Do I need to adjust rear sight?

[efeng9622]

I am posting my target here. This is my first time to shoot Ruger 22/45 MKIII,
I just bought it last week.
The range distance I used was 15 yards because 7.5 yards was not available at that day ( it is a outdoor range)
Almost all holes locate too left and I wonder if I need to adjust my rear sight now or I can try at 7.5 yards and adjust sight at that distance if the hole is still too left?

Thanks!

 

[Rod B]

I'd try about five clicks right, try again & adjust more if required.

 

[jfh]

did you hang the target upside down?

Or is the picture correct?--i.e., you hung the target upside down. While the general pattern suggests adjusting the rear sight, I suggest you try shooting more targets, and refining your skills a bit--get rid of any bad habits now, like jerking the trigger, and it will help immensely.

While practicing those skills, shoot your targets CLOSE--like maybe at 5 yards, 20-25 feet. Shoot one magazine load (6-10 rounds, whatever) at one target, then put another. If the target is close enough, you should see a pattern start to emerge; then you'll know how to adjust the sights.

Right now, I suspect you are jerking the trigger or that you may not be using the sights well--or that the sights need adjusting. There's a lot to learn, so stay at it.

Jim H.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

It's hard to tell ...

You may have a sight adjustment problem in concert, but your consistency of sight picture, grip, trigger press and follow-through (indicated by the size of your group dispersion) needs work. (And I'm not much better. )

 

[LHB1]

efang,
No offense intended, but truth is you need to work on your trigger control first. When the group shrinks to 3-4 inches then you can start adjusting sights if needed. The size and location of group plus newness of pistol suggests to me that you are jerking trigger and applying too much leftward pressure on trigger causing accuracy to suffer greatly. As you improve your trigger control by eliminating the excessive leftward pressure suggested by the group shown, you may find the group moves back to the right automatically.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

 

[brickeyee]

Not a good enough grouping to bother yet.
More practice.

 

[efeng9622]

jfh,
I am sorry because I had hung the target upside down when I shoot it. So the attached picture's position is correct. now ,I will try to more practice in about
7 yards before I adjust the sight.

Thanks!

 

[greener]

efang622, do you shoot anything else? Are your targets similar to the 22/45?
Some suggestions:

I agree with the other posters that you need to get the shot pattern tighter and more consistent before you do anything else. There is too much scatter to pick one thing out.

Work on consistent sight picture, focusing on the front sight, not the target.

Work on a constent grip. You can make minor or major adjustments when your shot consistency improves. Start with gripping the pistol the same way every time. Also, your fingers should hold the pistol, don't squeeze with the fingers holding the pistol at the same time you are pulling the trigger (milking).

Bring the pistol up to eye level, don't bring your eyes down to the sights.

Use the pad of your index finger on the trigger. Work on bringing it straight back.

Don't worry about where the rounds are going, as long as they are going downrange. Just try to shoot the same sight picture and do the same things mechanically when you shoot.

Look at your natural point of aim. Sight on the the target, bring your arms down and then bring the pistol back up. You can do the last two steps with your eyes closed. The pistol should be pointing at the target. If not, shift your feet until it does.

Try dryfiring. If the mechanics are good, the sight won't move when you pull the trigger.

Follow through with your shots. After the pistol fires, hold it on target. You can be moving the pistol just after you pull the trigger. This could end up with a move just as you pull the trigger.

What ammo were you using? Although it is not as pronounced a problem with Rugers as with some other pistols, you can get less consistency with some ammo. I get my best results with standard velocity ammo.

Did you shoot the target at Clark's? I've driven past it a number of times over the past few years, never at a time I could stop. How are they for a gun shop?

 

[efeng9622]

greener,
I will try to follow you and other poster to practice , I have a question about if I really need to adjust rear sight when the group shrinks to 3-4 inches. the question is,
there are two screws can be adjust rear sight,
1) the one is located on the top of the gun, I think it can be adjust the left and right and it is "horizontal sight adjustment screw".
2) the another is located on right side of the gun and can be adjust the up and down. It is "elevation sight adjustment screw". Am I right? ( because the instruction book made me confuse).
Did you ask about Clark Brother ? How do you know I shoot there because I said " it is a outdoor range"? but you are right. I shoot there because the range is OK and for free. the shop is OK also only I think the Ammo is expensive so I hardly buy ammo from there.

