Differences in sighting in a rifle

[Jbotto]

Hello all, something I’ve been pondering for awhile and just wanted to bring up here to add to the conversation. More or less checking myself to make sure I don’t come across as know-it-all.

To preface this, I spend lots of time with people who hunt but who aren’t necessarily shooters. I think everyone here know the type but I can be more descriptive later if need be. I often get tasked with helping people sight-in their rifles and get to hear lots of people give bad advise. I’m at a disadvantage because some of these people have been hunting and shooting for longer than I’ve been alive, so based on my age alone I’m often immediately discredited on topics. An example of this is the fallacy that you have to aim high on shots angled up, and low on shots angled down. I have literally had to draw out the diagram to people to show that no matter if it’s up OR down, the horizontal distance, in relation to gravity’s effect on a bullet, is always less. There are other examples of this as well....

Anyways the point to this becoming-long-winded post is this question: When a person sights in a rifle, is it only sighted-in for them, or is it does it change with every shooter behind it?

My opinion is a rifle is a mechanical device that when sighted in correctly is sighted in. However bad form, bad support, or simply bad habits make it seem that it is not sighted in when a different shooter gets behind it.

I look forward to this discussion!!


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[Jamesr160@yahoo.com]

Iron sights as far as I can tell are individual. Scopes I am not sure.

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[EUDE75]

Where the differences in the sighing lie are the differences in the people's shooting style. Each person holds a weapon differently and has different eyesight. It may well be really close sighted in for different people but it won't be perfect. Now this is my opinion and I could be totally wrong. I'm curious as well as to all the responses to the original question.

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[JeffreyDeGraff]

Great topic. I’ve often found myself in the same situations you are talking about. Sometimes I just have to remove myself from a bad advice scenario.

I agree and disagree with the rifle sighting point. “Correctly” sighted in can only be attained with a rail gun, or on a mechanical rest with a hydraulic trigger pull mechanism, where all human influence is removed. It’s been my experience that a rifle sighted by one person is sometimes good for another person, but has always been good enough for hunting. I’ve also noticed that on lighter recoiling calibers the difference seems to be less, but on heavier recoiling rifles the difference is more. I figure it’s because recoil affects different people differently. My wife is not recoil sensitive, but it definitely affects her 5’4” 150lbs much differently than me being 6’2” 300lbs. Also she shoots right handed, I shoot left. Her groups are usually within an inch of mine with the same rifle.


JTD

[EUDE75]

Great topic. I’ve often found myself in the same situations you are talking about. Sometimes I just have to remove myself from a bad advice scenario.

I agree and disagree with the rifle sighting point. “Correctly” sighted in can only be attained with a rail gun, or on a mechanical rest with a hydraulic trigger pull mechanism, where all human influence is removed. It’s been my experience that a rifle sighted by one person is sometimes good for another person, but has always been good enough for hunting. I’ve also noticed that on lighter recoiling calibers the difference seems to be less, but on heavier recoiling rifles the difference is more. I figure it’s because recoil affects different people differently. My wife is not recoil sensitive, but it definitely affects her 5’4” 150lbs much differently than me being 6’2” 300lbs. Also she shoots right handed, I shoot left. Her groups are usually within an inch of mine with the same rifle.


JTD

I've noticed the same thing with the lighter and heavier calibers. You correctly stated to get one sighted correct you have to take all human factors out. I'd like to do a 22 and a 30.06 in a lead sled with a hydraulic trigger pull then let several people try it with 5 shot groups to see the results. How much you want to bet someone would say the sights or scope was off. Lol

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[Jbotto]

I've noticed the same thing with the lighter and heavier calibers. You correctly stated to get one sighted correct you have to take all human factors out. I'd like to do a 22 and a 30.06 in a lead sled with a hydraulic trigger pull then let several people try it with 5 shot groups to see the results. How much you want to bet someone would say the sights or scope was off. Lol

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That’s what I mean! I hear that all the time when I hit a target, hand a friend my rifle, they miss and always say the same things.... “well your rifle is sighted in to you...” I just don’t buy it.


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[2wheelDuke]

There's a thousand variables in play, and many of them are on the shooter. There could be some difference between one person and another. But from my experience, it's usually pretty close.

If they're grouping them tight, then move the sights to work with them is my philosophy. And there's calculators for the uphill/downhill shots. I have a laser rangefinder with a built in angle calculator that gives you the number in horizontal distance instead of line of sight. Ballistically, that's supposed to be the number that matters. When hunting, I've got a good idea of exactly the right number for my possible shots from that stand.

[Josh_Putman]

I got out of the military almost twenty years ago, and we still used iron sights on our M16A2's. Everyone had their own unique "battle sight zero" they were supposed to remember in case they had to pick up someone else's weapon.

At least with iron sights, everyone is different. I think a lot of it is just how people line up the sights, and everyone's eyeballs see different. You and I could theoretically line the sights up the same, but not hit the same POI with each others rifles.

I think scopes, however, take a lot of that away. People much smarter than myself can probably explain why.

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