Center or 6 o'clock hold and zeros for 22, 38 and 45

Which do you prefer, 6 O'clock or center hold. Any difference between iron sight and red dot and why?  Assuming you shoot both the long and short line, what distance do you zero your pistol for? 25 or 50 yards? Are the zeros specific to the cartridge and sight type? Do you adjust the sights or hold from 25 to 50 or ? And for those who shoot 185's on the short line and 200's on the long line with the 45, any sight adjustments?  I am shooting 22 standard velocity, 2.7 BE 148 HBWC, and 4.0 200 Gr SWC/200. No 185 gr load yet, just got bullets after waiting 2 months.

A lot of questions with many commonalities so I asked all in one. Hope you don't mind. 

I am going to bench test the 22, 38 and 45 in the new week, but would like to benefit from the collective experience of all on this forum. Thanks in advance.

Fine white/line 6 o’clock. Never liked center hold when I was younger and these older eyes really hate center hold now. Sub 6 I vertically string them. Have fun!
Jon

Red dot hold in the center period.

If you can see enough contrast between the front sight and the black of the bull, then center hold is a good choice.

Deep Sub-6 if you can't. You will be able to clearly see the sights against the white background. Don't worry about where you are holding on the target, start out aiming for the middle of the white below the bull. You are working on sight alignment (front to rear notch) not location on the target. As you get better and your hold becomes more stable you may find your POA rising closer to the bull. If it happens, that's fine, but don't force it. You should hold low enough that the top of the front sight never moves into the black.

6'Oclock for Irons.  
You can hold "A ball on a post"
Or  you can hold "A flat tire"
Or you can hold "A thin white line"
Or you can hold "Sub 6"
Irons,  LOOK AT THE FRONT SIGHT

Any one is a good one.  Center hold is tough because its black on black.  

For a Dot sight, I hold center.   I stare at the X so my shot goes to the X.   Dot sight, I look at the target.   Kind of like throwing a ball, look at where the shot is going.   It takes a while to settle on one thing and perfect it.  Once you get what you  want, don't change every week, stay with it.  Perfect it.  

Shooting 45, I need to adjust 6 clicks from 25 to 50 yards on a Bomar sight.  I need to adjust the dot sight too, about 4 minutes.

Rimfire, I do not adjust the sight, Iron or Dot.

David

The OP (and others) might be interested in an article by Dr. Norman Wong (xmastershooter on this forum), that I have in a set of pages by him:

Iron Sight Visual Perception Under The Open Sun

Some of our other forum members provided info for his article.

If you go to the topics list link near the top left of the page, you can see other articles by Dr. Wong, including red dot research.

In addition, an author advanced search for him on here will get you some of his posts on this topic from the past.

Just a little piece, I prefer center hold with irons but can't do it indoors due to lighting. I am able to do it outdoors. I wear progressive lenses so got a set of glasses made without the progressives and the focal point set for the front sight. The bull is fuzzy so I can see the front post clearly. I find that works for me.