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Laser Bore Sight Tool

J

Jfal

Professional
I did not find a thread on this with a cursory search of the Gear section. I recently bought a 9mm "Sight Mark" brand laser bore sight tool and have not been impressed. It was an impulse-buy for a gadget I did not have, mind you...$19 or so. Anyway, I insert this doo-hickey in any of my 9mm chambers and it points outward as it should. However, I insert the laser in the chamber one way and it "zeroes" say 3" left at 25 yards. On a whim I spun the sight laser 180 degrees in the chamber and it zeroes 3" right. This tells me it is completely worthless as a tool to start the zero process. Do you concur? It is inserted in the chamber(s) with the slide closed, FYI. Are these doo-hickeys all crap, or are there some that are better than others? I thought it might be a good way to start zeroing a new firearm, but I am now ready to chuck it after seeing it not pointing straight and true...

I do not always have the ability to bench-fire a pistol (my indoor ranges do not have rests, and the lane-tables are generally too tall to sit behind and too short to stand behind to bench-fire a handgun on a bag (caldwell) or wooden rest)...
 
The in-the-chamber lasers are extremely hit and miss for exactly the reason you mention. The PinkRhino is usually cited as the best of these, but they aren’t great either. You really want one of the bore sights that inserts into the barrel (Sight Lite) or one that is magnetic and sticks to the bore (Sightmark). BUT, these are not foolproof either, they’ll get you into the ballpark. Truthfully, nothing susbtitutes for spitting lead down range
 
SimonRL said:
The in-the-chamber lasers are extremely hit and miss for exactly the reason you mention. The PinkRhino is usually cited as the best of these, but they aren’t great either. You really want one of the bore sights that inserts into the barrel (Sight Lite) or one that is magnetic and sticks to the bore (Sightmark). BUT, these are not foolproof either, they’ll get you into the ballpark. Truthfully, nothing susbtitutes for spitting lead down range
Click to expand...
For sure. I have a Brownells universal bore sighter. It goes in the barrel and there are different size bushings. You put it in and screw the sight clockwise until it gets tight. It will get you close, but that's it. Frankly 3" off the bull is still on the paper, which is the only thing I would use a bore sight for anyway.

With ARs you can get pretty close just taking the upper and removing the BCG and clamping it down and sighting through the barrel.
 
Thanks...like I said it was a whim-purchase while walking through some junk aisles recently. I noticed how bad it was after using it to pre-zero a new red dot on a pistol, getting to the range and bench-firing WAY off target. Made me think to spin that little bastard in the chamber and bingo...it's crap.

Simon mentioned Sitemark, that is the brand of the unit I bought...but mine is a battery-powered "cartridge" that inserts in the chamber, and subsequently aligns way off the mark. I'll forget I ever thought it was a good idea. Maybe I'll put it on E-Bay and sell for $100 to some schmuck.
 
Certainly for zeroing a red dot I actually enjoy doing it at the range. When I had my first one I got myself so far off zero, I didn’t know how to get back home. Now I know how much to turn the windage or elevation adjusters to get X amount change at a given yardage. I like to see how few rds I can use to get the dot zeroed. Typically, 6 or less.
 
My Sitemark I used initially on a red dot/pistol combo...before I knew about their inherent inaccuracy. Got me on paper at 30'...but no better. Then I used on iron sights (same pistol), and the windage was off 3-4" at 25 yards for iron sights at mechanical zero. This made me doubt everything. I then spun the laser cartridge 180, and the sights were off 3-4" the other direction. That was enough for me to realize that 16-MOA for any sight assist is worthless...to me anyway...
 
Here’s a good article on someone’s idea of the best 5 laser bore sighting equipment, I say that because it’s obviously subjective.

www.pewpewtactical.com

5 Best Laser Bore Sights [Hands-On Tested]

Boresights make zeroing a lot easier, but not all boresights are created equal! Take a look at our top picks and save yourself time and money!
www.pewpewtactical.com www.pewpewtactical.com

It should also be obvious that cost of the particular bore sight equipment makes a big difference in your results.

When I had (5) AR platform rifles I picked up a SightMark for the respective calibers and found the one I purchased for my .308 AR10 to be the most accurate, the laser for my 5.56 was second and the one I picked up for my .300BO was horrible. Just so it’s said these were all in bore units.

I’m a great researcher so I read a lot of articles on how to instructions for laser bore sighting but received the best information from a guy at my LGS.
What he told me what works best for him,
Hold your firearm muzzle down as vertical as possible and drop in your turned on bore sight, slowly lower the bolt, pull the bolt back and lower again, do this 3-4 times. Don’t drop the bolt like your loading a live round as that will most likely cause the bore sight to be enough off CTR to be way off at 25 yards.

I no longer own any AR’s but the laser bore sight I have worked fantastic in my M1A .308 it not only had me on paper at 50 yards when I was setting for zero on my Sig Sierra3BDX scope it had me 3/4 of an inch from bullseye, it took 5 rounds at 100 yards to sight in to my liking.
 
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