Do stick in barrel boresighters hurt accuracy

I have wondered the same thing, I have bore sighted a lot of rifles with them and have never seen any damage. I think barrel material is a lot harder than we give it credit for.
 
If you are careful when inserting them, you will be okay... I generally pull the bolt and set the rifle where it is stable and bore sight mine by using a neighbor's basketball goal that is about 100 yards away and then lining up the scope with the same point.... that, at least, gets me on paper for fine tuning..at the range..

I have an older Bushnell bore sight, but it doesn't work on my ARs and the arbor is too big for my .204s...so I very seldom even look at it..
 
i set up something about 50 yards out,look down the bore and get the target centered in the bore then move crosshairs to target. ittl get it close enough at 100 yards.i had a guy at a gunstore actually tap the boresighter rod into the barrel on a .204 once,ill never let anybody do that again.
 
I do it the same as josebd. I actualy had a rifle sighted in in 2 shots (a lot of luck there), but usually only takes 3 to 6 rounds to zero in. Nothing goes down my bore except a cleaning rod (with bore guide) and bullets.
 
Those types of bore sighters are made of soft aluminum and the arbors are plastic. I think if you could do damage with one you had to be trying.

I have heard of a few accounts at gun clubs of them not being taken out when fired with "bad" results :-D
 
Originally Posted By: 204GunnerOnly if you forget to pull it out. That first shot might be a little off.

There was a pic floating around a couple of years ago of that exact thing..
The barrel looked like a peeled banana..

I remove the bolt and look down the bore myself,, but I can see where that wouldn't work on an Auto Loader, Pump, or Lever Gun. In that case I suppose the bore sighter would be fine as long as one was carefull,, especially at the crown..

I suppose the right guy could screw it up,, but that's true with just about any tool..
JMO
Charlie
 
Originally Posted By: OldTurtleIf you are careful when inserting them, you will be okay... I generally pull the bolt and set the rifle where it is stable and bore sight mine by using a neighbor's basketball goal that is about 100 yards away and then lining up the scope with the same point.... that, at least, gets me on paper for fine tuning..at the range..

I have an older Bushnell bore sight, but it doesn't work on my ARs and the arbor is too big for my .204s...so I very seldom even look at it..

I do it this way but instead of a basketball goal I use the eluminated push button for the door bell on the neighbors house down the street. Seems the more often I do it the better I get at it to.
 
You can do more damage to the bore using a dirty cleaning rod, and poor cleaning methods than what a bore slighter may do..

That said, I have always used the eyeball down the bore method my self....
 
They don't hurt accuracy. That type of bore sighter has been used forever. If you have to use it enough in your gun to hurt the accuracy you have bigger problems than the bore sighter. Key
 
Originally Posted By: Blackhawk43I have wondered the same thing, I have bore sighted a lot of rifles with them and have never seen any damage. I think barrel material is a lot harder than we give it credit for.

I've looked in the barrel with a borescope after using one of the boresighters with a nickel or chrome plated spud with a spring steel "keeper". What that spring steel clip and plated spud can do to barrel steel is ugly. I used the boresighter in several barrels, all of them have the damage to the lands. The rifles I didn't use it in, my lever actions that don't have a scope, do not have the damage.

What you will see is gouges and smearing of the lands in the area from the muzzle back to where that spring steel clip sticks in the barrel. The gouges are on the part of the barrel where the spring steel keeper is located.

The type of boresighter that has the expanding spud may not cause damage but since I've not used one and then looked in the bore with a scope, I don't have evidence one way or the other.

The laser type with the aluminum spud with rubber or plastic expanding plug don't cause damage that I've seen, neither does the Leupold version that attached magnetically to the barrel crown.

I boresight all my bolt actions by peering through the bore at a target 50 yards away with the rifle on a rest. I center the target bullseye in the bore, then adjust the mounts for windage with the scope centered in it's travel for windate, then set the scope cross hairs to be on the bullseye while holding the rifle in place. That always gets me within a couple of inches at 50 yards and centered in windage travel, after which the transition to 100 yards is a piece of cake.

Fitch
 
Being realistic here - what is your barrel made of that would be hurt by a bore sighter and not bullets going 3000 fps? Just dont grind it on the crown and you will be fine.
 
Yea and we shouldnt eat bacon, chocolate or drink beer whats your point. Is the damage done by a properly inserted bore sighter going to have any noticeable damage to the normal non competition bench shooter ? will we go from MOA to 4.5 and miss a yote ? Please ! Like anything else we just need common to use sense. Oh wait never mind look who we elected lol!!!!!.
 
FITCH has it centered...those steel spring-loaded keepers can be rough on ur crowns especially if some individual at ur local gun store shoves'em in at an some dumb-butted angle & then twists it around...if you own such a setup & swap scopes around alot & are careless,you increase odds of damaging the crown or last bit of rifling...like any tool if improperly used......
 
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