Sighting, also known as zeroing refers to when you adjust the scope for the position of the reticle matches to the position of the target. After buying a new scope, you need to learn “how to sight in a rifle scope without shooting” accurately and it is very important. There is a possibility that you will waste a lot of ammunition if you Start to shoot immediately, without adjusting your sightings.
Do you know that you can sight your newly scope without having to shoot and wasting your ammo? If not, let me confirm for you that you can incredibly sight your scope correctly without having to shoot. It is of great necessity to learn how to sight in scope without shooting to ensure your shooting is accurate. Are you asking the methods you can use to sight your scope without having to shoot?
Relax, this article got you covered it will precisely give you the four methods that can help you save your ammunition. I will also let you know the energy that you need to apply in the unnecessary shoulder recoil. Besides, I will outline the benefits of using each of the methods and any other relevant details.
How to sight in a rifle scope without shooting – The Methods
There are various methods of aligning your bore axis and the target. In this section, we will briefly give details of the various methods you can apply to sight your scope without necessarily having to shoot.
Visual Bore Sighting
The first way of saving your ammunition is visual bore sighting. Visual bore sighting entails observing through the riffle bore clearly without having to shot. It is among the simple methods of sighting your scope perfectly without having to shoot. When doing visual sighting, first you will have to position your firearm on sandbags to stabilize it.
It is important to ensure that your firearm remains in a very steady position during the sighting period to avoid unnecessary inconveniences. Place the target 100m from the tip of the barrel then try closing one eye and look at the target through the bore with the other eye. Keep on adjusting the ripples knob until it is in line with the target. All through the process practice patience until you get what you need. Also, don’t forget to keep your firearm stable.
Laser Bore Sighting
Secondly, you can try laser bore sighting. It is an instrument used in mounting the arbor. Rather than the usual inspection, the laser technology uses parallax to allow movement in the barrel. Do not require movement of the bolt hence the most appropriate and accurate method of pre aligning a firearm barrels bore axis with the target you are aiming.
The standard type of laser bore sighter is the cartridge-shaped bore sighter. When using it, the laser bore sighter emits the laser beam to the target, then adjust the scope reticle to the laser dot.
The other type of laser bore sighter is insertion which is kept into the bore or using a magnet. Make sure you also align the barrel, and the laser projection is on the target. Accuracy prevails well in this method, and you can prove how accurate you are by viewing the orientations of notches in the gun.
Advantages of Laser Bore Sighter
The main advantage of this equipment is that it incorporates the latest technology, thus assures 100% accuracy and keeps your eyes from straining by getting you closer to the center.
It comes in bullet or mounted shape; hence, you can pick the most appropriate form. The bullet-shaped installation is done in the gun’s chamber while the mounted shape fixing is on the extreme part of the firearm barrel.
Whichever the way you choose the laser technology helps to get the target easily, scope, and the barrel in alignment and you will see the laser spot on the rifle scope. Make adjustments on the body of the scope if necessary, and you will be sure of a perfect zeroed riffle.
Optical Bore Sighting
Aligning your firearm barrel with your target is advisable to have zero optical sights. Some people choose to do the alignment while shooting, which lead to wastage of the expensive ammunition. To avoid wasting the ammunition you can try scope sighting using the optical sighting.
Optical sighting is also known as eyeballing, and it involves the use of naked eyes. The optical bore sighters are available in different varieties which implies that the method of setting them is different. Whichever the type you use in sighting your scope ensure that the crosshairs match to the middle of the grid, if not, adjust it. Also, ensure that the lens is in line with your scope to enhance the accuracy.
For AR rifles, you will have the upper receiver and the lower receiver. You can drop the upper receiver from the lower receiver and easily remove the bolt carrier group to expose the line of sight in the barrel.
Fix the upper receiver to sight on the top riffle and co-witness through the barrel to align the target with the bore axis for accurate shootings later. If you have the bolt action rifle, you can remove the bolt to view through the barrel. After doing the alignment, proceeds shooting close or on the target.
Advantages of Optical Bore Sighter
This method of bore sighting takes a lot of time but saves on the cost of the ammunition due to the accurate shoots that you will make throughout the shooting process. Another drawback of this method is that it needs the use of naked eyes. With the naked eyes, it is difficult to see clearly through the tunnel, especially when dealing with firearms with long barrels.
