Is it ok to ask someone else to sight in your rifle?

If they are a close friend - sure. Not many people enjoy waxing cars unless it is their prized baby, but a lot enjoy shooting, All the better if you have a really nice firearm.

I'm not sure where I stand on this, but I once let a stranger at a range take some shots off a scoped .22 rifle I was shooting, and he commented how well it hit to aim, asking me "who sighted it in for you?" like it required some specialist or something. I don't think he meant anything by it; he might have simply had difficulty sighting one of his own in the past (that day, he was only shooting an unscoped Mosin-Nagant, which he let me try out.)

My vehicles aren't worth waxing, and I cut my own grass.

For some sighting in a rifle is the biggest mystery in the world. I have known folks that have bench sighted the rifle and then afterwards checked it with a bore sighter. If the scope didn't match the bore sighter they would then readjust to match the bore sighter.

I think it's alright, I like sighting in guns so if a friend asked id be happy. I think back in the old days with the scopes used it was important for the shooter to sight his own gun in,

I sighted in a rifle for my brother and he has been happy with it. Personally I would not let someone else sight in a rifle for me.

frogfurr said:

For some sighting in a rifle is the biggest mystery in the world. I have known folks that have bench sighted the rifle and then afterwards checked it with a bore sighter. If the scope didn't match the bore sighter they would then readjust to match the bore sighter.

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I've had pretty good luck with bore sighters but never would trust one, my dad would have a guy each year buy a new rifle and have him bore sight then straight to hunting. He did kill his deer dad said each year. I'd trust looking down the bore before just a normal bore sighter.
I still don't like changing the power on the scope after sighting in, just be fear from the old scopes.

We all hold our guns and mouth differently when we shoot. At least I do.

We normally sight in as a group. The owner gets it where they want it, the groups shoots for confirmation. It is more of a social thing for us, but fun.

Just absolutely make sure you check the sight in yourself after, as like was said, we all hold our guns differently and sometimes it makes a difference in the sight in.

DM

Whenever people come to my private range before hunting season, I usually wind up helping them establishing zero. Some are very skilled hunters, but it always ends up with "Let the old guy shoot it". Kinda fun...

mainecoon said:

But it also could be a patronizing thing to do, like asking them to wax your car.

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I guess it might have been a different situation, but I felt kind of honored when a friend (Randy) at work asked me to bring his new Model 70, .416 Rem Mag home and shoot it because he'd run out of adjustment on his scope, and the rifle was still printing about a foot high at 100 yards. He asked me to shoot it at least once with the scope, and if it printed high for me too, to yank the scope off and shoot it with the iron sights.
It was after I got the rifle home and we drove down to the gravel pit to give it a try that I didn't feel quite so "honored." I leaned the rifle over the hood of my truck, squeezed it off at the 100-yard target I'd taped to a cardboard box, and that darned thing kicked me so hard it made me dizzy! And it hit "about a foot high!"
So, I yanked the scope off it, lowered the rear sight all the way down, and shot it again. Same thing - about a foot high, and I was already scared of the rifle after only 2 shots. So the next thing I tried was walking downrange until I was only about 25 yards from the target, It had been raining that day, and I didn't want to sit down in the mud, so I just sort of squatted down and shot again. It didn't make any difference - when that rifle went off, it sat me down in the mud anyway, and it still hit 3 or 4 inches high!
I took the rifle back to Randy the next day and told him what I'd found. I also told him that was the hardest kicking $^&^%* rifle I'd ever shot in my life!
Randy ended up shipping it back to Winchester, they replaced the bent barrel, and Randy took a nice leopard and several species of African "planes game" with the rifle later on that year. He never asked me to shoot it again though.

I come down on the NO side. But, that is because I want the rifle to shoot where I aim, not where someone else aims.

I think that everyone has an individual sight picture. This is certainly more true of iron sights.

I offer myself as a case in point. At an early age (5), I badly injured my left eye in an accident and, until I had cataract surgery, I had a scar about 2 mm long in the iris that extended slightly into the pupil causing the pupil to be somewhat out of round. As a result, I learned how to shoot with my left eye closed. (At the time I got this fixed, at the age of 63, my best corrected vision in my left eye was 20/70. Currently my vision is L: 20/25, R: 20/15). My guns with irons sighted in BCS (before catarct surgery) have the rear sight set significantly to the right of centerline. Now the rear sights are closer to the centerline, and I try to shoot with both eyes open,

The same may be true for optics as well. Rifles that were shooting to point of aim BCS suddenly began to shoot about 6 inches to the side.

The brain is a interesting thing and will make all sorts of compromises happen the make things right. But it will tend to remember the ingrained compromises made for compensation after the need for compromise is gone.

