Sighting In A Rifle In Two Shots
BY Herschel Smith
First, you need to have a solid bench and vise to hold your gun in place.
Second, you, as the shooter, need to be calm and able to follow through on your shot. If you wiggle or flinch at the pull of your trigger, you will need to shoot more shells to accomplish a bullseye.
Third, it really helps if you have a buddy along who can assist you.
Fourth, your target needs to be at a distance where you will be able to see your bullet holes through your scope. Usually 50 or 100 yards is fine for most rifle scopes that go up to 9 or 12 power.
How the process works is that you shoot one shot right at the bullseye. If your scope is hitting the mark, you’re golden and very fortunate.
If you see your bullet is off the mark, there’s an easy way to rein it in.
While having the gun still pointed on the bullseye on your vise or rest, ask your buddy to move the reticle adjustments while you watch through the scope. Again, the key is for the rifle to remain in a fixed position. Only the reticles of the scope move during this process.
Advise your buddy to turn the scope adjustments in the direction to the bullet hole. Keep in mind the arrow directions on the scope may be opposite of what you are telling your assistant to go. If so, just say “the other way.”
Once the scope is now pointed at the bullet hole, you are ready to fire a second shot. Realize the gun never moved — only the scope’s adjustments advanced to go to the point of the first bullet’s impact.
If everything was held steady and you have a good follow-through, your second bullet should be on target. I like to shoot at least a third shot to make sure the second shot wasn’t a fluke.
My former Marine Corps son claims he can do with this without assistance. The best I’ve ever been able to do is sight in a muzzle loader in about 6 shots, dead center at 50 yards.
I enjoy shooting, so it doesn’t much matter to me except for the cost of the ammunition, and that’s just a sunk cost for having fun.