Thanks!

 

[greener]

There are two screws on the top. The small one on the left is for removing the sight. The large one in the center is for elevation. Turn this screw clockwise to lower the bullet impact, counter clockwise to raise it. The Windage screw is on the side of the sight. Turning the screw clockwise moves the impact to the left.

There are a lot of things to concentrate on. The big ones are sight picture and trigger control. Do those correctly and consistently and your group sizes will really shrink. The front blade of the sight should be centered in the notch of the rear sight and at the same height as the rear sight. There are two "correct" sight pictures. One is with the top of the front blade dead center on the target. The other is the center target circle on top of the front blade like a lollypop. You should also focus on the front sight. The rear blade and the target should be blurry. Don't try to hold the sights dead on the target without moving, you can't do that. Just try to minimize the movement and don't snatch the shot when the target is centered.

Inhale before your start to pull the trigger, then hold your breath while you finally center the sights and pull the trigger. But don't hold your breath more than about 5 seconds. Your vision gets blurry after that.

Also, shoot slowly. Take your time with each shot. If the shot isn't there, bring the pistol down and start over. When I think I'm shooting to fast, I will load 3-5 rounds in the magazine, just to make sure I slow down.

I've tried to list the things I think about each time I shoot. Some days I get most of it down and some days I don't.

I noticed the Clark name on your target. Just wondered. I go by there every few weeks, all at the wrong time and just wondered about it. One of these days I'll pass by at the right time and with the time to stop.

 

[greener]

While I was writing my last book, I thought about this site

http://www.bullseyepistol.com/

It has lots of information and tips even if you don't plan to shoot Bullseye. It has a link to the Army Marksmanship Field Manual, which is a good "how to" resource.

Another thought. Do you shoot with one eye or two eyes and do you know which eye is your dominant eye? For most folks, the dominant eye is the same as the strong hand: right-handed people are usually right-eyed. However, for a number of people the opposite eye is the dominant eye. If you are one of those folks, you may need to change your stance and position to adjust, or even change the hand you shoot with.

 

[efeng9622]

greener,
I will try to remember what you said on the messages and to do it at next
shooting day. I shoot with two eyes. I think my dominant eye is right eye. I learned a lot from your message.Thank you very much!

 

[Steve C]

This will help with the shooting, check out other "lessons" on the website.

http://www.bullseyepistol.com/training.htm

Your Ruger is capable of putting them all in the 10 ring at 25 yds. When you can keep them all in the black and they're still off to one side of the black then adjustment may be in order.

 

[nwilliams]

The first thing that comes to mind when I see your target is an obvious eye dominance issue.

Check your eye dominance by pointing at something with both eyes open (like a soda can across the room) and then keeping your finger exactly where it is close your left eye and see if your finger moves off the target. If it doesn't then that means you are right eye dominant. If your finger does move off target try closing your right eye instead and see what happens. I happen to be right handed and left eye dominant, so I always shoot with my right eye partly closed.

Also here's a nifty trick...
Practice shooting with your opposite hand every once in a while, you might be surprised. Whenever I'm having trouble on the range I switch the gun to my left hand and it helps me to slow down and really focus on that front sight and my grip. Then when I go back to my right hand I find that I'm back in the zone. Also if you're getting flustered and discouraged this can help you to slow your brain down and get you centered again.

Take Greener's advice he pointed out many good things to work on. Remember to watch your front sight and stay on it after each shot, don't look to see where your shot went. Cover the grip as much as you can with both hands, don't leave any gaps if you can help it. Most importantly remember to press the trigger very gently. A good way to practice this is to place the tip of your pointer finger against the tip of your thumb and then press, pretend the tip of your thumb is the trigger.

Good luck and don't get discouraged, don't do anything to the sights until you check to make sure the problem doesn't lie elsewhere

 

[varoadking]

Hi, neighbor...

I'll second the other thoughts - work on getting a tighter group and then worry about adjusting the sights...

The Ruger was a good choice...besides, .22LR is about the only ammo anyone can afford to buy at Clark Brothers...

 

[BlkHawk73]

Make sure it's the gun and not the shooter. have someone else more experinced with pistol shooting try it and look at thier results.

 

[obxned]

Move the sight, but expect to have to move it again after you and your new firearm wear in.

