Sighting a rifle

[zeppelinfromled]

I'm pretty new to shooting, and especially to rifle shooting. I just bought a Remington 700 in .308 with a bipod and a scope on it. I also am going to join Braintree R&P this Sunday.

I was wondering if someone (ideally a member at BRP) could help me sight the rifle. I took it to a 25 yard indoor range today and I was grouping decently, but significantly low and to the left. I couldn't get the group to move much by adjusting the scope, so my thought is that the scope isn't mounted properly (it came mounted on the rifle).

If anyone either has some tips to communicate here, or would like to meet at BRP or elsewhere for a shooting session, I'd appreciate it.

I'm also not sure if there was a better place for me to post this. If so, maybe a moderator can move it?

 

[strangenh]

If the scope adjustments are 1/4 MOA per click, at 25yds that's going to take 16 clicks to move your POI one inch. Get the L/R right at 25yds and get it more or less centered after that, then re-sight at 50 to make sure you're OK (but only change L/R), then sight at 100 for L/R and vertical (assuming you want a 100yd zero). At 100yds one MOA is (more or less) one inch.

 

[MassMark]

Some, (not all) of the 700 package deals come with Leupold adjustable mounts. Did yours come with a Nikon, or an 'R' marked Remington/Simmons?

 

[zeppelinfromled]

It seems to be an aftermarket scope. I bought the rifle used, and the scope doesn't have much in the way of markings. It does say that one click is 1/8" (I'm assuming at 100 yards). I'll check it out again - I may not have turned it enough, considering that I was only at 25 yards.

 

[EddieCoyle]

You can save a lot of ammo if you have a decent rifle rest.

Put a small target dot at 25 yards. Remove the bolt from the rifle, put the rifle in the rest, point it at the target, and look through the barrel. Adjust the position of the rifle/rest until you can see the dot more or less centered in the bore.

Without touching the rifle, look through the scope and see where it's aiming. Adjust the scope until the cross hairs are centered on the dot L-to-R, and near the top of the dot on the vertical.

This will get you in the ballpark.

If your scope moves the POA 1/8" per click at 100yards, my guess is that you didn't adjust it enough.

It's going to be frustrating if you have a crappy scope because they sometimes take one shot for the adjustments to "set". Which basically means you're going to waste one shot after each adjustment. You'll be able to tell if this is happening when you fire a 3-shot group after making an adjustment if the first shot is separate from the 2nd and 3rd.

 

[BoB13]

Make sure all your base screws and rings are tight but not over-torqued. Before I sight in a new set up I pull the base off, clean the screws and dab some purple lock tight on them. Snug them tight but not too tight otherwise they'll strip and you'll be screaming. Also, over-tightening the scope rings to the scope can affect accuracy.

 

[New_Shooter]

just a note, make sure your scope is mounted so up down adjustments really make it go up-down and not left-right. first time i mounted a scope it was 90 degrees off... so up-down was left-right, and left right was up down. boston-irish helped me sight it in and it took us about 50 rounds to figure out what was wrong...

 

[zeppelinfromled]

Eddie, do you have any brand recommendations for a rifle rest? Or a store in the East MA area that could give me reliable advice?

Thanks.

 

[JoeyB]

This is a great post. Does anyone here have any recommended writing online that explains how to sight in a rifle? Maybe with some pictures? I am new at this and want to make sure that I do it properly. But I need basics, because I could follow some of the stuff that was written here, but I don't want to interpret it incorrectly. Thanks!

 

[HTRN]

To continue on EC's note...

If you rifle is secured, you only need 2 shots to get it zeroed at any distance.

1) Secure rifle to rest / fixed surface, (It cannot move at all) make sure that bore sighted scope is on target
2) Take 1st shot
3) While rifle is still secure from steps 1&2, move cross hairs of scope to impact hole of step 2.
4) Repeat shot and you should punch through the same hole (or within grouping variance)

5) Aim at preferred point on target and verify results.

 

[William Wallace]

I thought this was pretty easy to follow (and i know ZERO about rifles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF3LCwrN3HY

 

[JoeyB]

Thanks William

 

[rep308]

and though it sound stupid, make sure you bring a paper and pencil and write down every click you do between shots.