Magnetic Bore Sighting
Regardless of the activity, you will be undertaking with your firearm; it is of great need to prepare your equipment. When using a firearm, whether in hunting or shooting for fun. Among the things you should not forget to do is to align your bore axis with your target. Otherwise, you will be throwing your ammunition to the air because you will miss the target. When bore sighting the scope you may prefer to do magnetic bore sighting. To know more about the magnetic bore sighting keep your eyes on this piece.
Advantages of Magnetic Bore Sighter
Using a magnetic bore sighter, is the most effective and simple way of sighting your scope though it is not common. It entails fixing your gun muzzle with materials that have a durable magnetic power. The magnetic bore sighter is flexible, multi-purpose equipment that matches with a variety of gauges and calibers.
It is the perfect method for anyone who has fear in inserting anything in the barrel. If you need a zero filter after using your scope sighting for an extended period, then make magnetic sighter the ideal choice. There are no additional parts that you need to buy for it to function, which saves any extra cost.
The setting of the magnetic bore sighter is quite simple and does not consume a lot of time, thus saves time compared to other sighting equipment. It has a professional design, and breaking down of the equipment is unheard. With the use of the magnetism, it is very reliable and accurately sights your scope without necessarily having to shoot.
How to sight in a rifle scope
Before doing the actual shooting, scope sighting is essential to do some practice on scope sighting to perfect your skills and to have a few hours when in the field. Your target should have a blank background for visibility Place the riffle on stable ground or whatever rest you will be having.
Also, place your target at a distance of approximately 100yards far. Look directly through the barrel, preferably with one eye closed and spot the position of the target. After spotting the target, align it with the bore axis until all of them are in a straight line.
Thus the target appears to be center of the bore. Be careful that you will not be overwhelmed with the perfect alignment and move the gun for it will take you back to the starting point. Hence it is very crucial to control your emotions.
After aligning the bore and the target, it is vital to align the scope as well. While aligning the scope do not touch the riffle for you may disorient it. Look through the scope and locate the direction where the reticle is while looking through the scope. Do adjustments on your elevation and the windage until they are all aligned with the center of the target.
How Scope Adjustments Work
While adjusting the elevation and the windage, there is the possibility that fear may creep in. The whole exercise may be impossible if you do not have confidence which may lead to shaking of hands and constant blinking of the eye.
When you hear of patience, possibly you think it is all applicable on mental issues. If you thought so, then you are wrong. Aligning the scope extremely needs patience because in the process, you may temper with the riffle and have to begin with the earlier step.
It is obvious that in order to master in hunting you must learn ” How to sight in a rifle scope” first.
Scope adjustments backwards
Moving the riffle a little bit when adjusting the scope is not a crime, even the professional’s temper with it. After dealing with the scope and the reticle and you made a confirmation that the reticle is centered, look through the bore and confirm that it is in alignment with the target.
If not, realign the bore and the target and make adjustments on the reticle. It may sound as repetition but trust me it is worth 100% attention if you want to do a recommendable scope sighting. It is also advisable to do some practices before going out of the field. Practices help to withdraw any fear that you may have and also instill some courage in you. Exercise helps to realize your points of weakness, and you can perfect them as early as possible. While doing the scope sighting for the first time have a professional or experienced person in scope sighting for any necessary guidance.
Choosing right equipment
Besides it is crucial to ensure that the equipment’s that you will be using are efficient and are professionally-designed to have an easy time in the field. It does not bit logic to have faulty equipment’s to make your scope sighting hard, yet it is a straightforward task with persistence.
After ensuring the scope, bore, reticle, and the target are in their rightful positions. It is time to reinstall the bolt or assemble your lower and upper. Note the markings on your scope such as R for right and U for up. If you will be using a Leupold scope, any adjustment is made on the direction.
Consequently changes in the point of the impact if you miss an inch on the right with a scope that has ¼ MOA adjustments per click, you will have to adjust your windage up to 4 clicks in the direction the L is pointing. By doing that it will move the point of impact to the left direction. To be sure that the group is moving in the right direction, you can make some shootings after ever adjustment.
“Zero” your scope
Knowing how to sight in a rifle scope includes how to zero your scope too. Most of the scopes have screws that are meant to loosen the resent dial. Before doing this step, you can refer to your manual and study it to understand the type of your scope. To “zero” your dials out loosen your screws to rest the dials that pop up.
