Laser bore sighter

[bionic knees]

Thought I would give one of the "in the chamber" lasers a try, thinking that they would be the cats meow. Well was I ever disappointed, I was barely on paper at 25 yds. The scope was adjusted to the laser at 25 yds, first shot was low, left almost 10 inches at 25 yds. How does that even happen?

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[RVTECH]

How does that even happen?

Couldn't answer you as I have NEVER used a laser bore sight device as I have only used the 'old school' method of bore sighting - IE setting the rifle up on a bench, sighting the barrel bore on a 'target' at X amount of yards, then dialing in the scope on it.

Last time I did this my first round was literally 1" low vertically at 100 yards on the target - and on center horizontally.

 

[JGSFAB]

They just aren't made very precise.
I have had better luck with these type-
MidTen Green Bore Sight Kit for .17 to 12GA Caliber, Bright Green Dot BoreSighter with Big Press Switch, Laser Bore Sight Kit Multiple Caliber for Zeroing Scope https://a.co/d/6eIuYh0

I remove muzzle devices, also I adjusted it to zero on a known sighted in rifle.
It's all just an "on paper" setup.
Bring large targets

 

[TTSX]

Tried one once, wasn't satisfied. Now it's a cat toy. Zeroing by looking down the bore from beech to muzzle, then roughly aligning that with the scope picture has gotten me on paper with the first shot every time I've tried it.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

The cheap cartridge lasers are not accurate. The kind that emit a laser only when the hammer strikes them can be used to train yourself for point shooting. They also work well in dry firing close up such as using "I target" or other phone dryfire systems. This will give you a readout on how fast your draw is etc. The cheap ones work great for that.

There are more expensive ones with three orings for a precise fitment. They work much, much better. They cost more though ELMS is the name. The cheap ones are good only for the 2 purposes above imo.

 

[Xaevian]

I use the lasers that go on the muzzle side, rotate 180 degrees and split the difference. I have some lever actions, so taking the bolt out is out of the question. Works fine.

 

[Hanhoon]

I've used several and never been impressed.

 

[Provincial]

My daughter found this for a dollar at a garage sale in July. 12.7MM Soviet optical boresight, with instructions and some notes typed up in German.

 

[bionic knees]

I figured that traveling down the bore from the chamber should be pretty accurate; it wasn't.

 

[Jim Horn]

I've used one from Walmart which gets inserted into the muzzle and has adapters for the different bore sizes. At the range, I could see the red dot at 100 yards just fine through the 4x9 scope. Out of curiosity, I tried rotating the bore sight - and noticed that the dot moved in a circle as seen through the scope. So I turned it until the dot was at the top of that circle and aimed the scope at where the center of the circle was. Rotating the bore sight confirmed that the dot crossed the four cross hairs at the same distance from their center. Final zeroing by shooting (after removing the sight, of course!) only needed minor touch up.

Without a solid bench mount or other place to do this, that worked pretty well. Having the sight available at the muzzle made rotating it very easy.

 

[Koda]

Ive never had a boresight tool work. I just remove the bolt and always been on paper at 100yds. For guns you cant remove the bolt, start at 25yds I don't think you even need a boresighter at 25yds.

 

[Xaevian]

Ive never had a boresight tool work. I just remove the bolt and always been on paper at 100yds. For guns you cant remove the bolt, start at 25yds I don't think you even need a boresighter at 25yds.

Sounds like way too much time, effort, and ammo. But I've never had a bore sight device not work, so

 

[Yarome]

Only certified laser bore sights are fairly accurate, but also cost a pretty penny. Those cheap ones are for crap, but the long muzzle insert ones are better than the chamber ones. The former have allen wrench adjustments that can be made to first dial in the laser. IE., clamping it into a drill and securing the drill to your bench... you can spin the bore sight and adjust the laser at your desired range.

They are still a pain though and require very minute adjustments. The allen screws act like a 4 way clamp so moving it you have to make several adjustments to make room in the direction you want to push it... and not being 2 fixed axis it's a real PITA trying to get the laser to move exactly in the direction you want it to. Once it's done though it holds position quite well for future use.

Probably not all that practical just for a single firearm though. You'll spend 10 time more time trying to zero in the laser than it would take to bore sight your firearm via other means.

The other method, is of course, as described above. Find the approximate center of the laser circle and sight in on that... not the laser dot.

 

[JGSFAB]

Bore sighting with the chamber never really had a chance, the end of the bore tells it where to go.
Once you get one that works and you have well too many projects I'd say it's handy.