Letting someone borrow your rifle and sighting in

RolandtheHeadless

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I had a discussion recently with someone on another forum and want to see if there is any sort of consensus here. The question is whether, when borrowing someone else's rifle, you should always check the scope sighting to find out where it shoots for you.

I say that everyone's cheek-weld is different, everyone holds their eye at a slightly different position, and grips the stock in a different way, so all of these variables mean that a rifle perfectly sighted-in for one shooter is not likely to be perfectly-sighted in for anyone else.

The other guy says I'm full of it. Once a rifle is sighted-in, he claims, it's sighted-in for everyone. Anyone can pick up anyone else's rifle and hit the bullseye. This guy claims that he's lent his rifles to dozens of other shooters, ranging down to inexperienced school-girls, who then killed deer at 800 yards with one shot without adjusting the sights.

I'm not interested in talking about his ridiculous yardage claims, just the issue of whether a rifle sighted-in for me would also be sighted-in for you. In other words, would you borrow someone's rifle and use it without test-firing it first?
 
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I would certainly suggest doing so, as I have borrowed rifles before on hunts and not only have I wanted to check it our but the outfitter or owner of the gun also wanted me to check it out.
 
You're on the right track here. If I borrow your rifle I'd certainly want to know how it shoots, and would check it for myself. Prudence dictates any responsible hunter would do the same. Did the phrase "trust me" come up from the gentleman in your discussion?
 
I've posted this before. Rifles almost always shoot better than the shooter shooting them. Will a rifle have a POI an inch or two different between shooters on the bench at 200 yards or 300 yards? Maybe. The question is, can the shooter put that rifle on the sticks and hit a paper plate at 200 or 300 yards?
 
You are correct for all the reasons you listed plus there is the not so unimportant confidence factor of knowing you will be hitting where you aim. Your detractors are the ones who are full of it as clearly evidenced by "inexperienced school-girls, who then killed deer at 800 yards with one shot without adjusting the sights."
 
With respect to everyone who has ever used a others rifle.......shoot it yourself a couple of times! If for no other reason than to get the feel of that particular weapon.
 
......... This guy claims that he's lent his rifles to dozens of other shooters, ranging down to inexperienced school-girls, who then killed deer at 800 yards with one shot without adjusting the sights.

Sadly that is the kind of blather that makes me discount this idiots opinion in its entirety. On to more important things.

...... In other words, would you borrow someone's rifle and use it without test-firing it first?

Never.
 
Definitely fire the rifle first.
 
Absolutely POI can change, fairly significantly in some cases, between different shooters on the same rifle.
 
POI doesn't change ... it is simple physics. Shooter's abilities are variable ... but the scope is attached still attached to the same rifle using the same ammunition. Changing the POI for different shooters is the ultimate example of chasing down the rabbit hole.

I have borrowed a number of rifles and all I feel that I needed to do is a couple of dry fires to get a feel for the trigger and I am good to go out to the zero hold over point for the rifle. I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to shoot a borrowed rifle before hunting but wouldn't worry about it if time permitted.
 
Absolutely POI will shift, especially between people of extremely different physical sizes. How the rifle is shouldered, how the head is positioned in relationship to the scope, how the rifle goes through recoil, where pressure is put on the stock, etc all play a role in POI without stepping on the toes of simple physics.
 
People are not vices. They may have several, but they are not vices.
 
On a scoped rifle, POI should not change. Open sights and the POI can seem to change significantly simply because of the larger number of variables (outlined by folks above). That said, remember every English double and most bolt rifles left the maker regulated for a particular load with FIXED sights. All that said, I would never use a borrowed rifle without checking POI. Anything could have happened to it since its last range session.

And Brickburn - I am laughing out loud. Though you are showing signs of becoming a curmudgeon.
 
Wayne a CURMUDGEON ........no way!
Haven't heard anyone called that in a long long time!
 
POI doesn't change? My experience has been that it doesn't change between shooters, at least not appreciably. However I'd say that experience is fairly limited.

A recent trip to the range says this isn't always true. I took my wife to the range a week ago. We took my son's .308, largest caliber she has shot but it's quite reasonable in regards to recoil. I had sighted this rifle in back at Christmas time for the load we were shooting. Sure enough it was shooting right where I expected.

I let Donna take over. She's shooting nice tight groups. But the groups are right at 2" higher than where I shot. After about 10 rounds, I think she's had enough. She's shooting well and no flinching, no need to push this any further. But I've got rounds left and I'm curious. So I get behind the rifle and shoot right next to my first shot. This was using the same bag setup.

I can't imagine why whether you be the borrower or the lender what could possibly be wrong with the intended user of the rifle taking a few shots and making any adjustments that may be needed.
 
And I suspect that was at 100 yards Phil? Now imagine that difference at 300 or more. What you saw is pretty common!
 
When I am allowed to shoot the Blondes rifle a Varberger 7x64 I am 2 inches high and one to the right of her POA...

Only once had a girl that shot to my POA.... Lily ....so just to check tried it with all three guns ...... and she was POA .......

The Blonde is usually low shooting my rifles
 
And I suspect that was at 100 yards Phil? Now imagine that difference at 300 or more. What you saw is pretty common!

Yes, it was at 100 yards. Horizontally she was the same. Virtually a straight vertical line between her shots and mine. I don't think she was doing anything wrong either as her groups were pretty tight. In fact, I was approaching this as more of a recoil desensitizing activity versus having any expectations regarding accuracy, but she did well with both and am confident with a steady rest she'll be fine out to at least 200 yards.
 
I have sighted a number of rifles for people. But how people hold their rifle through the shot and handle recoil can effect shot placement a lot!
I have had a number of people tell me their gun is "sighted" in and I shot and could barely hit a pie plate at 50 yards. One person's view of gun sighted in versus another person is whole different story. A person should always fire a weapon before use it.
So far in Africa, when I fired other people's rifles, they were spot on for me!
 
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