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Laser boresighter.

D

davefwb

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Was looking at Ali-express website and saw a lot of laser boresighters. Am I right in assuming that you place these in the barrel of your rifle or pistol and then adjust your sights to coincide with the laser dot that you see on the target.
Question is, are they any good because it would appear to be an easy way to set up your telescopic sight or any other sight for that matter or is it too simplistic to think that it really works.
 
I use one, it's handy for first time set up when the scope can be miles and miles out. Simple visual reference to get the scope into the right ball park, then shoot a few shots and adjust (and repeat) as required
 
davefwb said:
Was looking at Ali-express website and saw a lot of laser boresighters. Am I right in assuming that you place these in the barrel of your rifle or pistol and then adjust your sights to coincide with the laser dot that you see on the target.
Question is, are they any good because it would appear to be an easy way to set up your telescopic sight or any other sight for that matter or is it too simplistic to think that it really works.
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They can be useful but have limitations. They are not likely to be perfectly accurate but should get you close, the one I have has a slight but consistent offset. If you get one make sure it goes down to .177.
 
Shabbaplinks said:
Plenty on ebay for 12/15 quid, yet to have guts to put card details into Ali express 🤣
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Have bought a few things on Ali express and I suspect some of the ones on eBay are from the same source. Touch wood not had any issues with them so far and they are quite good and quick with returns as well. They are about a fiver from Ali.
 
davefwb said:
Have bought a few things on Ali express and I suspect some of the ones on eBay are from the same source. Touch wood not had any issues with them so far and they are quite good and quick with returns as well. They are about a fiver from Ali.
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Iv seen a le032 range finder cheapest on line on there, do you have to pay import duty on them?
 
I picked one up....somewhere. It's ok for, as Svendogg says, initial set up, but that's about it.
 
I have one, bought it more out of curiosity than actual need. As others have said then can be handy on initial set up when a scope may be way out of adjustment when mounting it to a particular rifle.
But you will still have to make the final adjustment by hand in the normal manner by turning the adjusters a click or two to get the zero spot on.
 
I have one for my pistols, in .22. There basically are two types: the one that sticks out the front of the barrel and the other one that sits in the chamber and sticks into the barrel from the back. I have the latter which doesn't fit my Reximex Mito. It does fit in my KMR, but the slide won't close completely since it protrudes into the chamber. This is a problem only for .22, the larger ones fit inside the barrel completely. It kind'a works, but it's a lot of hassle for something that isn't really needed.

Here's a trick I learned a long time ago. Fixate the gun so that it really cannot move. I have this cheap bike repair stand* that is meant to lift the whole bike from the floor in a clamp that I use for this. Set up a target at 25 yard (for pistol, a rifle may need longer distance) so that it sits perfectly in the scope image. Fire. Than rotate the card 180 degrees (center should stil align perfectly with the scope). Now adjust the sights (without moving the gun!) so that the the scope points to the bullet hole. Done. This method is more accurate than any boresight can give you since the drop of the bullet is taken into the equation.

*): I got the below one from lidl, but you can probably find it on amazon and similar sites too. I paid roughly 50 quid for it.

1736599728998.webp
 
Some can be adjusted . Put it on V blocks and rotate it to see how off the centre it is . Some are way off . May still get you on paper though depending on the range .
 
crissdee said:
Why rotate the card? Shoot a hole, zero to that, surely....
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In theory you are right but you can’t guarantee that the gun won’t move after the shot, the laser dot may move but you can follow it when adjusting the sight. You have to set up the sight so that the dot and cross hairs are moving in unison…..(I think)
 
I use an Aliexpress bore sight to do the initial adjustment on my scopes. It cost almost nothing (€6?) and saves time and pellets if you switch scopes around a lot, which i do.
 
I use a laser boresight just like a lot of people here, to do the initial roughing in, then take the gun to the range to sight it properly. Not a big deal for the pellet guns, but sighting in my centerfire rifles in he back yard is not a good idea, ya know...
Using it for the center fire rifles saves me a lot of money, with some calibres costing me up to 5 dollars a shot (.300Savage). But it is just plain handy for the pellet rifles too.
 
Just my opinion of course, but think a laser boresighter is an un-neccessary gimmick. Air rifles can be very easily zeroed by simply firing a pellet into a cardboard box or similar placed approximately 10-12 yards away (approximately the first zero for most sub 12ftlb air rifles) and see where the pellet goes then adjust the scope to coincide. The scope adjustment will need to be fine tuned at the require zero distance. For centrefires simply remove the bolt and look down the barrel at a target (usually around 30-40 yards for most centerfires) and align the scope to coincide. On every centrefire I've zeroed this has put the bullet within 9 inches of the bull at 100 yards (unless there is something very wrong with the alignment of the scope). It's a complete waste of time to try to align a scope at the intended zero distance by using either a laser boresighter or by looking down the barrel as neither pellets nor bullets fly straight.
 
shotaholic said:
Just my opinion of course, but think a laser boresighter is an un-neccessary gimmick. Air rifles can be very easily zeroed by simply firing a pellet into a cardboard box or similar placed approximately 10-12 yards away (approximately the first zero for most sub 12ftlb air rifles) and see where the pellet goes then adjust the scope to coincide. The scope adjustment will need to be fine tuned at the require zero distance. For centrefires simply remove the bolt and look down the barrel at a target (usually around 30-40 yards for most centerfires) and align the scope to coincide. On every centrefire I've zeroed this has put the bullet within 9 inches of the bull at 100 yards (unless there is something very wrong with the alignment of the scope). It's a complete waste of time to try to align a scope at the intended zero distance by using either a laser boresighter or by looking down the barrel as neither pellets nor bullets fly straight.
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Far from necessary, can be useful, and they're really cheap.

I agreed a large paper target on a solid board at about 10 m is almost as easy, I have done that a few times and it works absolutely fine as well.
 
I used one to initially set up my scope during some horrible weather. Sat in the dining room and had a target at the end of the garden at a location where I couldn't put a backstop. Rain was coming on and off and wind was blowing everywhere. Used 'Chairgun' to work out the elevation for zero. Later at the range when the weather was better it only took a few clicks to get things right and shooting could commence.

A good time to do maintenance on the gun is when the weather is crap. With the boresight I know I can then get the rifle properly set up again without loading a single pellet.

A cheap Chinese bore sight does the job. While it did need some adjustment to stop it drawing circles when rotated it wasn't hard.

P.S. While SWMBO does not mind me shooting in the back garden, she would not have been happy with me doing it from inside the dining room !

Also there have been a few posts about concern with neighbours, a boresight could be a help in those circumstances too.
 
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