Scoped in for one person?

[Farb]

I was shooing this weekend with some friends when the land owner approached and asked if his daughter could shoot. We were shooting our AR-15s at the time and she was offered the use of the "fourth person's" gun. It had a basic red dot scope with (I believe) fixed 4x magnification. The daughter had never shot any gun before and we were shooting out to 100 yards. Anyway, after a few shots within a foot or two of the bullseye (which for a first timer, I thought was great!), the "fourth person" said that the errant shots meet be because the rifle scope was sighted for that "fourth person".

Short of a focusing ring to accommodate someone's lousy eyesight (like mine), shouldn't a scope shoot to wherever it's aimed, all things considered?

 

[jbkebert]

Not always.

Different shooters hold the gun slightly different. Cheek weld, eye releif, several things can change POI from one shooter to another. When my kids are getting ready for deer season or if they get a new gun. I will sight the scope in. Then its up to the kids to shoot and we fine tune the scope to them not me.

Never had more than a inch or two off between myself and one of the boys. At 100 or 200 yards no big deal on a deer. Beyond that it can turn a good shot into a miss or worse a wounded animal.

 

[rehorne]

Ahhh was it like an Aimpoint or something like a 4x scope with a red dot. If it was an aimpoint type they should be shot with both eyes open.

 

[Farb]

No idea what it was. I got to peek in it and it had a red dot in the middle of a red circle (maybe it was semi-circle??) and had some red lit (in the middle) and standard black cross hairs (outside of the circle).

 

[Omnivore]

What jbkebert said, plus; not everyone uses the same exact sight picture.

For further study; there is also the "combat hold" or "combat zero" (reticle held right on point of impact) verses the "bull's eye hold" or "six o'clock hold/zero" (reticle centered at the bottom of the bull's eye, bullet hitting in the center of the bull's eye).

So you have slight differences in the way a person holds the gun causing slightly different responses upon firing, then you have slight differences in how a person uses the reticle, then you have the different zeroing techniques.

Those differences arise even with skilled shooters. Then there are those who are flinching, don't know it, and will attempt to adjust the sight(s) to compensate for the flinching.

Then of course there is the distance for which the sight is zeroed. If you're shooting at some different distance there'll be some offset in elevation.