Sighting in my 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?

[GSP4EVER]

Ive sighted my dads rifles before and he is dead on with them. I shoot left handed, he shoots right.

[MUSKY18]

It is very, very rare that two people share the same sight picture. Everyones eyes are different and the sight picture for two people, might be close, but never exact. It is always more pronounced when shooting through open sights than with a scope. Then you have to figure in how each person holds the weapon, pulled into their shoulder, loose, etc. Either way, the bottom line is that he needs to sight in his own weapon. He owes it to the animals he is shooting to try and make the most ethical kill shot on the animal he can.

[bogwalker]

Sighted in is sighted in. As long as the sights are in alignment the rifle is sighted in. Makes no difference who shoots it as long as they use the sights.

[triggertrav]

i could see minor variations to how one would line up open sights, but a scope is on or off. you still should shoot your gun and be familiar with it before heading to the woods.

[matchset]

make sure you shoot consistent. one eye open or two! either way, keep it the same!

this happened to me and my dad;

i shot his rifle 7 inches low at 100yards; consistently. he shot it moments later and had tree in the bullseye.

[bogwalker]

When the rifle (or handgun) is sighted in you must acquire the same sight picture. Do you cover the bullseye with the front sight or is your target sitting on top of the front sight. I believe Musky18 was saying the same thing.

[Bear55]

In the past I've had to had my dad sight in my rifle, clearly its better to do it yourself but like others I think sighted in is sighted in but that might not be the case 100% of the time.

I will say my gun has never been off so take a few shots each year just to be sure is about all I do. When my dad drilled the center of the target 3 times in a row and I had done the same thing year after year I was pretty confident my gun was on.

[Musky Buck]

I'm a sight in your own, did my dad's he shot it and we were about 7" off at a hundred, I was confused as ever but it didn't work for us, he wears glasses I don't I don't know, same thing last fall with my buddies, we all swapped rifles after sighting in as we each wanted to shoot each others and not off by lots and who knows a strange rifle maybe had us flinching a bit I don't know. But, everyone should fire there own heater just for confidence sake and for the animals sake unless you have that 110% confidence from experience that who sights yours in will be dead on like usual, track record needed for that. I just want to put the blame on me if I miss during the season, I need to see first hand it's dead on for confidence sake so this weekend it's dead on at a hundred until opener.

[madbomber10]

With a scope on a rifle the sight picture will be nearly identical for 2 different individuals, the eye relief makes sure of this. As many have already said, it is still best to sight in your own rifle. I always shoot my Dads for him and get it close and the zeroing in done by him.

A little story to go with this. Two years ago my uncle shot the biggest buck of his life. He shot it with a .30/.30 right in the nose (minimal damage, only an entry hole the size of the cartridge, we found only a few tiny drops of blood), but it dropped, got up and staggered off. We figured it was done for, but we let it lay about 3 hours before we tracked it. I assumed that we would find it dead so I just jumped in my Dads truck without grabbing my gun. The buck ended up in some very thick cover so my Dad gave me his rifle and I headed to the field edge "in case it comes out." Well it came out at full strength (other than a headache Im sure) and with my Dads rifle, which was obviously zeroed in for him, I was able to put a good double lung shot on the big 8 as he was quartering away at about 125 yards and about 5 yards from us never seeing it again! I was so excited for my uncle to have that buck. He is your classic farmer, hunts his own land, just loves venison and therefor has shot a ton of does over the years, its all meat to him. That buck now hangs over his mantle and that story gets told every time we visit.