Bore sighting is the process of lining up your scope’s crosshairs with the center of your rifle’s barrel before you ever fire a shot. You can do it at home with nothing but an unloaded rifle, a stable rest and a target, or with a laser bore sighter. Mossberg puts the visual method at 15 minutes or less. Either way, it will not zero your rifle by itself. That part still happens at a range, on paper, with live rounds.
Here is what this post covers:
- What bore sighting actually does, and what it does not do
- How to bore sight a bolt-action rifle by looking straight down the bore
- How a laser bore sighter works, and how it is different from the visual method
- How far away your target should be for each method
- Why bore sighting is not the same thing as a zeroed rifle
- When it makes more sense to pay someone $15 to do it for you
What Does Bore Sighting Actually Do?
Bore sighting aligns your scope’s reticle with the true center of your barrel, called the bore. Leupold describes it as a quick way to get on target that needs no specialized tools. Sightmark, which makes laser bore sighters, puts it almost the same way: boresighting gets you on paper quickly and saves ammo.
That is the whole job. It is not a fine adjustment and it is not a substitute for shooting the rifle. It exists to save you time and ammunition getting from “brand new scope, no idea where it is pointed” to “close enough to find on the first shot at the range.”
You will want to bore sight any time you mount a new optic, swap out factory sights, or move a scope from one rifle to another. If you would rather not do any of it yourself, Lakeside Munitions posts a $15 bore sight as part of our gunsmithing price list, done at the shop in Cumming, the number on the page before you ever hand over the rifle.
How Do You Bore Sight a Bolt-Action Rifle by Looking Through the Bore?
This is the free method, and it works because a bolt-action rifle lets you remove the bolt and look straight through an open channel to the target. Mossberg’s own how-to lays out the process this way, and it is worth following in order:
- Confirm the rifle is unloaded. Check the chamber and magazine yourself. Never assume, per the NSSF’s firearm safety rules: the only time you can be certain a gun cannot fire is when the action is open and it is completely empty.
- Pick a target roughly 100 yards out. Mossberg notes the distance does not need to be exact, just a fixed point you can see clearly.
- Remove the bolt. This opens a clear line of sight straight down the barrel.
- Rest the rifle on something that will not move. A shooting rest or sandbags work. Anything that shifts while you are adjusting the scope defeats the purpose.
- Look through the open action, down the bore, and center the target in that view. Do not touch the rifle once it is aligned.
- Without moving the rifle, look through the scope and turn the windage and elevation turrets until the crosshairs land on the same point you just centered through the bore.
- Check the bore again. If the rifle shifted while you were adjusting the scope, recenter it and repeat the last two steps until the bore view and the scope view agree.
- Replace the bolt and you are ready to head to the range.
Leupold’s version of the same process adds one detail worth knowing if you ever move this to an AR-pattern rifle instead of a bolt gun: you have to push out the two pins, separate the upper from the lower, and remove the bolt before you get a clear view down the barrel. That is more disassembly than a bolt gun needs, which is one reason a laser bore sighter can be the easier route on an AR.
If adjusting a brand-new scope yourself makes you nervous, that is a completely fair reason to skip this step. Bore sighting is posted at $15 on our gunsmithing price list, done in the shop at 211 Atlanta Rd in Cumming.
How Do You Bore Sight a Rifle With a Laser Bore Sighter?
A laser bore sighter skips the “look down the barrel” step entirely by projecting a laser dot in place of your eye. Sightmark’s own instructions cover the in-chamber type, which is built to the exact dimensions of a live cartridge in your caliber:
- Confirm the firearm is unloaded and pointed in a safe direction, and set it on a stable rest.
- Hang a target 15 to 25 yards out. This is closer than the visual bore-sighting distance, because a laser and a scope are mounted at a fixed offset from each other and can only run perfectly parallel at a set range.
- Install the batteries in the boresight. It activates on its own once assembled.
- Lock the bolt open and insert the boresight into the chamber like you would a round of ammunition.
- Line the laser dot up on the center of your target.
- Look through your scope and turn the windage and elevation knobs until the reticle lands on the laser dot.
Sightmark also sells a magnetic universal boresight that clamps onto the muzzle instead of loading into the chamber, which works across a wider range of calibers without buying a caliber-specific cartridge. Sightmark’s guide carries a warning worth repeating here: firing a round with a universal boresight still attached can cause serious damage to your firearm. Whichever type you use, double-check the chamber and the muzzle before that first live shot.
A laser bore sighter is reusable, which is its appeal if you set up optics on several rifles.
How Far Away Should the Target Be?
This is where the two methods genuinely differ, and mixing them up is an easy mistake:
- Visual bore sighting (bolt-action, looking down the bore): Mossberg’s instructions use a target roughly 100 yards out, and note the distance does not need to be exact.
- Laser bore sighting: Sightmark recommends 15 to 25 yards, because the laser and the scope sit at a fixed physical offset on the rifle and only line up precisely at a closer, set distance.
- Your actual live-fire zero, once you get to the range: Leupold recommends sighting in at 50 or 100 yards, and starting at the shorter distance first if your final zero is going to be 200 or 300 yards out.
| Method | Target distance | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| Visual bore sighting, looking down the bore | About 100 yards, and it does not need to be exact | Mossberg |
| Laser bore sighting | 15 to 25 yards | Sightmark |
| Live-fire zero at the range | 50 or 100 yards, shorter first if your final zero is 200 or 300 yards | Leupold |
None of these three numbers are interchangeable. Bore sighting gets you close enough to find the paper. The actual zero only happens with live fire at the range.
Does Bore Sighting Mean Your Rifle Is Zeroed?
No, and any source that implies otherwise is skipping a step. Sightmark says it plainly in its own FAQ: bore sighting gets your shots close to center but does not replace live-fire zeroing, and you will still need to make final adjustments at the range to dial in your optic accurately. Leupold’s guidance agrees: after the scope and the bore appear aligned, you still fire a shot down range and adjust from the actual point of impact.
Rarely, if ever, is a bore sight perfect on its own. It is a starting point, not a finish line. Plan on confirming zero with live fire at a proper shooting range before you trust the rifle for a hunt or a match. We do not have a range at our shop, so that last step happens somewhere else, but bore sighting the rifle first means you will burn far fewer rounds getting there once you do.
Whatever range you use, follow the basics: treat every rifle as if it is loaded, keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, and wear eye and ear protection, all core points in the NSSF’s 10 Rules of Firearms Safety.
When Does the $15 Bore Sight at Lakeside Beat Doing It Yourself?
If you are comfortable turning the turrets yourself and patient enough to repeat the alignment a few times, bore sighting a bolt-action rifle at home costs nothing. That is a completely reasonable way to do it.
Where the math changes is a rifle you just mounted a brand-new optic on before a hunt or a trip to the range, and you would rather not adjust a scope you just paid for yourself. At $15, posted on our gunsmithing price list alongside every other job we do in the shop, there is no guessing what it costs before you hand the rifle over. A published price list is rare in this trade.
If you bought your first rifle in Georgia and a new scope came with it, bore sighting is the next step before that first range trip, whether you do it yourself on the kitchen table or bring it in to us at 211 Atlanta Rd in Cumming. Either way, get it bore sighted before you burn ammo hunting for the first hole on paper, and confirm your real zero with live fire before it matters.
