Video: Zeroing an AR Platform Rifle

In the video below, Paul Harrell goes through the motions of sighting in an AR type rifle — but not before he addresses some viewer complaints, in which some people were whining about a previous video in which Paul compared an AR to a Mini 14.

If you’re not interested in a urinating match between Paul and his commenters (I wasn’t) skip the first five minutes of the video. For real.

He starts with the A1 version, giving a summary of how the sights are set up, how to reset them to “mechanical zero,” and how to make sure you turn the front sight in the proper direction. Then he explains ballistics a bit and actually zeros the rifle by shooting first at 25 and then at 300 yards.

From there, he shoots at 100 yards to demonstrate the difference in point of impact with the long range and short range rear sight apertures.

After that, he moves on to the A2, which he happily notes is exactly the same, “except for the fact that it’s completely different.”

He starts out by providing textbook info, which is what worked pretty well for the A1. Then he acknowledges that the textbook falls short with the A2, so he demonstrates the way he does it with his A2 rifle. I’ll spare you a summary here; just watch the video to see how he does it.

Have fun!

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.