Sighting in a handgun (or rifle), what is the rule of thumb?

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  • WanderingSol07

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    The sights make a straight line out to infinity, the bullet path after leaving the barrel is ballistic trajectory. Since there is a bit of separation (vertically) from the sights to the barrel centerline the two are not parallel. If the sight line is a level line, then the barrel would send the bullet slightly up, intersecting the sight line, then over a distance the bullet will fall, intersecting the sight line again.

    Knowing the speed of the bullet and angle of the barrel one could compute the distance of the two intersection points. Halfway between the two points the bullet should reach its maximum altitude. I suspect the trajectory is so flat the maximum altitude is not much at all different than at the intersection points. What do you think?

    Normally are guns sighted in for the first intersection point? What distance would that be for handguns? 25 yards? 15 yards? Just depends on the gun and what you are doing with it? I believe rifles are usually at 100 or 200 yards depending on use and caliber.

    For grins let's say the first intersection point is 15 yards and the bullet drops to the second point at 50 yards. So shooting at something closer than 15 yards the bullet will impact slightly lower, between 15 and 50 yards the impact will be high, and after 50 it will be low again.

    Again, I suspect in practice the trajectory will be so flat the distance will be less than human capabilities of aiming.

    What got me thinking about all this is my wife just got a Ruger Mark IV 22/45 Lite with fiber optic front sight (not from factory). I had to turn the rear sight adjustment 20 clicks up for her to hit the bullseye at 15 yards. She was shooting a tight (2") group 6" low. I too would shoot 6" low, she does bullseyes with other guns.
     

    Ggreen

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    I don't think you would really notice any rise before the 15 yard range if that was your zero. I'm no marksman, but I don't notice a whole lot of difference from 5 yards to 25 yards when I am shooting my 9mm or 40sw... I have not shot them from a rest tho so my data is purely in the hand and non scientific. Dawson sights has a tool that you can use to order custom height sights to match your POI to your POA, the FAQ may go more indepth into the information your looking for.
     

    Hop

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    You should come to a Revere's Riders KD event where you'll get the real dope out to 400-500 yards.

    Check this out. One of the best zero explanations out there: [video=youtube_share;Klvve0ZG_jo]http://youtu.be/Klvve0ZG_jo[/video]

    It's all very barrel / ammo dependent though. Come up for my 18" Faxon barreled AR @ 400 is 8 MOA & 500 yds is 14.25 MOA (shooting ADI 69 grain SMK).
     

    ViperJock

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    Quality brand pistols typically come with factory sites zeroed at 25 yards. The sites and muzzle do not come perfectly perpendicular. Using a pistol the dot in the center of the front site is the aiming point which creates a slight downward angle. You do not hold a pistol with a 6:00 hold/site picture. Rifles with factory iron sites also have a slight decrease in angle.

    Bulletvrise is a misnomer for the point at which the downward angle of the sites intersect with the bullet trajectory. The bullet appears to rise since the sites start out higher than the muzzle. All objects fall at a rate of 9.8m/s2. The forward velocity of that object determines how far it travels per gravitational drop.
     

    ViperJock

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    In regards to aiming, if you zero a rifle st 50 yards and you are in your home 10 yards away from a hostsgectaking bad guy, you better understand the hold up at 5-10 yards for that rifle or your POI is going to be low. Pistols too but by a much smaller amount.
     

    WanderingSol07

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    More research on my part leads me to believe pistols are normally sighted at 25 yards, but the rise/fall of the bullet before and after 25 yards is quite small and not worth considering until quite some distance beyond 25 yards. Watching Hikock45 videos though shows that one can hit a man sized target at a considerable distance beyond 25 yards with a pistol. I also saw a video of guys shooting a .22lr rifle at 700-800 yards and hitting a steel target. I believe they said they were holding 6 feet above the target and wind was a major factor. All in all interesting, but not something handgun users need to worry about.
     

    ViperJock

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    That's an interesting article BehindBlueEyes. Makes you wonder.

    OP, Jerry Miculek has shot a revolver accurately at 1000yds. Of course there is some debate about whether Jerry superhuman. I personally have consistently hit torso targets out to 50 yards and once knocked a 8" steel circle over at 75yds in a match. It took me 3 rounds to hit, but still. And I'm not as good as a lot of guys I train with or competed against. Modern handguns can do the job.
     
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