What Is Sight In A Scope?
Learning how to sight in your scope is one of the first and important lessons if you plan to become a sharpshooter. However, this technique can get complicated and require many practices for beginners.
Simply put, sighting in a rifle scope is when you align your scope and the gun barrel so that they will point in the same direction.
The importance of this varies from what you are going to use the rifle, but the purpose is majorly for hunting. If your scope is not sighted in correctly, there is a great chance you cannot be able to shoot the target.
The skill will take you a while to master, but once you do, whether you are using a scope on rifles or handguns, it should work almost the same, even with a thermal scope.
People say that scope is like the eye of your rifle. It is a key for accuracy and for that reason, it is very crucial that before you begin to sight in your scope, the rifle mount must be adjusted and tight properly.
One of the most common problems when sighting in scope is loose mount. There are several reasons for this, a few stripped screws or loose points can be the source of the problem.
When your scope mount is not tight enough, it will cause inaccuracy, and make you miss your shot. That’s why it is necessary to double-check even when it is set up by a gun expert.
An ideal way to do this is you can use a torque wrench to crank down the screws to make sure your scope mount is as tight as good because there is no room for error.
The next thing before you want to sight your scope in is to determine the distance. You should always start with a short distance either of 50 or 100 yards, after that, you go for a longer one.
There are many tools that help you to sight a scope, but in this article, we learn the basic and fast way without using any of it. It is called bore-sighting.
This technique requires using your eye to get the scope alight with your gun barrel.
If you are a bolt-action rifle type of guy, you can do this by removing the bolt to have a clear view on the barrel.
For Armalite Rifle (AR) types, you can separate the upper and lower by simply removing the two pins, and then pull out the bolt. Now you have the upper part without a bolt, and should be able to see the barrel.
How To Sight In A Scope
The most important thing to remember when sighting in scope is to use a stable platform. You can always find this easily everywhere. They can be a table, bench or whatever you use to place the rifle on, make sure it’s stable and even.
Here are the steps to sight in your rifle scope.
- Step 1: After you are done mounting the scope on the rifle, the next move is to locate turrets. If you are using capped ones, you can remove the cover to reveal the turret underneath.
These knobs are your up and down, left and right adjustments. They are used for adjusting the reticle on your scope.
When you are turning these turrets, you should always be careful, and do it slightly. These knobs will stop moving when it reaches its max. You can cause damage if you force too much.
- Step 2: This is where your scope adjustment technique comes into use. You know your scope is mounted correctly when you see the elevation turret on top of your rifle and the windage turret on the right side.
After a test shot, you should already know which way to turn your turret for the next shot. In this case, you will read the minute of angle (MOA) showed on the knobs to know how much adjustment you get per click.
It is important to know that some scopes are measure by MOA, but some by inches. However, the difference is unnoticeable, so don’t confuse yourself by trying to understand them.
- Step 3: At this step, you have to make sure the scope is level with your movement. You can do this by using many tools, but if you don’t have any, you can use a flat sandbag to balance it.
- Step 4: Now we are going to have a shot test to get a feeling around. First, you should try with a target as big as good at 30 yards, then you pull a trigger and see how far off your shot is from the bullseye.
If you hit it low, turn the elevation turret up. If it’s more to the left, adjust the windage to the right. You will keep doing this until the crosshairs center on where the bullet hits.
It is crucial to remember that you will turn these turrets accordingly based on how much adjustment per click you can get. However, getting familiar with this can be difficult for a newbie, so you should always remember that one click will be equal to a 1/4 adjustment.
- Step 5: This is your final step in sighting a rifle scope. At this stage, you will repeat the process, but at a further distance. We assume that you should be able to hit your target right at 100 yards by now. But if you don’t, try to make the adjustment again until you get it right. It will take a lot of time and practice.
Many rifle scope nowadays is equipped with high-end optics that allow you to increase the accuracy of your shot. Some thermal scopes also give your the night vision for shooting in the dark.
The technique above works the same almost for every scope, even when you are using a thermal one.
Conclusion
So now that you are successful sighting in a scope, and you can be sure that you will make a clear and deadly shot every time.
Missing a target does not only wastes your ammo but also causes risk of stray bullet. If you think this article is helpful and practical, let’s share it around and don’t hesitate to leave your comment below. We love to hear from your experience.
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