Sighting in a new rifle

[griffiga]

I'm in the process of buying a plains rifle from one of the forum members. The rifle has been test fired, but not sighted in. My question to you forum members. Windage is going to be via tapping the rear sight and elevation by filing down the front blade. What recommendations do you have for distance? Right on at 50? 100? I will use it for hunting, but mostly for target/fun. I'll be shooting patched round ball.

 

[Ames]

Utah, huh? Wide open space? Whats your hunting distance? I set mine for 50 yards cause that's all you get in this part of Maine.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Find your best / most accurate load first (following Dutch's system, just getting it close, but slightly low), and then sight it in for the longest practical distance you are likely to limit yourself to (for a hunting usage). If it's primarily intended for paper shooting, then that distance as the one you compete or shoot the most often, with the hold you most often use (center of mass hold, or 6:00 / sub-6:00 O'clock round bull hold), in the position you shoot the most often.

Then shoot it at the other distances with that load to find out where it prints.

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

I agree in general with Col. Batguano above... But I would add that if it's a NEW barrel, you'll want to put "a lot" of lead balls through her before you start to file that front site down. How much is "a lot?" I've never figured that out... but folks say that you need to break in a new barrel, which I take to mean that you need to have enough shots through it to wear down small burrs or imperfections before you start to file that front site. It's easy to take that site down too much, so when you are starting to get to that fine-tune stage, one rub with the file followed by several shots, then repeat.... Don't "have at it" with several strokes, else you'll reduce the front site too much and have to replace it.

 

[griffiga]

Also to mention, the barrel is .54 caliber with a 1 in 56 twist. That being said, although I intend to use PRB, would it stabilize a heavier bullet?

 

[erhunter]

If you are going heavier, like a conical, I would look at the shorter ones rather than the elongated bullets. Shorter bullets stabilize quicker than long, heavier ones in a slow twist barrel.

 

[hanshi]

Small game rifles I use get sighted nearly dead on at 25 to 30 yards. Deer calibers get sighted around 2" high at 50 yards. This gives a point blank range of 100 yards (my outside limit) so no hold over or under is needed.

 

[griffiga]

I agree in general with Col. Batguano above... But I would add that if it's a NEW barrel, you'll want to put "a lot" of lead balls through her before you start to file that front site down. How much is "a lot?" I've never figured that out... but folks say that you need to break in a new barrel, which I take to mean that you need to have enough shots through it to wear down small burrs or imperfections before you start to file that front site. It's easy to take that site down too much, so when you are starting to get to that fine-tune stage, one rub with the file followed by several shots, then repeat.... Don't "have at it" with several strokes, else you'll reduce the front site too much and have to replace it.

Has anyone ever tried a lapping compound? I've tried steel wool wrapped around a cleaning patch with some oil to clean out a neglected bore with decent success.

 

[griffiga]

Small game rifles I use get sighted nearly dead on at 25 to 30 yards. Deer calibers get sighted around 2" high at 50 yards. This gives a point blank range of 100 yards (my outside limit) so no hold over or under is needed.

I was thinking somewhere along these lines. With my Sharps .50-70, I'm an inch or two high at 50, pretty much on at 100 which requires a slight holdover for 125 or 30. Ballistics are probably somewhat similar the muzzle loader.

 

[mooman76]

Has anyone ever tried a lapping compound? I've tried steel wool wrapped around a cleaning patch with some oil to clean out a neglected bore with decent success.

I usually don't but most of mine were bought used. I did get a 36 used and it was just destroying patches and accuracy suffered some. I used a J.B. bore paste and it improved it allot. Still needs some work but even though I bought it used, I don't think it was ever broke in.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

There was an article in a related magazine a couple of years ago about how to sight in a new rifle. Right out of the box the author picked a random load and set the sights for that. He recommended putting a scratch mark on the barrel in the direction to move the front sight as a reference point and filing down the front or rear sight to get the point of impact right. The scratch on the new barrel would be covered up when the sight was moved. Right about then I decided I wasn't going to subscribe to that particular magazine. I guess the author never thought of using a pencil to make a reference mark rather than putting a permanent scratch on a new barrel. I guess he never thought of finding a good load after a lot of shooting, as mentioned above, before filing off the sights. There is some good advice above this post. Just make sure you know what you want to do before you do it. Don't ask me how I know this is true!☹

 

[roundballman]

I agree with about 2" high at 50 yrs. You are good out to 100 with that sight picture and I won't shoot further than 100.

 

[Critter Getter]

I like to shoot a 3” bullseye offhand at 50 yards with a 6 o’clock hold so that would be 1 1/2” high. I shoot my deer under 50 yards. Greg

 

[griffiga]

There was an article in a related magazine a couple of years ago about how to sight in a new rifle. Right out of the box the author picked a random load and set the sights for that. He recommended putting a scratch mark on the barrel in the direction to move the front sight as a reference point and filing down the front or rear sight to get the point of impact right. The scratch on the new barrel would be covered up when the sight was moved. Right about then I decided I wasn't going to subscribe to that particular magazine. I guess the author never thought of using a pencil to make a reference mark rather than putting a permanent scratch on a new barrel. I guess he never thought of finding a good load after a lot of shooting, as mentioned above, before filing off the sights. There is some good advice above this post. Just make sure you know what you want to do before you do it. Don't ask me how I know this is true!☹

Why you would want to mar a new barrel is beyond me. However, I guess it's like the tall guy that kept hitting his head going through the doorway, so he put up a permanent sign saying, "Duck Head." By the way Cisco, are you by chance a "snowbird?" I noticed you residence was Alaska and Arizona. My parents were snowbirds down in Mesa for the winter for twenty some odd years before my mom got Alzheimer's, I missed going down to visit. Back then there was nothing much past Power Road until you got to Apache Junction. I'd always take my muzzle loaders out among the cactus and cat's claw and blast away as there was nothing there. Last time I was there there were houses being built in my shooting spot.

