Yesterday was a very hot day, right at the 100 degree mark, but that didn’t discourage Sherry and I from making the trip up to the Logan Gun Range to try out my newly bore sighted Ruger.

I was feeling very confident on having the barrel floating and the scope bore sighted with the Bushnell bore sighter.   Remember that I had used the lazer sighter first, got the scope in on top of that little red dot out at 25 yards and then put the Bushnell guy in the barrel and adjusted the scope over to zero using the grid system that is built into the Bushnell.  Also, remember that I started moving over to zero from 6 squares right and 3 1/2 squares up (it’s important that you remember this).

I took plenty of time putting the cross hairs on that bulls eye out there at 100 yards and slowly moved the trigger until the gun went off.  I just knew that when I put my eye to the spotting scope there would be a hole very near the center.

My eye pressed closely to the eye piece of the spotting scope and the paper was just as clean of holes as when I stapled it on the back board.  My eye scanned the large cardboard backing for holes…none….I looked at the wooden frame around it….no holes!  Where in the heck did that bullet go?

I sat back down at the rifle and out of frustration picked it up and sighted down range through the scope.  My mind was racing…now what?  I could throw another round down range, but it would go where the last one did and I still wouldn’t know where the barrel was pointing.  And then I remembered reading about the old fashioned way of bore sighting, that’s right, looking down the center of the barrel.

I positioned the rifle so it would be easy to look down the open breech at the target and then slowly raise my head and see where the cross hairs of the scope were looking.  To my surprise the scope cross hairs were pointing very much low and to the left of the target, like OFF THE PAPER entirely!  I employed Sherry to do the adjustments as I held the rifle in place.  She slowly moved the left/right adjustment until the vertical “hair” was under the vertical line of the target.  I kept checking “through the bore” and then the scope.  This took a few minutes.  And then the same for the horizontal “hair”…pretty soon the two worlds came together.  Time for another shot.

The shot was made with the same precision as the first one and when the eyeball was put up against the spotting scope there was a hole, high on the target and directly above the bulls eye!  I was becoming a happy guy.

I lowered the reticle (see I’m getting better at the scope stuff) and fired another round.  The bullet hit 1.8 inches above the bull!  Now we are getting places!  I pulled the next shot and it hit about 5 inches high and to the right.  My next shot hit just to the right of the one above the bull about 2 inches.  I was pretty happy about all of this.  Sherry convinced me to let the barrel cool and take one last shot.  I waited about 10 minutes and fired one more, it printed right under the last one!

My thoughts now went to the holes on the paper.  All of them are either right above the bull or to the right.  I need to move the vertical reticle to the left a bit…I move it ever so little and then fired shot number eight!  2 inches high and 1 inch left of the bull.  That could have been me moving as even on 9 power it’s hard to hold that scope on the target exactly.  I’m sighted in!

The ride home was pleasant with lots of good thoughts running through my pea brain….I remembered what I was going to do once I got home…put that Bushnell bad boy bore sighter back into the rifle and check the position of the cross hairs against its grid.

Looking through the scope, the cross hairs were on the Bushnell grid at position 5 squares right and 4 1/2 squares up!  That’s one square left of where it was after lazer bore sighting and one square up.  I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain and bullets had I just left the scope set at the lazer sight in position!

So, for all you Bushnell bore sighter believers and followers of good equipment…I’d chuck the Bushnell type and get myself a good old lazer bore sighter and save yourself head ache and frustration and bullets.  Especially when bullets are $1.50 each!

Bears Butt

August 16, 2013