Even More On Boresighting

We are continuing our discussion on the Boresight. Specifically, we will be boresighting lasers. The reference for this is TM 9-5860-226-13&P dated August 2007. The boresight needs to be zeroed to the weapon prior to zeroing anything else. To learn how to zero the Laser Boresight, and why it is important to do this, reference the TTP Thursday post from last week.

Lasers are handled differently than the primary optic for the weapon. To set up the weapon for lasers, you will place the weapon in as stable a platform as possible with the boresight on its point on the offset. The Paratrooper does not need to hold the weapon, a gun vice or shadowbox will work.

Once that has been accomplished, you will then use the adjusters on the laser to adjust to the point on the target for the IR aiming laser. Always use the IR aiming laser, not the visible aiming laser. The IR is the primary laser you will use in combat, and even though they share the same optical bench, you want to zero the primary laser to the weapon.

The Paratrooper does not need to be behind the weapon at this point, as there is no ‘sight’ to look through. You are aligning two lasers to their points on the target.

Two people are required for this: the weapon man, and the target man. The target man looks at where the laser is hitting when the laser boresight is on its point, then they call out to the weapon man the adjustments to make, using the cheat sheet we talked about before. The weapon man makes the adjustments on the laser opposite the indicated directions, as they are set up for the strike of the round. The picture above illustrates this.

Once both the aiming laser and laser boresight are on their points, the PEQ-15 and -15A need to have a positive load applied to them. In order to do this, the Weapon man will adjust the elevation adjuster eight clicks in a counter-clockwise direction, then bring the dot back onto the target. This may be more or less than eight clicks, as the tension is different for every mounting configuration. The Weapon Man then does the same procedure with the windage adjuster. Picture twoshows how to do this.

The reason for doing this is to ensure that there is no slack in the springs in the internal adjusters that can potentially pop loose when the weapon is fired. It is the same reason we tap the turrets on an M150 RCO. Think of it like a ‘natural point of aim’ for the adjuster. That is where the springs are going to take it to, so we adjust to that position, just like we adjust to our natural point of aim.

Once that is done, the laser is considered zeroed to the weapon. Live fire confirmation at distance can be done, and is recommended, but it is not necessary. if live fire confirmation is done, remember to apply the positive load to the adjusters. For live fire, it is 8 clicks counter- clockwise, then 8 clicks back.

So to sum up, we’ve discussed how to zero lasers to the weapon with the Laser Boresight. Once the laser is on its point of aim on the offset, it needs to have a positive load applied to it. The positive load is like the ‘natural point of aim’ for the laser. And just like the natural point of aim for our firing positions, we have to adjust to that point to ensure we hit what we are aiming at. We will discuss how to zero thermals with the laser boresight.