So this is truely the first time I’ve ever used a red dot, or any kind of optics. And have no clue at all with how to sight in a rifle.
I know in Archery, you follow the arrow until it get to your POI. Meaning if the arrow hits left and low of your target, you adjust the sight to go a little lower and then to the left of its setting and pretty soon your dead on.
So I finally got to take my carbine out with my new Aimpoint. Stick the target at 75 yards, and miss the target no matter what. Then move the target closer to say like 20 yards. There I find that when aiming to the center of the target, I hit low and left.
So my thing is what do I do, to adjust for the zero. Do I start off at short ranges and move back further. How do I adjust the sight, do I follow the bullet or do i go opposite the bullet.
Low left, so do I move the dot up and to the right or what. Need help. Thought I knew what I was doing and seem to not have a clue. Also I know my sight did not move at all. It’s on a La Rue mount, so I’m confident it wasn’t the mount or optic.
First, read the manual. Assuming you have got a manual. Most people choose to zero @ 50 yrds. This has the benefit of returning to POA at about 200yrds without ever being more than about 2.5 inches above or below line of sight from 0-200yrds.
Make sure the sight is ‘square’. Meaning the adjustment dials are at 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock for a right hand shooter. Make sure everything is tight, some loctite may be a good idea.
Read the dials for your adjustments. Each dial will have an arrow and read something like ‘up - right’ depending on the position of the dial. If adjusting the top dial then the arrow and ‘up’ would be the direction of movement. The dial on the side would relate to ‘right’ with arrow direction. Meaning the top dial will control up and down adjusments, the side dial will contro left and right adjustments.
If your impacts are low and left, then you need to move your impacts ‘up’ and ‘right’ to get to your point of aim. I tried to simplify this, hope it helps.
If you have a back up rear sight, sight in for 50 or 100 yards, your choice. Mount your Aimpoint on the flat top receiver. With the tip of the front sight post centered vertically and horizontally in the rear sight aperture, move the red dot to the top of the post.
I took your advice on this and went out to the range and did exaclty what you said. Went through about 100 rounds before I gave up. :mad: :mad:
Went to the local gun shop and bought a laser bore sighter. Mounted it in the bore like said, turned on the red dot on, and wham found that Aimpoint dot was in the way right, and that the laser was where it needed to be. No wonder I was hitting to the left lower. Talking it was many many many many clicks to get the red dot about 1 inch above the laser.
I know the laser won’t be 100% exact but, will get me in the vicinty I shouldn’t be more than 8-10 inches instead of the entire 2 feet off :eek: :eek: :eek:
I find it easier to zero the Aimpoint and then adjust my BUIS to it so that the dot is sitting on top of the front post as I sight through the rear sight.
Before I actually zero the dot, I boresight it by looking through the barrel at a particular point and adjusting the dot so that it is on or near that spot. You have to lay the rifl on something stable and not touch it when sighting in.
This is how I zero my Aimpoints (I currenlty have 3 and am waiting for the delivery of the fourth, the T-1):
Set your targets at 50-yards (or whatever distance you choose to zero onto).
Turn on the Aimpoint to the lowest setting where you can still see the dot.
Load 5-rounds.
Place the dot on top (“cover”) of your target’s center (bullseye or what-have-you).
Fire 5-rounds as slowly and accurately as you can.
ADDED: If you are unable to adjust it at 50-yards, put a target up at 25-yards and adjust it so that your rounds are hitting about an inch below your POI. Then start shooting at a target at 50-yards,
Sorry it didn’t go so well. Even when everything is new it just doesn’t add up. You could have saved the price of the bore sight by pulling off the upper and removing the BCG. Sight the bore on a target and compare the red dot. I know this is all a lot easier after many years of trial and error. I didn’t want to confuse by throwing out too much. The bore sighter will come in handy in the future if you shoot very much and try out new rifles. Hope you get it squared away. Wish I could have been there to help. Good luck, enjoy.
Get some Irons…
Get a target (Pick one… it matters little, I like the standard 25M Army Zero tgts))
From a good position… fire three rds at the target (I start at 25Ys so you can see the group pretty much wherever it is…
Adjust sights until you can place the group within the 4centimeter circle.
Once that’s done… move the target back to 50 yds and repeat…
Now repeat the process with your Red dot… Start at 25Yds and then latter move to 50yds…
and Viola… you have a very good Zero that hits POA/POI from 50Yds to out to around 225 yds.
It’s not a Rocket… or a Cold Fusion reactor… unless you make it like that…
oh and let me add this… the secret (Besides applying the basic fundamentals of marksmanship…) is to know what your iron sights and Red dot adjustments are in …Read the manuals for them and understand what a click of adjustment will do to your POI (Point of impact) this will prevent you from chasing after your bullet holes.
and if you cannot get 3 rds to be in a group … don’t bother moving the sights… cause it’s you and not your sights… keep focusing on sight picture, breathing and trigger press/reset until you can get them to be in a group (e.g. at 25 yds off a bench, all three rds should be within an inch or better) if there not… you doing something wrong (flinching,jerking the trigger, incorrect sight picture ,etc)
Follow this advice and you will be good… if it still does not work… Email me a plane ticket and your address and I will come out and help you…
The easiest way to zero a weapon to do is get it on paper as fast as possible. You can try it at 25yds first and if that is does not work, move to 10yds. Once you get a tight group, move it on out till you get to 50yds. Too many times people try and zero at 50yds (or farther) right off the bat and it takes them a lot of time and ammo.
Will be going out to the indoor range here in a bit. Will start out at 10 yards then move to 15 then to 25 which is al I have indoor. Next weekend will be able to shoot further and see how far I can get.
Well got it in sighted for 25 meters now. So when I get a chance I’ll get it sighted in for a longer distance. The longest distance I have access to is 75 yards which translates to about a tad over 68 meters.
My problem is with the aimpoint’s method of adjusment using the left and up or left and down (IIRC) adjustments and deciding how much of each I want to apply to move straight left or straight up, down or right without other movement.
