sighting in a rifle

[walleyeking19]

I was talking to a buddy of mine and he said he never sights in his rifle, he has his dad do it for him. I always thought everyone held the gun differently so you'd have to sight it in yourself. is it fine for other people to do it for you or is it better to do it yourself?

[Bran32]

I did it for my wife last year on her new gun and when she finally had time to go to the range with me and shoot she never missed a beat!! She was getting almost the same groupings at 100 yards that I was with her gun! So for us it worked but I can't say that for everybody!

[picksbigwagon]

I think once the gun is sighted in, it is ready to roll. My 17hmr is proof of that. I have it zero'd at 50 yards and my left handed buddy can shoot out the primers of rifle shells at 50 yards with a right handed thumbhole stock....

[fivebucks]

Once the scope is zeroed in it doesn't matter how you hold the rifle or who holds it - it is on. Someone else can sight in your rifle but it is always good to practice shooting once it is sighted in. You won't always have a nice bench rest in the woods.

[icehousebob]

Any one of my four sons can pick up my rifles that I sighted the scopes on and shoot great. One of my friends picks up my rifles and he hits about five or six inches to the side. I still haven't figured out why. The guy is a great shot with his own guns but no one can switch guns with him.

[SmilinBob]

Sight it in yourself, you will find that nearly everyone looks through a scope a little different. Me and my father in law can both shoot nice groups, but I shoot about 4 inches high and right of him. A scope that is zeroed is only zeroed to the person doing it, your eye is essentially the rear sight of the sight picture.

[bikeoutback]

My father in law and his buddy look through my brother in laws 30-30 and they say the cross hairs look funny and bend to them and they can't shoot it very well. My brother in law groups with it just fine on target at 50-75 yards. When I first started hunting with them they told me this and so I thought I'd take a look. Cross hairs look normal to me and I can group on target just the same as my brother in law.

I go with these few rules:

1. I sight in my own firearms so I'm 100% sure that I can shoot them accurately

2. I tend to run the same ammo all the time but at the very least when sighting for deer season I sight using the same exact ammo I plan to shoot during season. (brand, grain....)

3. I sighted it in couple years ago. I check it every year a few weeks before deer season again just to be sure.

[wdgold]

I was given an 8mm mauser by my grandpa and when I went to sight it in I coudn't even see it on the target, didn't know which way to even adjust it. Finally got it in after about an hour of fooling around. I have always felt comfortable sighting every other year and have never had any problems dropping deer.

[USDA3]

Sometimes it makes a difference sometimes it doesn't. All depends on the person and how they look through the scope. The thing to rememeber is that it CAN make a huge differnce so make sure you have compared how each other has shot before. I would rather be safe than not no where it's hitting.

[panthrcat]

I just took my friend out to get her rifle sighted in, I feel it's her who should be doing the shooting and feeling comfortable with it, after all it's her rifle. but that's just me. I helped her to get on the paper target, and she felt comfy with how it's shooting, so my job is done. we'll see how she does in the field, this fall we hope to get her first deer.

[Jackpine Rob]

My son is going to college in Montana, and after coming up empty in bagging a bull elk with his bow, he wanted some heavier artillery for the general season which starts on Saturday.

We talked a bit last week, and I pulled out the trusty BAR 30-06, grabbed my range bag and headed out to Sight In Days at the local sportsman's club. The rifle is a shooter, but I had dropped a new Burris 3-9 with the mil dots onto it last year, and never got beyond bore-sighting the thing.

5 shots at 25, and it was off to the 100 yard range, where 5 more shots had me sitting real pretty at 2" high with about 3/4 spread in the windage as I walked the bullets down.

A single shot at 200 - dropped in for a slightly high X, and I quit for the day. Knowing that gun and the ammo from previous extensive testing, it was set up to go 0-275 with no doping for elevation.

Back home the rifle got a thorough cleaning, and I packed it up in a locking case, pulled the tabs off the ammo box and taped them inside the case (so Jr. could get duplicate ammo out there). Off to the Post Office, and the rig was on its way to Montana.

In a separate package went the keys to the gun case, printouts of the ballistics charts for the 2 rounds tested in that gun (as well as my notes), and the chart for use of the mil-dots.

That package was sent UPS Next Day.

Jr. got his stuff on Monday, and after class headed out to test the rig. He's been shooting with me since he was a little nipper, so we are both comfortable with shooting each others' rifles, and never have had an issue with different points of impact. I had warned him that the gun might be shooting a bit high (elevation change), but even I was shocked at the results. His group was clustered very nicely, but exactly 6.25 inches high! Holy carp! Things have been rectified, but it just goes to show that any and all guns should be checked after shipping - or when shooting in radically different conditions. He is going to try and find 400 yards to really test the thing out this afternoon - I'm extremely curious to see if the bullet drop is going to be affected beyond 200 by the thinner air.