Without engaging the adjustments, turn the dial to 0 on the dial and ensure that you tighten the screws or where applicable, you can pop the dial back down. If you get problems on getting the paper rounds, you can try putting several targets to enlarge your target area.
After getting a single spot, you can figure out on which direction you should adjust your scope to get centered up. Using large windage may bring issues with the bases and the rings. When dialing ensure that the windage is close enough to avoid a negative impact on the elevation adjustment of the scope.
In case you got a problem with your eyes that prevents you from seeing the center of the impact. You can make use of green target stickers or bright orange target stickers to act as your eye guide.
How to sight in a rifle scope : The Advantages Of Sighting A Scope
Bullets leaving the muzzle do not necessarily move on the specified straight line but move with a slight upward angle continually rising until the velocity is affected with the gravity. The path of the bullet is known as trajectory where a certain point the bullet comes into maximum ordinate.
Concerning your distance from the muzzle to the target, the bullets can raise above 6 feet’s from the line of your sight. To avoid these errors and wastage, scope sighting before shooting is a requirement.
Moreover, obstacles such as trees or another misplaced object can be hit by the bullet instead of the target. Hence sighting the scope is essential to avoid such obstacles which lead to wastage of the bullets or hitting the wrong targets which can be destructive.
Sighting a scope enhance shooting skills
Besides, having accurate shoots, sighting a scope forces you to practice which perfects your shooting skills. Also, sight scooping helps to bold your confidence in shooting. Confidence in shooting is among the principal virtues you should have in this exercise. It helps to drill away any anxiety, such as fear of missing the target.
Get protection
Also, it is vital to protect your ears and eyes. The muzzle blast is loud and occurs at a very high frequency. Thus, it may cause bursting of the eardrum, which may imply you will be deaf the rest of your life hence very vital. To keep your ears wear hearing protection to keep away the loud blast.
Eye protection is also very essential to avoid damaging your irreplaceable eyes out of a bursting shell, poorly aligned cylinder or lead splitting. Further, all your body parts should have any wear that you deem essential. Your body should not be in stake at any point. Ensure the equipment you will be using is professional and has an ingenious design. Be calm throughout the exercise and avoid any possible interference or obstacles. The above pros and features should make you understand the importance of learning to sight in a rifle scope.
How To Sight in a Red Dot Scope Without Shooting
The steps on how to sight in a red dot scope without shooting is quite similar , apart from some differences, as how to sight in a scope without shooting. If you bought a red dot scope and need to learn about how to sight in a red dot scope without shooting then you should check out the following steps.
Firstly, mount the scope but keep it movable so that it can be adjusted freely when needed. Then, put your rifle in a solid and steady surface so that it won’t move when you do the scope adjustment. You need to align with your target for the purpose of adjusting the scope. Now switch on the sighter and fine-tune the rifle by fixing the leaser beam straight middle of you target. It is better to use bullseye target to do this task. When the leaser beam hits the bullseye then you can be assured the scope is flawlessly lined up. If your leaser needed to be loaded in rifle chamber, then you make sure you have the right fit with that chamber.
After satisfactory completion of scope adjustment, the last step of how to sight in a red dot scope without shooting is to harden the scope in order to prevent any kind of shaking the scope alignment.
Final Verdict – regarding how to sight in a rifle scope
Ammunition are very costly, and we should do our best to save them. Among the things we do to save the ammunition is to ensure that we have accurate shootings. To guarantee precise shootings, we mainly sight the scope first. Bore Sighting the scope involves pre aligning the barrel of the firearm bore axis with the target.
Bore sighting may entail shooting or not shooting to save the ammunition. Sighting the scope without shooting is possible, and ultimately you will have an accurate shooting. They are different methods of bore sighting that involve various bore sighting equipment’s. Laser bore sighting uses the laser technology, which enhances its preciseness. The optical bore sighter needs naked eyes which may be troublesome with a firearm that has a long barrel.
Magnetic bore sighter uses strong magnetism field from the magnetic materials and is very useful. To avoid issues with the ring and the base do not use a large amount windage adjustment to get on the paper. Otherwise, you will find it hard with your scope sighting.
You should note that education on how to sight in a rifle scope without shooting actually relates to hitting the target. So if you sight your rifle perfectly, then you can strike the bullseye.