Boresighters - are they worth getting?

stratts

Well-Known Member
Just wondering if a boresighter is worth buying for the 30-06 and if anyone uses them, or is the money best spent on the few rounds needed to zero?

Cheers
 
Just wondering if a boresighter is worth buying for the 30-06 and if anyone uses them, or is the money best spent on the few rounds needed to zero?

Cheers
Save your money... get your rifle set up on a rest and remove the bolt... look through the bore at the target and adjust rifle until you are centred on it the further back your head is, the less of the target you will see and therefore it will be slightly more accurate... et voila... bore sighted!
Remember, all you are trying to do with a boresight is get on paper..

Collimators however are a different matter... they achieve the same result but you don't need a target or range to get there, you can do it in your living room... downside... you will use it once or twice and it will live in your toy box for ever more!
 
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Just wondering if a boresighter is worth buying for the 30-06 and if anyone uses them, or is the money best spent on the few rounds needed to zero? Cheers

That's a very good question. I have one, which I have borrowed from another forum member about 15 years ago. I've certainly found it handy to get on the paper with a new scope and get to within 4 inches or so. It doesn't eliminate actually shooting the rifle, but I've found it very helpful when the scope/rings/bases didn't line up and I then set the scope up with Burris Signature rings and offset inserts.
I use the bore sighter in conjunction with a level on the rifle action.
Regards JCS
 
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I'm with Vipa on this.....I bought a Bushnell Laser Bore sighter that sits in the end of the barrel with the appropriate bushing, fitted it, pointed it at the wall 8' across the room and twisted it to confirm concentricity and it scribed a 10" circle. Even holding it against the crown.

Sent it back next day.

A distant window frame or chimney post etc is ideal. Gets closer if you pop the primer out of a fired case and insert the case in the chamber.

atb
Fizz
:cool:
 
I agree, squinting down the barrel is all you need to set up a 'scope. If you are methodical and your 'scope turrets are correctly calibrated it shouldn't take many shots to complete the process. Use a ruler to measure how far out each shot is and move the turret the calculated amount to correct the error. Don't just twiddle them randomly, trying to "home in" on the zero.

But I bought a second hand collimator at a good price and now find it quite useful.

If you like to swap scopes around, or use e.g. Weaver bases to swap scopes with NV etc. or to remove them to make space in the cabinet, then a quick check with the collimator will confirm that the 'scope is still zeroed after re-fitting.

When you have zeroed the rifle, fit the collimator and make a note of where the crosshairs fall on the grid. It won't be exactly in the middle, but it is quite repeatable.

If you change scopes, use the same setting on the new scope and it will get you pretty close. The grid on my collimator is 4" at 100 yards, and IME will get you closer than that if you note the position inside the square.

Also useful to check zero hasn't shifted after a knock etc.

Also useful to test that the adjustments on a scope are reliable. You can wind the turrets across their range and check they move smoothly and repeatably. Also wind the zoom up and down and check POI doesn't shift.

I've rejected a couple of 'scopes now with these sort of problems which could not otherwise have been easily discovered, and the collimator has more than paid for itself, and given me confidence that the scopes I have are in good nick.

This is the one I have. Other brands are available but they mostly look as if they were made in the same factory...

Opticswarehouse Boresighters
 
I take everyone's points about being able to do similar without a bore sighter, but I have to say, it was a godsend when zeroing my .375, ammo being the price it is I didn't want to waste lots of shots, and with the bore sighter I was 4 inches off zero before I'd started, certainly saved me plenty of time and effort.
 
I fasten the rifle in a workmate with a cloth protecting it, remove the bolt I then look down the bore of the barrel and line up with an electric fence insulater that is about 100yds away, take the covers off the scope turrets and adjust the scope until the cross hairs are in the middle of the insulater.

With this method I have never been more than 4 inches out.

When I bought my first rifle a 243 the gun smith set the scope with a bore sighter the first three shots missed a 2ft x 2ft target then I fired at the bottom of the 2ft target to find the rifle was shooting 23 inches high and 9inches to the right, ask the BDS guys when I was doing my National Woodland Stalkers Certificate.
NEVER AGAIN will I use a bore sighter.
 
the gun smith set the scope with a bore sighter the first three shots missed a 2ft x 2ft target then I fired at the bottom of the 2ft target to find the rifle was shooting 23 inches high and 9inches to the right,

...

NEVER AGAIN will I use a bore sighter.

It doesn't sound as if you have actually ever used a boresighter ;).

Just because your "gun smith" was incompetent doesn't mean they don't work.

The optical collimator versions that is. The laser sort are utterly useless, I agree. And it costs nothing to to take a squint down the bore too, as a double check. In proper hands I reckon a collimator will usually get you closer than the basic method.

Its simple trigonometry, consider a .30 calibre rifle, 22" barrel. Squinting down the barrel via a primer hole, the angle subtended at the muzzle is Tan-1 .3/22 i.e. 0.78 degrees i.e. 47 MOA. I.e. 47 inches at 100 yards.

Sure you centralise the aiming point in the circle at the muzzle so its a lot better than that, but the fundamental imprecision is an order of magnitude worse than a decent collimator.
 
sighted in my 7mm rem mag couple of months ago the same way i always do it looking down the bore,first shot a 50yds a few inches out,then moved target out to 100,few more shots then out to 200 few more shots,used 8 in all and could have got away with 6 so no don't waste your money unless you maybe think of doing it for a living.
 
Remember Richard Prior's three shot method. Put rifle in work mate. Fire shot at target. Now I'm assuming it hits. Move cross hairs to hole in target. Fire a shot to check. Recheck cross hairs. Fire one more shot for absolute certainty. Take rifle out of workmate. Go stalking. Easy peasy.
 
Hmm, maybe with a PCP air rifle.

I can't see this being workable with a deer calibre rifle, no matter how soft-shooting.

Ever tried it for real ?

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I see how it might work, but you would have to carefully reposition the rifle after each shot to centralise the crosshairs on the target again, before adjustment.
 
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