zeroing my bullseye gun

[GooseYArd]

Hi Guys,

A while back I zeroed my pistol on sandbags. Over the course of a few matches, I noticed that my groups were printing around 9 o'clock at around the 7 or 8 ring, and I compensated for it by moving the dot. After a couple of cycles of that adjustment my groups are centered on the X.

This weekend I put the pistol back on bags to shoot groups with some ammunition I was testing, and the groups print around 2 o'clock about the 9 ring or so.

It seems like the zero when i shoot on bags is not the same as when I shoot standing. I keep the targets at eye height when Im shooting off the bench of standing, so I don't think thats it.

It seems like I've either got a consistent pull to the left (which definitely happens when I jerk if I get anxious), or that since the dot is farther from my eye when I'm shooting standing, and there might be enough parallax in the ultradot to affect the zero when I've got it at the end of my arm.

Is there some better way I can zero the pistol so its not such a guessing game?

Thanks in advance,
.andy

[Bullseye]

You answered your own question Andy. The answer is the differences in both of those shooting stances. Your eye is also a reference point when aiming. It sees the dot and the target differently when on the sandbags and when your arm is at full extension. The parallax is not a defect in the optical sight, but the difference in the aiming point between the two stances. On the bag your eye is positioned closer to the scope. But in your bullseye standing stance, your arm is at full extension and the eye is oriented much farther away from the scope.

This is normal when trying to adjust the scope for a particular shooting stance. The bags can get you close but you'll still have to adjust the scope for where your eye is positioned in your natural shooting stance. If you attempt to go back to the sandbags after adjusting the scope for the sanding stance then the shots will be off alignment. The same effect happens if someone else were to shoot your gun, their eye will be slightly oriented differently and therefore the the hits will not be perfectly aligned with the scope's dot.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

[GooseYArd]

thats great Bullseye, thanks!

I just went to a two day clinic with Brian Zins and Andy Moody last weekend, and they had us concentrate on a shot plan. That has been a huge help in getting me to put the dot in the same place with respect to my eye on every shot, but I was concerned that there was something wrong in my grip or my hold that was shifting things out of whack. Now I can stop worrying about that and work on the trigger more

thanks again!
.andy

[Bullseye]

Nope, nothing wrong with your grip but you do bring up an interesting point. The point is consistency. If one changes grip and stance willy-nilly attempting to find the best hold, they will find neither because their position is constantly changing. This is why when shooting, a position must remain consistent. Then if you must change, only make small changes, one at a time. Evaluate these changes before attempting another. Otherwise the shots will be all over the place and the shooter will have no clue why.

You are on to something, master that trigger control and everything else will fall into place.

R,
Bullseye

[GooseYArd]

Yep, now I pay attention to the little things a lot more, and if something seems screwy when I raise the gun, like I don't come down onto the target in the same way I usually do, I back up and run through my steps again. I'm sure I'm still making mistakes I don't notice, but at least I don't accept the ones I DO notice! It surprised me how much the whole shot process got thrown off if I wasn't consistent about how I put the gun in my hand.

the absolute best part of it is that because I now I have a little script of movements that I go through, I find that it keeps me busy enough that I don't fidget. I don't change where my finger is on the trigger, I don't move my gripping fingers at all, and best of all I stopped noticing what the guy on my left and right were doing, because now I'm too busy with my steps to get distracted! That used to drive me crazy!

.andy

[Bullseye]

Another benefit of having a routine is you stay focused on the individual elements of the process and not the outcomes. This helps you keep a positive mental attitude. That is critical in shooting, as you do not want to think of things that can go wrong, or you'll will them to be so. Concentrating on the mechanics in a methodical method takes active thinking out of the equation and enhances your performance. In other words - If you follow the steps right, the shot will be righteous.

R,
Bullseye