I finally put a red dot on a pistol and just got back from the range trying to get it zeroed in. It was an indoor range and I was sitting in a foldable chair while resting the pistol with an extended magazine on the “bench”. It was easy enough to get it dialed in, but I noticed that when I went to shoot it normally it seemed to be way off. I was then adjusting it while just shooting normally and seemed to get it pretty close. I went back to try shooting it rested on the bench to see how it compared and it was way off. Are my eyes that bad? Is that normal? Should I re-zero using the bench method and just adjust how I shoot it? Most of the videos I’ve watched online for zeroing have the pistol rested on a bench.
Trust zero from bench.
You are chasing your tail attempting adjustment firing “freestyle” unless you’re an advanced pistolero.
You didn’t mention how/where you experienced group shift from standing.
If you’re a right hand dominant shooter I’d imagine you’re probably hitting low left, which means you’re “anticipating recoil”/ milking the shot. This is agonizingly common.
You’re not. I’ve noticed a poi/poa shifts in myself using that method. Try just resting your arms right behind yout wrists on a bag to steady yourself. This negated the change for me.
Red Dots have parallax.
If your eye is directly behind/centered with scope/dot, there will be no shift in POI-rather benched, standing, prone, whatever.
I’ve zeroed only two pistol red dots. I start at 10 yards and go to 25 after that. They both shoot poa standing and benched for me.
I hold my head up behind the gun the same way I would if I was holding the gun standing. Or at least as close to similar. If you’re linings your eye straight behind the gun and closing the other eye to sight it in and then shooting normal with both eyes open maybe that’s your issue.
I was keeping both eyes open while zeroing form the bench, but I’m thinking my head might have been lined up a bit differently. The chair height and “bench” made it a bit awkward. I’ll probably go back tomorrow and tinker some more.
Can also be a result of a heavy trigger pull. From the bench a heavy trigger weight does not affect the pistol much as its supported well, but some of the force applied to the trigger may shift the pistol just a hair.
Try dry firing and see if the dot moves towards where your standing live fire group happens to print.
Absolutely! That essentially sets your “mechanical zero”, i.e. the true one for your weapon/sight combo. Get that straight first then work on making your “freestyle” work fit the mechanical zero. Applies to long guns too.
One thing you should practice is calling your shots. When you pull the trigger see/ remember where the dot was last. And then see where it hits. Shoot and See targets help a lot.
The gun’s reaction to recoil will change when rested compared to off-hand. This will have an effect on POI. I don’t rest the gun on a bench, I rest my wrists and hold the gun in hand. It isn’t dead steady, but close enough and there will be no change in POI when shooting off-hand.
By any chance do you have astigmatism in your dominant eye? When you shoot from the bench, is you eye positioning/angle different? When you shoot from the bench, are your group sizes the same or smaller as freehand, just in a different place?
I have astigmatism in both eyes, and find if i shoot prone or from a bench and i look more through the “top” of my eyes, or essentially looking up, my groups are several inches high. If I lift my head some, the group settles back to the same place.
I just took a modern samurai project course. Scott the instructor is a legend in the pistol red dot world. With that said he had us zero our pistols at 10 yards standing up in a 2" square. He said if we are good enough to shoot freehand at 25 yards we can go ahead and zero at that range if we think it’s necessary. Also at 25 yards a 10 yards zero means the bullet will impact at .5" high. He did explain why we zeroed standing up. He also said 10 yards zero vs 25 yards zero is the new 9mm vs 45 debate lol.
I think there is merit to almost every approach…except the one where you obsessively blow through a hundred rounds of ammo trying to fine tune the gun and the one where you blast through a hundred rounds of ammo because you can’t shoot a group.
Jedi is on the right track with the 10 yard standing zero. And like he says, if you can shoot, the zero doesn’t really matter and if you can’t shoot, the zero doesn’t really matter.
I have a new Meprolight Microdot quick-detach RDS mounted on a HKP30SK. Haven’t fired it with the new sights / optic yet so it’s “out of service” until I get them both zeroed.
My question is, because my optic is rather high (1 and 3/16 inches from center of glass to center of bore) what range should I set zero?
What bullet weight? With a 124JHP a 25 yard zero will have you about 1/2" low @ 50 and a 50 yard zero will have you about 1/2" high @ 25 so it really won’t matter a whole lot. FWIW, a 10 yard zero would have you about 2" high @ 50
Well, most of my practice ammo is 124 gr. My carry ammo is 68 gr but due to a combination of bullet length (all copper) and recoil (I guess?!) they somehow shoot to the same point of aim. No shit! I was surprised too, when I kept reading about other people having the same experience with the Lehigh bullets. Sure enough, same point of aim. I’m only guessing why.