Rifle Scopes Zeroing question

[CBDR]

Probably a stupid question but here goes. For as long as I can remember when it came time for me mount an optic on a rifle I have used the following basic steps.
Place 3 foot x 3 foot paper target at 25 yards. From a stable shooting position, take your time and send your round down range. Providing you now have a point of impact on paper adjust your left / right and up and down. For simplicity sake lets say we take the question no farther than the 25 yard mark.

By me never having a rifle bore sighted am I limiting my scopes mechanical travel? Why do people bore sight as apposed to the primitive method I learned 50 years ago?
Dumb ass standing bye to get blasted.

 

[spife7980]

Somehow limit the scopes travel? Ask yourself this: how does a sight directly influence where the barrel points?

It doesnt. It just provides an external point of reference that you then use to aim the barrel but it does not dictate the fact the the barrel is pointing at what it is pointing at.

You can either...
1) Do what you're doing just fine.
2) Remove the bolt and with it in a steady bag stare down the barrel until you see the bullseye centered through the bore and then adjust your reticle to match and then do the above.
3) Waste money on a bore sight that provides nothing as you still have to do either one or both of the above.

 

[CBDR]

Thank you for confirming my thoughts. Amazing how many folks feel the need to complicate a simple process.

 

[FLIGHT762]

Your method works great IF you have access to shooting @ 25 yards with a centerfire rifle. I have a public range a mile from my house, unfortunately, it only allows center fire rifles to be shot @ the 100 yard line. If I want to shoot a center fire rifle @ 25 yards, I have to travel 35 miles to a range that has that feature.

So, it makes very good sense for me to bore sight my center fire rifle before going to the range a mile from my home. Bore sighting will get me on paper @ 100 yards.

It's not that I need to complicate a simple process, but circumstances dictate what I need to do to get my rifle sighted zeroed using a minimal amount of ammunition.

If I could use a 25 yard range every time I need to zero a rifle, I would agree with your stupid question about complicating a simple process.

 

[lash]

I sight mine in at 100 yards by looking through the barrel as Spife described above. Think about it for a minute. The longer distance actually makes for less margin of error. 3-5 shots max to get zero, using no unnecessary equipment.

I've done this with many dozens of rifles, including semis. But with semis, you have to remove the lower to pull the bolt. Still very quick and easy at 100 yards.

 

[FourT6and2]

I just mechanically center my scope's turrets, mount the scope, and put a few shots on paper at 100 yards. Then zero my scope. Done. I never bore-sight. I never start at 25, then go to 50, then go to 100. Why the hell do people do that? It's a waste of time, money, and ammo. Three shots at 100 then a few more to confirm zero and I'm done. Takes all of 10 minutes.

 

[Steel+Killer]

If you're scope is mechanically zeroed and mounted properly there is no need to bore sight you should be on paper at 25yds especially if your using a pretty big piece like say 2ft square, but i just recently started zeroing a different way because at my range it's a pain to set up for centerfire at 25yds. So basically you just need to shoot at a bigger target at 100yds I use an official NRA 500yd target which is 67"x72" I shoot the back of it and just put one small circle in the center. Take one shot and I am always somewhere on the paper even at 100yds figure out my correction and I can usually have a perfect zero within 5 shots.
Also if you are using a 20MOA base after you mechanically zero your scope you should go ahead and adjust your elavation down 20MOA to compensate for the 20 MOA cant and start from there.

 

[scudzuki]

It doesn't matter what method you use to get your scope close to zero, your scope has exactly the same amount of erector movement available. The mechanical limits of the erector in relation to your zero are a result of where the scope is mounted relative to the barrel bore. That's why tilting the scope down with a canted mount frees up elevation travel of the erector.