Do I need to worry about using a bore arbor style laser sighter in my new custom barrel.I thought it would be OK since it is made of aluminuim.

Thanks in advance

Rsm, I really do not think so! I have heard so much bullshit about this or that thing harming a barrel, jointed rods come to mind...ridiculous, those rods are aluminum, they aren't picking up anything harder than your barrel if you are just cleaning the barrel...if you threw your rod down in the sand maybe....Barrel steel is very hard, in my experience it is hard to scratch them. Wear from shooting comes due to the extremely high temperatures mainly IMO...there are Mechanical and all other sorts of engineers who are members here, I mostly listen to machinists about steel and wearing it....you can rock and roll with your boresighter!

There are many available with plastic spuds. The greatest danger from an in-bore laser sighter is leaving it in and firing off a round...

Hey Rsm, If you have not spent the money to get one already, don't waste your money. You can Bore Sight it with the Bolt out,(or not even bother) take a shot at 25yds, adjust the Scope, another shot, adjust and the 3rd shot should be close enough to move on out to 100yds or beyond.

The only thing to remember is that when doing this at 25yds, you have to make 4x the number of Correction Clicks that you would have to make at 100yds.

I'm not a fan of things that provide little to no actual benefit. Just something else to have to take care of and is in the way.

quote:

Hey Rsm, If you have not spent the money to get one already, don't waste your money. You can Bore Sight it with the Bolt out

Lsst couple of time I sighted down the bore I was on paper at 100 yards on the first shot. For some reason, I've had better luck with this method then most guys do with a boresighter.

Fish, not so. Look up aluminum oxide, one of the hardest substances known, and every piece of aluminum forms the oxide within microseconds of being exposed to air.

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quote:
Hey Rsm, If you have not spent the money to get one already, don't waste your money. You can Bore Sight it with the Bolt out

+ 1

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Originally posted by brassbender:
Fish, not so. Look up aluminum oxide, one of the hardest substances known, and every piece of aluminum forms the oxide within microseconds of being exposed to air.

brassbender, it certainly sounds like you have knowledge I don't, I do know what aluminum oxide is, and certainly don't feel (based on experience) that any of the aluminum spuds or rods I have experience with have 'hardened' into anything approaching aluminum oxide, I KNOW I can nick these rods and spuds VERY easily with any number of shop tools (i.e. a screwdriver) but I realize that may mean nothing...I have had many machinists tell me that it is bunk that something like an aluminum rod or 'grit' that it picks up during barrel cleaning could ever damage a barrel....

I will re-iterate that I DO NOT have comprehensive knowledge on metals, just a fair amount of experience...I would never sweat putting a spud for a laser boresighter into my barrels, and have done so a bunch, and my borescope confirms there isn't any damage to any of my barrels other than throat erosion, which is gonna happen if you shoot em!

PS, I like my laser boresighters, the one I use now does have plastic spuds

if you are lucky and/or know what you are doing, a quality laser boresighter can save you a lot of time in a couple of ways. It is possible to do a 2 shot 100 yard zero if your first shot lands on the paper. This has been described ad infinitum on the packages of laser boresighters and online forums. In addition, those people who feel the need to chronograph their loads can use a boresighter to show exactly where their shots will pass through the sensor fields of their chronograph, avoiding errors and in extreme cases, wrecked chronies.

I use a laser boresighter on occasion and have found both these uses to be of value. I must also say that I swap scopes and barrels and etc. more often than most other shooters I know. My laser is a LaserLyte. I am not sure what metal it is made of. It has never harmed any of my barrels as far as I can tell. What all this has to do with cleaning I cannot tell.....................

Fish

Here's a quote, you decide:
Aluminum's signature advantage over steel is that it doens't rust, which makes it all the more surprising to learn that aluminum reacts with air even more rapidly than does iron. The difference is that aluminum "rust" is a tough, transparent oxide, also known as corundum, one of the hardest substances know. Exposed to air, aluminum instantly portects itself with a thin layer of this material, harder than the metal itself. (Theodore Grey, The Elements)

quote:

Originally posted by brassbender:
Fish

Here's a quote, you decide:
Aluminum's signature advantage over steel is that it doens't rust, which makes it all the more surprising to learn that aluminum reacts with air even more rapidly than does iron. The difference is that aluminum "rust" is a tough, transparent oxide, also known as corundum, one of the hardest substances know. Exposed to air, aluminum instantly portects itself with a thin layer of this material, harder than the metal itself. (Theodore Grey, The Elements)

Interesting stuff...I will say it must be very thin though, as I mentioned, all of my aluminum rods will nick VERY easily, and they are old, and have definitely been exposed to air!