Your opinion of magnetic bore sighters... ? ? ?

[Hokkmike]

Tried to use a magnetic bore sighter on my AR.

Instead of an appropriately sized caliber rod inserted into the barrel they simple stick on the muzzle crown with a very strong magnet.

No good. Bore sighter and scope reticles were not near any where close.

My wiser brother said that the flash suppressor may uneven for any number of reasons and he didn't see the practicality of using a magnetic bore sighter on an AR or maybe any other rifle.

What do you think?

 

[edwardware]

I can't think of any reason to assume that the end of the flash hider is orthagonal to the bore. Given that many mass-produced barrel threads aren't concentric enough for suppressor use, I would expect the opposite more often than not.

I'm consistently able to bore-sight the scope to within ~10MOA, with no doodads whatsoever. That's sufficient to get you on the (large) paper at 100y.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

I think your brother is correct.

 

[mavracer]

Bore sighters imho are a total waste of time and money. Especially for an AR where it's easy to pull the bolt and look down the barrel.

 

[troy fairweather]

the old style tasco/bushnell work good, but only as good as the person using them. if you can sight down the bore then theres no need for boresighters.

 

[Sistema1927]

I have used a Leupold magnetic bore sighter with good success on bolt guns for many years. The only time that I used it with an AR it was more difficult, but I was able to get on paper at 100 yards.

 

[Jack B.]

I just pull the bolt out and look down the barrel. Center on my target 50 yards out. Works pretty well.

 

[Chuck R.]

I have used a Leupold magnetic bore sighter with good success on bolt guns for many years. The only time that I used it with an AR it was more difficult, but I was able to get on paper at 100 yards.

I use an older Leupold Zero Point Boresighter, that works extremely well as long as you have a true square crown. Another side benefit is printing the grids and recording zeros. For example, this year I sent a MK4 in for a reticle change, they ended up changing the turrets instead. Got it back, remounted and trued the scope, then re-zeroed using my recorded grid sheet. Just for chits and giggles I stepped out the back door and took a shot at my 407 yard turkey swinger and was rewarded with a hit. Honestly the correction was just a little more than I'd normally see due to conditions. When I actually sat down and re-zeroed, it was only a couple clicks off.

It also works pretty well for quickly checking to see if scope is tracking.

For the guns with muzzle devices I either look down the bore or in some cases pull the device.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I’ve had good luck with a Leopold magnetic dealy.

Did you make sure to measure from the center of note to the center of scope and then put the boresighter at the same hieght off the muzzle? It is still a guess but if you didn’t pay attention to this at all then that could be the reason you were so far off.

 

[mjsdwash]

I have had very good luck bore sighting by looking down the barrel at a distant object when you can look through them from the rear like on an AR. Even used that method to align an A2 from post before drilling, and it worked great. Beyond that I would take it to a sporting place that does free boresighting, or get some of the rod inserts.

 

[roo_ster]

Bore sighters imho are a total waste of time and money. Especially for an AR where it's easy to pull the bolt and look down the barrel.

I just pull the bolt out and look down the barrel. Center on my target 50 yards out. Works pretty well.

I have had very good luck bore sighting by looking down the barrel at a distant object when you can look through them from the rear like on an AR. Even used that method to align an A2 from post before drilling, and it worked great. Beyond that I would take it to a sporting place that does free boresighting, or get some of the rod inserts.

Don't waste your money on some doo-dad.

Pulling the bolt and looking down the bore from the chamber end beats any bore sighting rig any day of the week. Including ARs.

Does not work for lever guns and some other designs.

 

[Hokkmike]

Thanks all for your responses.

 

[edwardware]

Does not work for lever guns and some other designs.

A 336 isn't bad, but a 10/22 requires drilling the receiver. . . but you need to do that to clean it properly anyhow.

 

[jmr40]

I can zero a bolt gun at 100 yards in 3 shots after looking through the bore to adjust the scope. With other guns, including AR's it might take 1-2 more shots to get it zeroed at 100 yards. I've never felt that any of the "tools" would save me a single round of ammo nor one minute of my time.

 

[herrwalther]

I picked up a bore sight for $20 or so about 9 years ago. Every time it has gotten me on a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper target for handguns or on 12" x12" target for rifles. I have never heard of the magnetic ones though.