 

[efeng9622]

BlkHawk73,
Would you please explain this picture? thanks!

efang622

 

[jfh]

this diagram shows where bullets will go,

depending on what kind of hand 'hold' you are using while shooting. Note that this diagram is for right-handed shooters; left-handed shooters usually have a mirror image of it.

For example, a very common error of beginning shooters is to "tighten the grip while squeezing the trigger." That results in the shot being pulled to the right and a bit lower--the 4 o'clock position. Since your picture would show that kind of pattern IF you had hung the target right-side up while shooting, that is why I asked you if you had posted the picture upside-down.

After a person has shot a bit, and started to relax and not concentrate too much, they start developing 'habits'--he will tend to shoot the same way. There are good habits and bad habits, and a shooter has to learn to develop the good ones and NOT do the bad ones.

When we--the other posters--looked at your target and saw most of the shots to the left, but scattered from the top to the bottom, we could not see a 'pattern' emerge--that is, you are not consistently doing the same thing yet.

Personally, I was willing to guess that you may be jerking the trigger and / or letting your wrist relax (or tighten up) at the moment of the shot--see the diagram. But, with so many shots, it is too hard to tell accurately what is happening.

This is why we have suggested to move the target closer, and to take less shots at a target--so we can maybe see a pattern emerge. Then we can tell you what steps to try to get more accurate--and we can probably tell if the sights are off, or if you just need to get more familiar with shooting or develop better habits.

Jim H.

 

[Bullseye57]

Efang,

Perhaps this picture will help you with your sight nomenclature.



Everyone starts somewhere, more practice will shrink your groups. Real good advice to look over the Army Marksmanship Pistol Guide book. Stay focused on the front sight and don't look over the sights at the target. The target should be a fuzzy blur in the background. You may be cross-eyed dominant, it's fairly common - almost 30% of all right handed shooters are left eye dominant.

R,
Bullseye

 

[greener]

Jim H's comments on analysis are very good. I like the wheel above, but this link may have a better visual explanation.
http://www.targetshooting.ca/docs/grp-analysis.pdf

The idea is to get consistent and then adjust. I watched one of the best shooters I've seen in quite a while go through this sequence with an S&W semiauto with a heavy double action trigger: three shots scattered 8" below the X; three shots grouped at about 1", 8" below the X (he adjusted to the trigger); 3 shots grouped at just under an inch, 4" below the X (adjusting sight picture; 3 shots in the X, <1" group, one big hole (done). I was watching the first time he had fired the pistol.

 

[efeng9622]

I will try to shoot this weekend or next weekend if the temperature is not too high. ( today is 96F), I think these two pictures can help me a lot.I just found I already become a Senior Member now. Why?
because I posted the messages over one hundred?

Thanks!

 

[efeng9622]

I am posting today's shooting targets pictures here. The first one is 15 yards and second is 8 yards. I think I did my best , but the the group was not shrinked to 3-4 inches. (15 Yards) I adjusted a little bit sight but looks like it didn't work. I believe I need to more practice to improve my basic shooting skill then I can to adjust the sight.

Thanks!

 

[AndyC]

It's a skill which needs development over time.

Try aiming for one specific point on the target - for example, I would aim every single shot for the 6 o'clock spot on the innermost tiny little black circle (assuming you can see it fine).

See, the most common thing I see is that people see this huge black circle and are content to aim anywhere within it. You can't afford to do that - think pinpoint. This is the easy part.

Your next hurdle is mental discipline (this is the hard part). Your job is not to aim and pull the trigger - your job is to keep the sights perfectly aligned on that pinprick point and just slowly add more weight to the trigger-pull until the gun goes off "almost by itself". I would say 95% of your attention should be on aiming, the other 5% on slowly pulling the trigger - your job is not to make the gun fire right now, quick, while the sights are magically aligned! - it's to let it fire in its own time while you do your part - steering the sights and keeping them there.

 

[efeng9622]

I think each gun should have a distance ( I don't know what I can call it), the ammo's behavior will be best at this distance. Is 15 yards already over this distance for .22 pistol ? Where can I find this distance for each gun? Gun Bible?
The reason I am thinking about is that I remember I shot my Ruger 89 (9mm) at same range and distance two weeks ago. The result was better than .22. ( I lost that target) .

Thanks!