Sighting in a new pistol

Sighting in a new pistol
I will be sighting in a new pistol shortly is it the consensus of this forum that I use a rest I have a Lyman
Padded rest that I can adjust or use two handed elbows on the bench to use as a rest

I prefer one handed with wrist on a sandbag or rest. This way it will still be sighted in when you lift your hand. Same recoil dynamics.

Hello xman,

I've never had much luck shooting from a rest.  I typically stand up on my hind legs and....

  take a couple of shots two handed
  scope the hits and make an adjustment (know your click adjustments)
  take a couple of shots two handed again to check the change
  switch over to one handed for the fine adjustment

Just a few more shots and you should be sighted in.

Jim

Personally hunching over on the table using a small sandbag or my range bag works well for dialing in the left-right but I need to do the elevation sighting while standing. At 25 yards on a B8 I'm usually a few inches high if I sight it hunched over and then stand & shoot. Must be something with drooping the head - I had presumed if the dot is in the middle of the optic then it wouldn't matter.

So instead I got a U stand used by hunters to support their guns. Adjustable legs. Mine has a tripod and goes from 2-5 feet so it works both on the table and almost tall enough to use comfortably standing. The wrist can rest in the U. Just my $0.02 (and about $75 for the stand). The right sized crutch like you use when you've hurt your leg could be an alternative.

LenV wrote:I prefer one handed with wrist on a sandbag or rest. This way it will still be sighted in when you lift your hand. Same recoil dynamics.

+1 for standing up! I use the hillbilly bullseye method! What’s that you ask?? I put a 5 gallon bucket on the bench then put an old range bag on top of it! It’s almost exactly like when I shoot offhand and the dope on the dot is damn near perfect

I’ll just do it off-hand at 25yds.

If it's a new setup I've never tried, I set the target at 15 yards, and use a large sheet of white paper as a target, with some hand-drawn  X  shapes on it to aim at.  I start in the middle, so I can see where the hole went even if the sight is WAY off.  I usually do this off-hand.

I sight pistols in at 50 and 25 yards off of a sandbag on handed. That way I get a very repeatable adjustment for 25 to 50 and back. For me this has been the best system because when I know the gun is properly sighted in and my adjustments are known to be repeatable my fundamental skills or lack thereof are readily apparent.

I normally just shoot slow fires with it at 25 yards to get an idea of where it’s hitting, make adjustments and then go to 50. I trust my way of shooting to get a zero off hand.

Tim:H11 wrote:I normally just shoot slow fires with it at 25 yards to get an idea of where it’s hitting, make adjustments and then go to 50. I trust my way of shooting to get a zero off hand.

Trust.  Good word.  Confidence too.  Don't sweat about the X ring so fast.  Find the gross zero on a large target face, maybe close in at 10yds just to find the target rather than the side of the barn.  After that, shoot groups in your training and practices.  Go for good shots seen in the sights.  Groups are your goal.  If your group is 4 oclock in the 7 ring, adjust your sights before your next group.  Shoot groups and adjust until you are in the center. 

However there is another time you need to trust differently.  Like when Roddy dressed up my Gold Cup trigger and time was short so I didn't get the gun back until the day of the EIC.  Gun was zeroed before, but the first shot was about 8 oclock in the 6-7 area.  But that first shot did look good in the sights.  I cranked the sights up and right.  Second shot a 8 at 10 and it too looked good in the sights.  Sights down a little and more right.  Third shot a 9 almost a 10 at 9.  A little more right.  Finished the target actually pretty good.

I’ve found the sticky that mentions John dryers recordings.There were no links on the Messages as they all had aged from 2012. I’ve pretty much practice all by myself and could use some audio assistance in my shooting . Does anyone have a set of rapid fire and timerd fire recordings that I can put on my phone I would really like a full commands timing and a horn or ding to stop my shooting. I have a new iPhone that I am just getting to learn the ins and outs of it.

Bullseye app has it all already.

As part of fundamental training exercises, shooters should incorporate firing from a rested position on a regular basis. Mostly to enable the shooter to really focus on grip or front sight or alignment, etc., without the distraction of wobble. The group size fron a rest is the goal for standing. So find something that works, usually 2 hands supported and don't rest the gun on anything, just the wrists or hands. Don't fret about location until you get a group. There are screws on the gun to move the group later. The rested sight in will usually suffice until the group develops when firing one handed, if you are really gripping the gun....
CR

For what it's worth given my skill set. 
Shoot a blank target one handed at 25 yd. adjust as needed. 
Then slow fire at 25 on the standard target. Fresh target for every 10 shot string, stapled over the last. After 5 or 6 strings, remove the targets and review the first one, make your final adjustments off that.
60 shots is a nice large sample size.

Best 
Arthur

I do it this way so I don't have to use the scope to get it close. I hang up the back side of a target with a quarter sizes dot on it @ about 10 yards.  I shoot offhand and do my windage adjustments and then set my elevation so I'm on the high side of the dot. I follow up at 25 or 50 yds for final adjustments.
- Dave