How to Zero a Rifle Scope Without a Bore Sight
- 1). Place target in stand at approximately 25 yards. Position the rifle in the rest, or on the sandbags.
- 2). Obtain the black dot through the scope, and fire three rounds at it, being careful to not move the rifle and using the same trigger pull.
- 3). Verify the distance from the holes to the black dot. If the rifle is capable of accuracy, the bullet holes should be in the same general 1-inch area. If not, test fire another three rounds. If the rifle will not hold to a small pattern of holes it will probably not be able to produce any accuracy using a scope.
- 4). Keeping the rifle steady, acquire the black spot again, and use the scope "windage" knob as per the manufacturer's instructions to line up the crosshairs in the center of the three holes.
- 5). Test fire three more shots. These should be much closer to a correct vertical line with the black dot. If necessary, use the same technique again to move another series of shots to be in a straight vertical line.
- 6). Line up the scope the same way on the original black dot, but use the elevation knob to adjust the crosshairs so that they are in the middle of the last series of shots. Test fire again and check how close the shots are to the same horizontal line as the target dot. If the scope is adjusted correctly the rifle should now be shooting at a "zero" position through the scope. If the horizontal line is still off, test and adjust again until the rifle scope is zeroed.
- 7). Adjust the distance to the target for the type of shooting you will normally be doing and redo the testing and adjustment to the scope. If the distance is within 100 yards it may be possible that no adjustment needs to be done.
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