Nothing is more important than ensuring your firearm is field tested and dependable. Whether you’re hunting or depending on your weapon for home defense, you need to know you can send rounds downrange with confidence in your accuracy.
A laser bore sight is a great tool for adjusting your scope or open sights to precision accuracy. The laser sits in the chamber, sending the light down the center of your bore and to the target. All you have to do is adjust your sights to the laser reflected on the target.
Knowing how to use a laser bore sight will save you a lot of time and money since you won’t be wasting ammo to sight in your rifle. It also helps that you can get a laser bore sight for a reasonable price depending on the caliber.
It will also save you some time and a trip to the range because you don’t need to fire a round to use it. You will need a little space, but that’s about it.
How to use a bore sight
A laser bore sight offers a tremendous advantage over traditional bore sighting. Without the laser bore sight, you would have to look down the bore of the rifle to sight it in. The problem is, it’s not easy to do that with every rifle.
For instance, you would have to remove the bolt carrier and charging handle on an AR-15 and keep the weapon in a vice grip while you look down the barrel and find center mass. You may have sharp eyes for finding center mass, but nothing is as sharp as a laser sight situated in the chamber of the rifle.
- Situate your rifle 25 yards from a white, paper target
- Turn on your laser bore sight
- Chamber the laser bore sight
- Stabilize the firearm
- Adjust your front sight post, rear sit aperture, scope, or red dot sight on the paper, matching the red dot from the bore laser
- Go to the range and fire at 100 yards
The most important thing you need to do is make sure that your rifle is stable when you are adjusting the sights. Even the slightest bump can alter everything. A vice grip may be a good idea if you have no way of ensuring the rifle’s stability as you’re adjusting the sights.
It kind of goes without saying that the laser bore sight you purchase needs to be the right caliber. You don’t have to place the laser bore sight round in a magazine. So long as you can draw the bolt back and place the sight in the chamber–you’re good to go.
How accurate are laser bore sights
Laser bore sights are as accurate as they come, so long as you set things up the right way, use a steady hand, and properly stabilize your rifle while you work. However, nothing is a substitute for sending rounds down range.
A laser bore sight will get you on the paper target at 25 yards, but there are so many little intangibles that alter things when you’re out on the range. The way you form your cheek weld, the distance your eye is from the scope or rear aperture, where on the hand guards you form your V-grip, and how you use your sling, all change things to varying degrees.
Not to mention you’re going from a 25-yard sight-in to a minimum of 100 yards downrange. No matter how you sight your rifle, there is simply no substitute for sending a few rounds downrange on a beautiful day.
What distance should a laser sight be
Whenever you start the sight-in process, you should do it at 25 yards. The second stage is the actual firing stage at 100 yards. Zeroing in at 25 yards just keeps things simple. Most high-powered rifles don’t suffer much from wind, loss of kinetic energy, and gravity at 100 yards.
After that distance, those factors become more and more prevalent. Your first live rounds at 100 yards will let you know how well of a job you did sighting it in. If you fire your first round and it strikes the bullseye, pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
It doesn’t have to be a precise 25 yards either. So long as you are in the ballpark, a laser bore sight will be just as effective. Of course, it doesn’t matter how far away the target is if you’re not properly stabilizing the weapon.
How accurate is bore sighting a red dot
Bore sighting a red dot will deliver the same results as bore sighting your front sight post. At the end of the day, you’re simply matching your sight mechanism with where the laser dot strikes the paper.
It also depends on what you mean by a red dot. A red dot reticle is like the Vortex Strikefire II, only visible within the optics. A projected red dot is not meant to be your primary aiming mechanism but rather a broader visual guide in close-quarters combat, where bothering to look down your sights is unrealistic and time-consuming when microseconds count.
Bottom Line
Using a laser bore sight is a great way to quickly and accurately adjust your sights and put your rounds on paper. The 100-yard range is the second half of the process, ensuring that your detailed and painstaking methodology will pay off when it matters.
The best part is, you won’t pay an arm and a leg to pick up a laser bore sight. You will find them online for $25 to $60, which is an easy price to pay when it saves you from having to find the center of your group, measure off, readjust, and fire again.
There’s no better feeling than pulling your target and seeing all those neatly grouped keyholes sitting center mass. Well, maybe sending a round downrange and dropping a buck, but you won’t be sighting in for that.
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