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Having only shot the 50' Gallery Course indoors, I'm now about to compete in my first outdoor NMC.

How do shooters deal with the different target distances between SF (50 yds.) and TF/RF (25 yds.)?
Do they change their sights to pre-determined settings?
Or do they zero for 25 yds. and adjust their point of aim for 50 yds.?
If zeroed for 25 yds., approximately how much additional drop should be expected at 50 yds.?

Thanks,
Mark

I have to assume that you are talking iron sights. Typically the 22 Rimfire needs little or no change between the 25 and 50 yard lines. This is because at 25 the bullet is arcing upward but at 50 the bullet is now arching downwards. The difference between these two trajectory arcs is approximately 1/2". Not enough to make a sight change. But if you're talking a .45 then you will have to make sight changes. With your sights set for a 25 yard zero, you will have to come up 4-5 clicks with a Bo-Mar style sight for the 50 yard long line. Then when you return to the short line for timed and rapid, you'll have to remember to remove those click adjustments (4-5 clicks however many you put on your sight) to be dialed in for the 25 yard line. All these adjustments are for a shooter using the same aiming point on both the 25 and 50 yard targets.

There are some shooters who instead of adjusting their sights change their aiming points. At the short line they aim at the six o'clock position on the aiming black. Then at the long line they change that point of aim to a center hold, or point of aim. I don't recommend changing aiming points for new shooters because they can get easily frustrated by making changes. Especially if their performance is a little off this can have major negative consequences to a match.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

Bullseye,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I was talking about iron sights, but now I'm curious. How would your answer have been different if I had been talking about red dot sights?

Thanks,
Mark

NUCWO3
Bullseye, as usual, is dead on.
For my hardball gun with the Bomar sight it is 5 clicks down when going from 50 yards to the 25 yard line. I tried the different sight pictures but found it too confusing to be switching back & forth amongst all the other match details I was trying to pay attention to.

For the 22 no sight changes are necessary when going from 50 back to 25.

For my 45 wad gun (with a dot)I use 2 different loads which print to the correct zero at their respective ranges. 50 yards-210 gr H&G 68 with 4.4 gr WST crimped to .470. 25 yards outdoor and 50' indoor-either 3.5 gr Bullseye or 3.3 gr Hodgdon Clays with a 196 gr H&G 130 crimped to .468.

FWIW

NUCWO3 wrote:Bullseye,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I was talking about iron sights, but now I'm curious. How would your answer have been different if I had been talking about red dot sights?

Thanks,
Mark

Mark my measurement changes would've depended on the brand of red dot sight. Some have different MOA values per click. Bo-Mar sights have approx 1 minute per click adjustment. This means at 50 yards each click equals just a little under 1/2" shot movement for elevation, and exactly 1/2" at 50 yards for windage. So at 50 yards four to five clicks on the sight measures out at roughly 2-2.5" of elevation impact change.

Many red dot sights have a much finer adjustments and therefor may require more clicks per yardage change. You just have to know the MOA per your brand of optical sight.

R,
Bullseye

Just thought of something that I haven't mentioned before and don't recall seeing.

When you get a good zero at 50 yards, take your rear sight ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM WHILE COUNTING THE NUMBER OF CLICKS then jot that number and the load used down in a place where you won't lose it. I do this with my hardball gun and my Hi Power rifle for 100-200-300-and 600 yds. All range notes are written down in # of clicks from being bottomed out.

For instance I know the number of clicks for WCC90 hardball is 52 clicks up from the bottom. My longline load for 210 bb with 4.4 gr wst is 50.

Most of you probably already knew this, but there's probably a few that didn't.

FWIW