How far?
Never really had a handgun with adjustable sights before. How far should one sight a handgun in at? And should I sight the laser the same distance?
I was thinking 15 yards or so.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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October 5th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
What your fixed-sight guns are sighted in at. Or the one of them you’re most comfortable with. No clue about the laser. Without knowing what I’m talking about, how much drop do you expect at a distance where you can still see the dot?
October 5th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
P.S. Or you could just do like Colonel Colt did. Sight them in at fifty yards and aim for their belt buckle. 😉
October 5th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
What kind of gun is it? I mean, is it a Smith .44 mag that you might hunt deer with? Or, is it an auto that you are going to shoot bullseye with? The use will determine the distance.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
P.P.S. Seriously, unless you’re a later-day Elmer Keith, knocking down elk at 300 yards with your hot .44s out of a 4-inch barrel, fifteen yards or point blank is good enough.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
obd, it’s a 1911 for concealed carry.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
15 yards is basically the same as 25 yards with iron sights on a handgun. Set the laser at the range you want to train with it at, 15 yards will keep you real close out to 25 yards again.
With a 25 yard zero, for your sights, your hits will be a couple inches low at 50 and 1-1/2 to 2 feet low at 100 yards.
(we are talking about the Gun Blogger 45, right?)
October 5th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Yeah, I’d sight it in close for a carry gun, further out for a competition/target gun.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
It depends on the ballistic arc of the cartridge you’d be using. Personally, I could see zeroing at a distance that’d give an “equalized”, or I suppose minimized, variance at the common shooting distances. That way you’d pretty much universally hit the target, only a inch or so high or low, with a dead-on hold.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Dr has the right idea.
The problem is, with a .45 ACP, to get an inch over and an inch under out to 50 yards, you’d have to sight it in at some odd distance – maybe 40 or 45 yards (just guessing). In that case, why not go all the way to 50? And if you go all the way out to 50, you’re now an 1inch and a half high at 25 yards, out of the upper “A” zone.
If you’re going to carry it and maybe compete with it sight it in for 15 yards and you’ll be right on at 25 yards too.
I expect that with the laser, you want to see magic holes appear on the dot. Sight the laser for your laser practice distance.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
You may have a tough time convincing the DA – not to mention a jury that you “were in fear for your life ” if you shoot the goblin at 15 yards(45 feet).
Masaad Ayub(sp?) usually shows a jury that 21 feet is a minimum distance to allow a potential threat to encroach into your “defensive” space.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
emfdl,
Fine advice for a primarily defensive gun. I don’t think that’s the intent here, though.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
If it is for concealed carry, are the adjustable sights snag free? If you already have a 1911 with snag free combat sights then I would carry it instead and use the adjustable sighted gun for other purposes which might require adjustable sights.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
“Masaad Ayub(sp?) usually shows a jury that 21 feet is a minimum distance to allow a potential threat to encroach into your “defensive” space.”
Ummm. No.
You’re referring to the “Tueller Drill” as popularized by Cooper, Ayoob and others. It shows that most attackers armed with an impact weapon can cover 21 feet in about 1.5 seconds.
When used as a defense, the Tueller Drill illustrates that the interval available to recognize a threat, draw, fire and incapacitate may be very brief. A second-and-a-half may easily be “inside” the response time of a defender, depending on circumstance (e.g., drawing from under a coat or inside a handbag.)
There is no “magic number” that defines your danger zone. That’s the point of the Drill.
Most 1911 shooters I know sight in at either 15 or 25 and call it square.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Well, you asked…..a 185 grain .451″ bullet with a ballistic coefficient of .110 and with a muzzle velocity of 1100 fps, which is pretty close to Cor-Bon ammo, has a point blank range zero of 86 yards assuming a target diameter of 6″ with a maximum point blank range of 103 yards.
OK, then.
FWIW, my carry guns are zeroed at 20 yards based on: 25-30 yards is probably the longest handgun defensive shot I’d ever have to make and a 20 yard zero keeps 45 ACP point of impact within 1″ of that at 30. Closer than 20 and POI isn’t significantly different from that at 20.
Here’s something to try: if your range configuration permits it, zero at your chosen distance, then, with the same sight picture, fire groups both moving in 5 yards at a time and moving out 5 yards at a time. Moving in you won’t see much difference. What you’ll see moving out is both drop and lateral dispersal, and at some point it’ll become a pattern rather than a group. With my students I use 8.5″ X 11″ copy paper on a larger cardboard backer, and when (about) 10% of the shots are off the paper that’s 10 yards past their maximum effective range, so zero for half that. Totally arbitrary, but it seems to work.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:53 am
If it is that Gun Blog 45, get some new non-adjustable rear sights that aren’t such sharp bastards. Those suckers hurt, and I can’t imagine they’d be comfortable/snag-free for carry. I can’t imagine needing adjustable sights on a carry gun.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I love this blog!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Thanks, Homer.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Greg,
No can do. Those are BoMar lo-mount knockoffs and the slide is machined to fit. As the joke goes: “Once you go Bo-Mar, you’ll never go back. At least not without a lot of welding and filing and refinishing.”
If one wishes to use it for CCW duties, knocking the sharp edges off the rear sight blade with a fine stone and touching up the results with Aluma-Black should do the trick.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
On anything that you are likely to own, 15 and 25 are both flat. Zero it for that. If you need more distance, you need more gun.