In my opinion, those bore sighting tools are a joke. Or at least the vast majority of gun shop bore sighted rifles I've fired for people have needed adjustments. Some more than others, although your friends seem to be at the extreme. I've found that I can bore sight a bolt rifle just as well with my naked eye. Just pop out the bolt, center your target in the bore and then adjust your scope to match. This will at least get you on the paper. Always shoot your rifle and do the actual zeroing by hand. Never trust a bore sighted rifle. So shoot the rifle and zero it that way and don't worry about the gunshop bore sighting.