Zeroing red dot through mirror

[Halfey]

I do not have a laser bore sighter so I tried zeroing my red dot through my bathroom mirror. (sorry, Im a noob!)

1. I sholder the rifle looking through the red dot at my reflection in the mirror.

2. I align the rifle so the reflection in the mirror is pointed streight alignment with my eye.

3. I adjust the elevation and windage on the red dot so the dot is sighted at the reflection of my red dot in the mirror.

I came up with this methoed. I have not yet shot the rifle to see if it worked.

Is this something that other people have done/tried?

Will it work?

Thank you in advance

2.

[CSACANNONEER]

What kind of rifle is it on? If it's on a bolt action or AR, just remove the bolt and sight down the bore (hence the term "bore sighting"). Pick something in the middle of the bore and adjust your optics to it. With an AR, you're doing this with the upper removed.

Or, you can just go to the range without any type of boresighting first. Put the rifle in a steady rest, aim at something at the distance you want to be zeroed at and fire. Pay attention to your point of impact. Now, re aim at your original point of aim. Without moving the gun (it needs to be in a rest system that allows you to do this. Sandbags can work.) adjust your POA to your initial POI. Now, re aim at your original target and fire. Your POI now should be as close to your POA as your rifle, optics and ammo allow.

[1lostinspace]

When you looked through the red dot was it off? did you have to adjust? Hmm that's very interesting but do to the fact your so close it will shoot high! You need to zero into your barrel! I hope that makes sense! You have to take the sight height into consideration!

[Halfey]

Sorry. Not a rifle it's a mossberg 500. Cannot look down the bore. When I first mounted my red dot it was clear that it was nowhere near zero. So this mirror methoed seems like it would work "on paper" but I have yet to shoot and see if it worked. Was just wondering if any one else has tried it before with success.

[Halfey]

@ 1lostinspace

the windage I'm certan is close to zero. I was thinking it may shoot high as well due to how close I was to the mirror.

[CSACANNONEER]

Sorry. Not a rifle it's a mossberg 500. Cannot look down the bore. When I first mounted my red dot it was clear that it was nowhere near zero. So this mirror methoed seems like it would work "on paper" but I have yet to shoot and see if it worked. Was just wondering if any one else has tried it before with success.

Zeroing optic on a 500 can be done the same way I described above. No pre shooting bore sighting is required. If you're good, it only takes one round to zero it and one round to confirm.

[Rolls-Royce]

Or, you can just go to the range without any type of boresighting first. Put the rifle in a steady rest, aim at something at the distance you want to be zeroed at and fire. Pay attention to your point of impact. Now, re aim at your original point of aim. Without moving the gun (it needs to be in a rest system that allows you to do this. Sandbags can work.) adjust your POA to your initial POI. Now, re aim at your original target and fire. Your POI now should be as close to your POA as your rifle, optics and ammo allow.

I've used this method to sight in scoped air rifles before. Works a treat!

[mnguyen84]

putting the mirror in front of your scope to zero it.. will give you an approx. as mentioned above. you have to zero it at the range

[Rolls-Royce]

Halfey, the mirror trick you mentioned will give you a rough optical centering of the sight but not a boresight. For that, the barrel bore and sight have to be looking at the same spot, and with your mirror setup, they really aren't. The barrel and sight are simply pointing straight ahead and not being converged to the same point in space.

[negolien]

feel your pain

I feel ya bud I had similar issues. I have a scope and a red dot/buis set-up. I have quick disconnect mounts on all but the stupid BUIS. I tried looking down the tube but honestly I must be a little blind cause I couldn't see crap thru that little hole lol.

The scope was pretty easy as I used the AR pepr mount so all I had to do was get the scope hairs up/down and she was on paper at 25 yards. Shooting high left. I then adjusted the scope and repeated until zeroed then moved it out to 50yards repeated and left there.

As for the Red dot and "iron sights"...I have the Magpul plastic POCs on the handrails that just happened to be on ummm BACK-WARDS. Needless to say that was a disaster even at 25 Yards. I finally gave up after realizing not only was there an issue with (me) the sights but that the FCG on this rifle I just bought was fubar. (TANGENT) The trigger would not reset after firing unless trigger was bumped or safety was bumped. Looked and pulled apart multiple times said screw it bought a Geissele Super 3 Gun (SD-3) trigger for um lol on sale but still over 150 bucks lol. Shoots fine now(TANGENT END).

It's worth the 30 bucks to get a bore sighter if you have multiple weapons and optics/sights. If it's just for a shotgun really it's not that neccasary unless your using slugs or somthing i think eh?As a side note I' am about to do a review on one so tune in.