Point of Impact at 15yds?

[Joshua M. Smith]

Hello,

At 15 paces (about a yard per pace for me) I hit an average of 2.5" high, regardless of whether I'm shooting factory ammo, target wadcutter ammo, or 230gr LRN @ 800 - 830fps.

I need to know if this is correct. I had to do some sight work a while back, and I believe I may be hitting a bit high.

The RIA's front sight had some flash on one side, which threw my picture off, and so I took the flash off. Seems they used the flash to sight the thing in :butthead:

Anyway, where do you impact at 15yds, for a pistol sighted in for 25yds?

Thanks,

Josh <><

[Deadman]

sounds as if your pistol is sighted in or regulated to a 6 o'clock sight picture.
if you hold and sight at the bottom of the bullseye, a six inch target would put you dead on.

Ed Brown sets his sights up this way.

[niemi24s]

At 15 paces (about a yard per pace for me) I hit an average of 2.5" high, . . . Anyway, where do you impact at 15yds, for a pistol sighted in for 25yds?If you're saying the 25yd point of impact (POI) coincides with the 25yd point of aim (POA), then at 15yds the POI for a bullet at 815fps would be about 1.0" above the POA. This is just the difference in bullet drops figured from gravity and ignores any aerodynamic effects.

The extra 1.5" you observed may well come from differences is how the gun's being fired, as it only takes about 0.018" more muzzle flip to account for it.

But, if you're saying the gun's sighted in at 25yds for a 6 o'clock hold on a sizeable bullseye, then none of the above is meaningful.

Regards

[Joshua M. Smith]

Hello,

No, I'm saying it was all way too high because I took flash off the front sight.

I went out today with 230gn softball at around 830fps and got the rear sight filed down so that the weapon is now well regulated. I can put the bullet through a target spot the size of an eye at 15yds, or bounce around a coffee can at 50.

My concern before doing this was that perhaps the .45 had such a rainbow-like trajectory that it was supposed to hit that high at 15yds to be on at 25. But my experiments didn't bear this out.

Thanks, gents!

Josh <><

[berkbw]

The gun will have a "rainbow" trajectory, and one either uses a fudge factor or a file for his/her favorite mid-point range.
b-

[Frank]

The .45 ACP may have a "rainbow trajectory", but it's not that severe at normal handgun distances. As niemi24s say, if POI coincides with POA at 25 yards, the gun will hit about an inch high at 15 yards. And based on Speer ballistic tables, their 230 grain FMJ Lawman brand .45 ACP (with a muzzle velocity of 845 fps) when zeroed at 25 yards would hit 2.3 inches low at 50 yards. While these deflections could be significant for precision applications, like Bullseye competition, they are for most practical applications. So for self defense, with a 25 yard zero, one can pretty much ignore distance from contact to, say, 30 -35 yards.

DVC

[Joshua M. Smith]

Thanks folks.

Problem's fixed.

Still want to get new sights down the road, but that'll wait for a while - I've discovered reloading :D and I'm still young enough that I can see the military front sight, though it's starting to get a bit harder (I'm 31).

Thanks again,

Josh <><