Red dot on Handgun

[9mmepiphany]

One, I've never ever shot a handgun from a rest so that'll be different. All shooting, recreational and military, were done from a standing position.

I come from an time where we zeroed our sights at 50 yards and we usually did it from a bench, resting on a bag, or from the roll-over prone. The point was to test the gun/ammo combination, not the shooter's ability to hold the gun

Using this method, anything over 4" was unacceptable and an accurate gun would usually do half of that.

A while back, a good friend of mine placed five 9mm bullets into 1.1" out of a SIG X-5 with a fitted Bar-Sto barrel

I never considered the variance provided by the fact that I use the front sight tip dot but maybe that would explain why I'm unable to group as well as others? I consider the shooting displayed above as "average"...you tell me.

If you cover the target with your front sight blade, your aiming area (error zone) is the whole area behind the blade.

By bisecting the target, you've immediately cut that area in half

here's my first range report where I dumped a 15-round magazine at 12 yards.

"Dump" is a relative word. I'd consider it above average if you were shooting as quickly as your sights returned onto target...so .20-.25 splits? It looks like you were tightening your grip during the string of fire or you were peeking at your target

A better test would be to shoot at a series of 1" circles or squares and only take one shot at each, then compare the relative shot placement between POA

[Munny$hot]

Very nicely done. Although I have trouble looking through a RMR without being distracted by the very slight glass image shift, I am considering doing a Leupold or Docter RDS. I really like the RMR because they're built like tanks and all the lighting option which are not found on other sights.

[Kwikvette]

I come from an time where we zeroed our sights at 50 yards and we usually did it from a bench, resting on a bag, or from the roll-over prone. The point was to test the gun/ammo combination, not the shooter's ability to hold the gun

I've yet to test a gun and ammo combination to find out what works best; but like someone said why treat our pistol any more different than our rifle? I'll have to run several different types of ammo first then to figure out what my FNX likes best.

If you cover the target with your front sight blade, your aiming area (error zone) is the whole area behind the blade.

By bisecting the target, you've immediately cut that area in half

Let me rephrase my statement; most guns I shoot with I place my dot over my intended POI. I can't remember which but I do recall one or two pistols that required me to use the blade to bisect my target per the owner's manual.

I'll have to go back and see if that's the case considering most of my shooting seems a bit lower than intended with this particular pistol.

"Dump" is a relative word. I'd consider it above average if you were shooting as quickly as your sights returned onto target...so .20-.25 splits? It looks like you were tightening your grip during the string of fire or you were peeking at your target

A better test would be to shoot at a series of 1" circles or squares and only take one shot at each, then compare the relative shot placement between POA

My shooting consisted of sending a round down range immediately after acquiring a sight picture.

I'll take your advice though with the series of 1" targets.

Edit: I've had this habit of squeezing the grip while I pull the trigger. It's much more apparent when I shoot my XD Tactical...

[9mmepiphany]

Edit: I've had this habit of squeezing the grip while I pull the trigger. It's much more apparent when I shoot my XD Tactical.

That will stop if you relax the thumb of your trigger hand

[Kwikvette]

That will stop if you relax the thumb of your trigger hand

I'll try that!

See, my shooting began as a kid from my old man. He's retired military (24 years army) so he taught me the way he was taught.

It didn't help that while in the corps, they pretty much reiterated what he showed me. As a rifleman, I was our company DM. For pistol well, we didn't focus much on accuracy. So long as you hit man-sized targets multiple times (while on the run too) in a high-stress environment with combat-load that's all that mattered. Done so in many positions as well (including under vehicles). With all that being said, it was always mentioned to have a high, and tight pistol grip.

[static2126]

I'm not an expert, but from personal experience I found that fairly close to the irons is a good thing for speed of pick up.

My friend put a similar set up on one of his Sigs and any speed one hoped to have with the pistol was pretty much gone using the red dot until we started using the irons to get on target and the dot for precision.

This. In the beginnimg especially use your irons to index the dot for speed. Then like Chuck said use the dot for precision

[static2126]

A better test would be to shoot at a series of 1" circles or squares and only take one shot at each, then compare the relative shot placement between POA

This is true. A fun game is to shoot the nickle sized shoot n see dots at 10 yards. One shot each

[Saym14]

dot torture drill - printable target

http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture

[Mute]

You do not need to co-witness on a pistol.