 

[longcruise]

Has anyone ever tried a lapping compound? I've tried steel wool wrapped around a cleaning patch with some oil to clean out a neglected bore with decent success.

I get bashed every time I post this but, I'm used to it.

Most new barrels benefit from some lapping. The fastest and easiest way to do it is firelapping. Get a specified fire lapping compound. NOT valve grinding compound or any other compound. Get firelapping compound. Follow the instructions!! Wipe the bore thoroughly between shots. Buy a conical mold for the bullet source. I used to suggest purchasing 25 or more conicals for the job but you can get a Lee mold for less than the cost of bullets and you can sell the mold when you are done with it.

The alternative is to fire three or four hundred balls to get it conditioned and i always get told that shooting is fun and that's the way to do it. My view is that it's more fun to shoot those three or four hundred balls from a conditioned barrel than from one that is slicing and dicing patches.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Why you would want to mar a new barrel is beyond me. However, I guess it's like the tall guy that kept hitting his head going through the doorway, so he put up a permanent sign saying, "Duck Head." By the way Cisco, are you by chance a "snowbird?" I noticed you residence was Alaska and Arizona. My parents were snowbirds down in Mesa for the winter for twenty some odd years before my mom got Alzheimer's, I missed going down to visit. Back then there was nothing much past Power Road until you got to Apache Junction. I'd always take my muzzle loaders out among the cactus and cat's claw and blast away as there was nothing there. Last time I was there there were houses being built in my shooting spot.

Yep, still a snowbird. PM on the way if I can make it work.

 

[dkasprzak]

I like to shoot a 3” bullseye offhand at 50 yards with a 6 o’clock hold so that would be 1 1/2” high. I shoot my deer under 50 yards. Greg

I do the same as @Critter Getter, 1-2” inch high at 50 and limit my shots to 50 yards. I actually use a range finder when hunting.

I suggest you get Dutch’s book, start with a powder charge 1.5 times bore size, a ball and patch combination that matches bore size. Start out at 25 yards, develop the best group you can at that distance BEFORE you adjust the sights. Once you have the gun grouping you can move the group to the bullseye (or where you would like to hit).

Dutch’s book explains all of this, it worked for me and I highly recommend it.

 

[SDSmlf]

I'm in the process of buying a plains rifle from one of the forum members. The rifle has been test fired, but not sighted in. My question to you forum members. Windage is going to be via tapping the rear sight and elevation by filing down the front blade. What recommendations do you have for distance? Right on at 50? 100? I will use it for hunting, but mostly for target/fun. I'll be shooting patched round ball.

In my experience with 54, 58 and 62 caliber muzzleloaders I have that with a charge of 3F Swiss between 80 and 100 grains I am 2”- 3” high at 50 yards and I am usually around 2”- 3” low at 100 yards. Dead on zero is usually around 85 yards. With this ‘standard’ sight in setup I can usually find a light accurate load that works out to 50 yards or so for practice or small game. Beyond 100 yards your range estimating becomes very critical. I have found that at 125 yards I will be 8”- 12” low, depending on the exact load. At 150 yards 15”- 20” low, and at 200 yards, 48” or more low is typical.

With a ‘new to me gun’, I would concentrate on accuracy loads (group size). With a 54 caliber, probably start at 25 grains at 25 yards, working up in 5 grain increments, figuring out tightest grouping load. Many times find it to be 50-60 grains. Then would confirm at 50 yards. Expect a ragged hole. This is my plinking load. Once happy, would move out to 100 yards and continue stepping up powder charge for that accurate hunting load. THEN I would start playing with sights. Just one more opinion.

 

[griffiga]

Has anyone tried this when sighting in their muzzleloader? I saw it on a post from another gun forum.

Place a target 13 yards away. Get a good rest, aim at the bull’s-eye and nudge the trigger. If the bullet is off the mark, adjust your sights and shoot again. Once you are taking out the X in the center of the bull’s-eye, you now have a rifle, which will be dead-on at about 75 yards, just a tad low at 100 yards and a smidgen high at 50 yards.

I'm guess a "tad" is around 3- 4 inches and a "smidgen" is about 1-2. I'm guess this is true because of the parabolic arc of the projectile.

 

[Old Hawkeye]

Has anyone tried this when sighting in their muzzleloader? I saw it on a post from another gun forum.

Place a target 13 yards away. Get a good rest, aim at the bull’s-eye and nudge the trigger. If the bullet is off the mark, adjust your sights and shoot again. Once you are taking out the X in the center of the bull’s-eye, you now have a rifle, which will be dead-on at about 75 yards, just a tad low at 100 yards and a smidgen high at 50 yards.

I'm guess a "tad" is around 3- 4 inches and a "smidgen" is about 1-2. I'm guess this is true because of the parabolic arc of the projectile.

The trajectory past 13 yards would depend on the weight & type of projectile & the amount of powder used, thus the velocity. Predicting a trajectory based on where an unknown load hits a target at 13 yards is a fool's errand.