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

12Bravo20 said:

How I have my scopes setup and the diopter adjusted for my eye might not work for someone else

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Adjusting Diopter adjustment won’t change the zero.

My eyes have gone to pot, so my diopter setting doesn’t work for almost anyone else. I measure eye relief on the shooter and let them set the diopter, then I’ll level the optic in the rings, torque, and zero with selected ammo. Roll the diopter back to their setting. Donezo.

Fearing the unknown doesn’t mean the unknown can actually eat you.

I've sighted in many rifles for a couple good friends.
Only thing more fun than spending the day at the range shooting, is to spend the day at the range shooting on someone else's dime. Then top that off by not having to clean them

I help my friends. They got no clue how to do it.
No worries.

LonewolfMcquade said:

I've sighted in many rifles for a couple good friends.
Only thing more fun than spending the day at the range shooting, is to spend the day at the range shooting on someone else's dime. Then top that off by not having to clean them

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Ssssshhhhhh! You weren't supposed share that secret !!
But sometimes I do clean them

12Bravo20 said:

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.

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While I agree, I used to get paid to do it, and as stated above, use their ammo. Plus I got to shoot some neat guns.

I have helped out a few people that seemed to have been struggling. I do not like seeing ammo being wasted.

I’m totally cool with burning someone else’s ammo and letting them clean their own weapon as well doing the job they should be doing themselves. I just make sure I let them know it’s zeroed in for my eyes and the way I shoot so they might be a little off. Personally, I’d rather help coach them and help with making their dope adjustments but yeah, still cool with free trigger time. Your dime, your decision.

Last I checked , zero is zero. Once that’s done the scope may need an adjustment as per shooter but there’s no magic to that.

I've done this for a few friends and family members. My most memorable was a friend's brand new m70 featherweight in 7mm mag. It was the second weekend of deer season, he had missed 2 deer at 100 yds in Syracuse ny the previous weekend, I asked if he sighted it in. His response was he bore sighted it, I said you have to shoot it, boresighting is for getting on paper. I found a 3 in knot hole in a dying tree. Walked off 25 yds sat down and missed the hole his rifle was 7 in low and 6 in right at 25 yds. 3 shots later it was punching the center.

I discourage the practice of shooting off someone else's zero when it matters, but if that is what is needed to make something happen, its better than shooting at a deer with a rifle that isn't zero'd at all.

I think helping out other shooters/hunters is great. Utilizing ones experience and sharing your knowledge makes our sport better.
Helping checking the zero on high recoiling rifles is smart. You can sight in a bench flinch and be way off from hunting positions.

Take the high road and help people at the range. You may be safer in the woods/field.

My best bud and I sight in each other's rifles, no issues.

Let me explain a little further on why I personally won't sight anyone less rifle in for them anymore. YES I have to adjust the diopter quite a bit for my eye and I had too many complaints from people saying I messed up their scopes because it was now blurry when it wasn't before. And yes they would complain before I could explain to them on how to adjust the diopter to their eye.

And this is also the same reason I do not like shooting other people's rifles either. I don't want to have them get mad because I adjusted their scope so I could see the reticle. I had a guy let me try his rifle and I had to adjust the diopter and he then accused me of messing up his expensive scope.

It is jut easier for me to not do it versus hearing people complain. I guess my eye sight is pretty bad even though my good eye is corrected to 20-30 with glasses.

Uncle Sam paid me to to teach marksmanship and help troops get their assigned weapons sighted in. Yes most of those weapons only had iron sights when I was in the Army, so most of the time when I had to deal with an optic, it was a night vision scope.

troy fairweather said:

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.

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Just sighting-in a rifle by using a bore-sighter will probably allow someone to hit a 55 gallon drum at 50 yards. Not good enough for most of us.

I've done it for others many times. Immodestly stated, I'm pretty good at it. That said, I always caution them that their holding, viewing, and trigger techniques won't be the same as mine so no perfect guarantees. As for bore sighting, I have horror stories of customers ranting and raving about the horrible shots on game after buying a "bore sighted" gun. We knew enough to tell them when they bought it that the best they could expect would be to be on paper at 25 or 50 yards and final sighting was up to them.
Common response, "Well, if you can't do it right, why do you do it at all?"
My response usually was, "You owe it to the animal to be right.". (wanting really to tell him that if he couldn't verify where his gun was shooting he had no business in the woods.

Varminterror said:

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.

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I used to sight-in rifles for customers of a sporting goods store and never had a complaint. The store owner was a buddy and his wife brought/picked up the rifles at my house. It was a fun thing and I made a little cash for it. That was in the early 1970's.

The OP asked a question and I gave my answer based on my own experiences why I will not sight in other people's rifles. Others have different experiences than me. I got tired of complaints or being accused of messing up a scope so I stopped sighting in other peoples rifles.

Now when I do help a family member or close friend, I state that they will have to adjust things once I am done before they shoot a single round.

And no need to bust anyone's chops over personal preferences or personal experiences either. This is the High Road and not ARFCOM or Glock Talk.

I can understand helping someone who doesn't know how to do it, but the act of totally doing it for them I can't. Familiarity with your firearm should be one of a hunters main objectives. I'd guess that the sight-in is the only time most hunters touch their rifle since last season and even a few shots from a bench is better practice than nothing.

I’ve done it for several people but always show them what I’m doing so they realize how easy it is and can do it for themselves next time.

I've done it for guys in a pinch because I have my own range with bench set up. Easy for me to pick up the rifle after work, get it done and bring it back in the next morning. I've also got all the normal mounting, boresight, plumb bobs etc. for mounting scopes.

It's usually right on the heals of the opener, they've had some issue, and are running out of time. The org I work with supports a mobile training team and our uniformed guys and civilians do quite a bit of TDY. A lot of times this plays havoc with hunting seasons.

Whenever possible I try to get the guy out to at least verify and tweak.

I am in the electro-optics world (thermal). I have sighted in a lot of people's scopes. There are no parallax differences, shooter position differences, etc. for POA/POI issues. It is a crosshair on a tiny TV screen and no matter which angle you line up one with the scope, the crosshair is always looking at the same spot on the 2D display. Either the scope and gun are on, or they aren't.

For many, it is a mystery on getting zeroed, partially being the shooting and partially figuring out the firmware of the electro-optic. So while the process is mechanical and the end result should be the same, figuring out the buttons, knobs, and menus is overwhelming for some newbies.

So the electro-optics removes a lot of the shooter optic/view/mount issues, but doesn't remove all the shooter issues. I had one guy argue with me about this when I didn't "zero the rifle properly" and so I was responsible for his misses and his poor shooting on his guided hunt. Never mind that he didn't verify the zero before his guided started. After watching the videos of his shooting (onboard recording), it became obvious how I had failed to sight in his gun properly. He had a 4-5 MOA flinch. The gun was zeroed fine for a 0 MOA flinch, LOL

Laphroaig said:

I can understand helping someone who doesn't know how to do it, but the act of totally doing it for them I can't.

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She has made shots for years with things I zeroed.



She still doesn’t know how to rebuild an engine or transmission but is an alright driver despite not knowing everything about the equipment she’s using. Always room to learn more though.

Walkalong said:

Don't let one ungrateful ass warp your world view.

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Oh, it wasn't the one guy who did that. It was all of them put together.