Hey guys,

Just got my first AR and the guy at the gun store offered to sight it in for me for a fee. Not bore-sight, but sight in the irons. I had always heard that you have to sight in your own gun as it will be different for each person. Is that not true? If the store sights the irons in for me at 50 yards will that work the same as if I did it myself?

Thanks!

Theoretically if everyone uses the sights the same way, it makes no difference who sights it in.  However, everyone does not use their irons the same way.  Plus, why pass up the opportunity to learn something about your gun and how it works?  You need to do it yourself.

Your eyes and perception will be unique to yourself.  Somebody may be able to help you dial it in close, but it's up to you to make suitable adjustments.

Can the shop do it for you, sure.  

IMO, its your rifle, you should be the 1 to sight it in.  If you dont know what you are doing, have someone who does come with you.  

OR... if you just dont want to, dont have time to, whatever, then again, have the shop do it.  


IMO, it would be like buying a brand new vehicle and the salesman saying he can put the 1st 100 miles on it for ya.

OP, it'll be close enough to qualify out to 300 m.  

For "minute of man" work,  it'll be fine. But for any precision shooting, it needs to be zero'd by the shooter.

Yeah, they can zero  it for you, but it won't be exact, close, but not exact.

If they were going to do it for free...range on site or such...I guess it couldn't hurt, but I wouldn't pay a penny for that service.  Then you could go to the range and do a confirmation or fine tune for your use.

However for me personally, I don't think one should own a firearm that they don't take full charge of when it comes to sighting and other factors that the firearm owner should have full, 100% responsibility for.  I think there is some latitude for allowing scope installation on a firearm by a qualified 3rd party, but the sighting in should be performed by the owner.  This provides knowledge to the owner and the required responsibility by the owner whenever that firearm is used in the field.

OP, if you don't handle this step on your own or with the assistance of someone present to guide you while you do it, I think you are missing out on a critical learning element in your firearm.  Firearms are not kitchen appliances that one should just plug in and start using.  While some kitchen appliances can kill or injure people with some ridiculous, negligent use, firearms are at a whole other level of danger and responsibility.  Know your weapon and how to use it to the best of your ability.  Otherwise pick a safer activity.

To directly answer your question, yes they can. If they dial it in perfectly at 50 yards, it should be very close for you too. Congrats on the new AR.

Optically speaking, irons zeroed by one person should be zeroed for everyone. The reason people say zero is unique to each individual is if the zero compensates for consistently moving the gun up/down/left/right when you pull the trigger.  For example, on a pistol if your trigger control is bad and you keep pulling left, then shifting the sights rightward will make you 'zeroed' but that's addressing one problem with another.

Take note, if you ever put a red dot on there, the zero WILL shift between a person wearing contacts, another wearing glasses, and another having good eyesight. Reason is that glasses, depending on thickness and material, bend different colored light differently (called chromatic aberration), and red is one of the "most bent" colors just like in a prism. This is not commonly known but something to consider.

It could be pretty much dead on already, just by luck. My scope was within 2" out of the box, without even truing the receiver Sighting it in is the fun part, don't let someone else do it.

The shop can get you on paper, but its up to you to be able to make the proper adjustments to zero in your sights. You want to own an AR? You should learn to zero your own weapons. Nothing worse then going to the range and you cant even adjust your own sights.

In theory if you memorize your zero adjustments  on an a2 upper from mechanical zero any one can zero your ar a2 for you over the phone.

just start at mechanical zero

this is correct

We did that with the A1s.....

This was their first time shooting the rifle. They may not even understand how to line up irons or where to put their cheek. From the high variance evidenced in bottom row, I'm not even convinced that the difference in first shot placement are due to shooter differences rather than overall poor shooting form of all the participants...

I bet if you did an experiment with experienced shooters, their group would all be much closer to the same spot..

Congratulations on the new gun.  

Gun store sounds very accommodating.


You are correct that the sight picture for you will be different from someone else, so what the gun store does for you may still require some fine-tuning, but the sights should be adjusted so that you are at least "on the paper" of the target and just need to make minor adjustments to get it to suit you.