Sighting in new guns

What are some of the best options when sighting in new guns ? 
I have been looking at the various pistol rests available, Hyscore, MTM, Caldwell bags.
I would like to hear how you guys start off sighting in a new gun with iron sights or with a dot.
Ron

Aim red dot at target and pull trigger. Look where bullet hit. Make sight adjustment. Repeat until in X ring.
Start at 15 yds and when close move to 25 yds. No magic involved. Helps to have worthy pistol and good trigger control.
Jon

What Jon said.

Any rested zero will most likely NOT be the same zero from your hand

Jon Eulette wrote:Aim red dot at target and pull trigger. Look where bullet hit. Make sight adjustment. Repeat until in X ring.
Start at 15 yds and when close move to 25 yds. No magic involved. Helps to have worthy pistol and good trigger control.
Jon

I would change this a little.  Shoot 2-3 shots, if they are somewhat closely grouped then adjust accordingly.  At 15 yards they should be close to touching.
- Dave

Oops....sorry, I can typically sight in in 3 shots :l)
Jon

I can sight in with 1 shot. The second shot is just to confirm.   Works best with a dot/scope. Fire a shot with your dot in the center of target. Without moving the pistol and just adjusting the scope move dot/cross hairs to cover bullet hole. Your zeroed. Kinda. Now shoot it a bunch off hand and see where it really groups for you.

Len

LenV wrote:I can sight in with 1 shot. The second shot is just to confirm.   Works best with a dot/scope. Fire a shot with your dot in the center of target. Without moving the pistol and just adjusting the scope move dot/cross hairs to cover bullet hole. Your zeroed. Kinda. Now shoot it a bunch off hand and see where it really groups for you.

Len

Man you must have a hellofa hold!!!
- Dave

As my hold sucks I own a Hyscore pistol rest.  Turn the rest around backwards fire one shot.  Turn the rest around and clamp pistol in solid and adjust to where your POA was.  Now adjust sights to the bullet hold.  Not perfect but dang close.  This work when it is a new dot and maybe way off.  Now you can see where you are grouping offhand with your trigger pull and grip and tweek from there.  I do a lot of bench rest pistol and have another Hyscore modified that has a bag where the clamps were.  This lets me get my grip and also settle the heal of my hand on the bag.  Don't let the barrel touch the front support which can be tought with a revolver, but most of the time I can get the trigger guard on the support.  Burns the heck out of the padding they supplied so I replae thenm with heavy belt leather from a belt that must have shrunk.  Don

I have some big sheets of shopping bag paper... about 2 1/2'x 2'...   I put that up and fire a shot..  See where it is and adjust accordingly. I yuse my normal hold... because that's how I will be shooting it..  I normally get close, then do some training, and after some time you will start to see where your groups are centered, and can adjust from there. I always center groups, not shots...  my groups are not tight enough yet to rely on a single shot being right.

Thanks gents,
Good food for thought here. I have enough open land here I plan to start doing some outdoor testing.
Ron

Find a table, put a stool on it, put a pillow on the stool, rest your forearm (not the wrist) on the pillow and sight in.  Should be close enough so you can adjust your groups accordingly after you remove the stool.

Or you can do what I did in a leg match.  I got my 1963 Gold Cup back from Roddy on the day of the leg match.  It was zeroed before I gave it to him for a trigger dressup.  But I was unable to get it back prior to the match.  So with zero unconfirmed, I fired my first SF shot into the white waaaaay low left.  But I fired it with confidence.  The sights said it should be an X.  I cranked a bunch of up and right.  Next shot, another X by the sights, but really a 7 at 10.  Took a little up out and added more right.  Third shot a 9 at 9.  Cranked a bit more right.  4th shot a 10 and finished the match in good shape.  It pays to watch the sights.

Well, you need to do two things: sight it in and find out what ammo it loves. I use a modified HyScore Pistol rest (see images), which allows me to hold gun nearly as I would in a match and achieve an stable, repeatable hold for sight adjustment and load testing. It sure beats pulling out the Ransom Rest (the ultimate authority for load development). On range benches, I lean forward and rest my arm on the bench while gripping the pistol on the rest. My modified rest uses all-thread rod, nuts, and two 2X4s glued together: simple.

All 22s like different ammo. That said, be sure to try CCI Standard Velocity. Also similar is the SK Magazine stuff; accurate and of similar velocity. Attached some data.

I shoot three-shot groups in the sighting-in process; I figure I can hold the gun really still and execute three deft trigger pulls for three shots, enough to see where the gun is shooting and to make necessary sight adjustments. The process is usually very straight forward.

What is not mentioned is the importance of target type: for iron sights I use an inverted equilateral triangle (most precise target to use because the point of the triangle is centered over the front sight), and for red dots, I use a different circles (for 25 and 50 yards) for sighting. Examples are attached.

I think the target type very is important, especially how our minds evaluate minute spatial differences between the target and the sights (visual psychology, visual purple, and all that interesting vision stuff). In fact, I think there should be a white dot about the size of a nickel in the center of our bullseye; it would facilitate more precise aiming. I know, won't happen. Just thought I buzz. dipnet

Much the same way I modified one of my Hyscore rest.  I would like a rear bag that had no right side ear so I could snug the grip up against the left ear.  This petty well anchors the gun where there is no movement at all but since I am gripping the gun only with the right hand it can still recoil naturally.  I find the POI is then nearly the same when I shoot standing but of course the groups are a lot bigger and sometimes a little higher do to my poor repeatable grip.  This is a lot easier to use then my RR and due to the bench I have to mount the RR on at the range just about as accurate.  When testing bullets and loads for groups I like to take the dot off and put my 6X pistol scope on.  I shot NFAA Open Unlimated  target bow in the 70s and we had that white aiming dot.  Don