But, that is just my perspective.

A few years back a fellow on the bench next to me was going through box after box of expensive Weatherby rounds trying to get his new Mark V on paper. I offered to help and he turned me down. Finally, with seven rounds left he changed his mind. I took the bolt out, bore sighted it at 100 yards, took a shot, reset the rifle on the bags with the reticle on POA, then twiddled the knobs until the reticle was over the hole. The next shot was about a quarter inch away from the bull, so with a little self-satisfied grin I told him it was ready to go.

He hit the target with two out of the five shots he had left - neither hole was anywhere close to anything - grumbled at me about not knowing what I was doing, and packed up and left.

So no, I don't sight in rifles for people anymore.

With a scope, it's probably okay to let someone else sight it; with irons, maybe not so much. Cheek weld can vary, as can how we see the sights. I can convince myself that the tang sight that I zeroed myself is off, depending on the given day.
A sighting in story; a bunch of us were at in improvised range, trying to zero a buddy's rifle over the hood of a car. Couple of us had no luck Then another buddy, literally a rocket scientist (he later worked at NASA), and a Lebanese native, had a try. Bing, bing, bing, three in the black.
We asked where he learned to shoot so well; he replied, "Oh, Beruit". "What were you shooting at?" "Oh, Syrians mostly..."
Moon

It is not unusual for me to sight in rifles and mount scopes for other people. I preliminary sight by bore sighting if possible, or using a laser bore sighter. But I am not satisfied until I shoot it at the range. Some folks don't like to take the time and have confidence in me. It is possible to have a different POA for different shooters, but I have never experienced that, after all, if the sights line up with the bore and adjusted for trajectory, that isn't going to change. I am not crazy about anyone doing it for me though.

No

everyone should zero in there own weapon

everybody has unique eyes, grip, etc.

My daughter wears glasses, and her rifle zero is different from mine.

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I sight in rifles for others all the time but I am also around a number of very casual to new shooters. I do suggest they confirm or adjust to how they shoot with the rifle but it’s gets them close. Close enough that some have hunted successfully with them with no previous shots fired.

Not like it’s a drawn out process.

derek45 said:

No

everyone should zero in there own weapon

everybody has unique eyes, grip, etc.

My daughter wears glasses, and her rifle zero is different from mine.

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I couldn't agree more.

While I can sight a scope in for someone, they will still need to finish sighting it in afterwards. And this is simply due to the fact that how I have the diopter adjusted for my eyes will usually be different for someone else. And how someone holds/shoulders a rifle can make a difference too.

Now I have sighted in scopes for my adult kids and close friends. But I then have them adjust the diopter to their eye and shoot to confirm zero for themselves. But for me to sight in a rifle then hand it off to someone and tell them it is good togo is not something I will ever do.

For iron sights, there is opportunity for inconsistent sight picture between two shooters.

For scopes, if anyone tells you zeroing a scope by one shooter versus another is consequential, then at least one of them, or neither of the shooters knows how to shoot.

I’ve zeroed hundreds of rifles for end users, and my wife has zeroed my rifles several times - even my 9yr old son has zeroed my rifle for me.

Varminterror said:

For scopes, if anyone tells you zeroing a scope by one shooter versus another is consequential, then at least one of them, or neither of the shooters knows how to shoot.

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While shooters position is inconsequential, the difference between peoples eyes and vision can be very consequential. How I have my scopes setup and the diopter adjusted for my eye might not work for someone else (and usually doesn't work for them). And that is why I personally do not like sighting in scopes for other people. And I definitely know how to shoot.

Walkalong said:

I've sighted in rifles for people who trusted me more than themselves. No biggie.

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This is me also.
I have Bil's, Sil's, and friends who love to hunt, but don't have the time, place, or equipment that I have for sighting in. I'm also usually more efficient. Depending on the quality of thier rig and how far off zero it is, I can usually zero a rifle at 100yds within six rounds or less where they might burn a whole box of ammo doing it themselves.

First and foremost, it's your rifle. You are responsible for its safe use, so the main questions about letting anyone else do anything with it are matters of trust and competence.

I have bore-sighted scoped rifles for others, but that's not really the same thing.

I always zero my own rifles. After zeroing I have occasionally asked other shooters to fire a few groups to see whether the rifle is capable of better accuracy with someone else behind the trigger, but I don't let them adjust the sights.

The one time I wish I could have had the zeroing done by someone else is the Zf-41 on my Yugo M98/48 -- the weird adjustment system of this scope requires a factory fixture for efficient zeroing.

I’ve seen too many people blame someone else when they missed a buck because “they didn’t have it sighted in right”….or so the story goes.

I’ll sight mine in and my kids if they want, that’s about it.