are a couple things that really need to be reviewed in this article, the first being actually getting the rifle able to put a round on paper, the second would be explaining how to adjust your scope properly based on M.O.A (Minutes of angle) at 25 meters which is where i generally sight in my rifles.
When you want to bore sight a scope the first thing you want to do is find a way to stabilize your gun as much as possible, any movement of the gun and this will just get more difficult. I generally use a range bag and a smaller range bag full of gear, I’m sure you could go spend money on some other fancy device, but in the end my rifle will shoot where i am aiming it, just like Mr. fancy pants with $200 in equipment. Bore sighting a bolt action rifle is pretty easy.
Start by pulling the bolt out of the back of the rifle. Once you can see down the barrel you want to get the gun nice and stable and find the center of your target looking through the barrel. You are now aiming at where the scope should point, pretty simple.
The second part to bore sighting is lining your scope up with the target (without moving it from its original position) which is equally as easy when you know how to do it. Now that your barrel is lined up with your target you want to adjust your scope until it lines up with the center of the target using your elevation and windage adjustments on the scope (Little knobs on the top and side).
After you think both line up just about perfect, bench rest your gun and take 3 shots. You are not perfect, we take three shots to make sure there was no human error involved.
So for example lets say we were 9 inches right and 8 inches down (As the average for the three shots). Most scopes are 1/4 minute of angle at 100 meters. This mean’s 4 clicks at 100 meters moves where you are aiming 1 inch, at 25 meters it is going to be 4 times that as we are much closer. So to move your scope 8 inches up you would do 128 clicks at 1/4 M.O.A. (some scope are 1/8 in which case it would be twice as many clicks). You would repeat the same calculation for horizontal adjustment.
Once you get your bullets going where you want them bring it to the 100 meter or where ever you plan on shooting the firearm the most and you will get it on paper which is all we were trying to achieve. Hope this was helpful enjoy and please feel free to ask any questions as always, I hope you enjoyed our FGG custom line drawing’s provided by Whitey.
M.O.A = Minute of angle, marked on most scopes. One minute of angle is one inch at 100 meters (so 4 clicks on most scope’s will move one inch) Two clicks at 200 meters is one inch and so on.