Sighting in a pneumatic - troublesome w/pump btween shots

[austinosphere]

Hi.

I started adjusting my new IZH because I wanted to try sub-6. I just went click click click click click click click click. Took a shot, then click click click click click.

Of course since I'm brand new, that wouldn't help! How would I know I hadn't jerked this way or that...

So pretty much now I've messed up my sites a ton.

I went and bought a pistol vice type thing to sight it in, but it's made for revolvers or semi autos, not 1-shot-at-a-time pneumatic airguns.

Any suggestions?

I can't even shoot anymore if it's shooting somewhere I'm not even aiming. :(

[GaryBF]

Do not use any clamping device to zero in your air pistol. Any zero you establish that way will not be the same when you shoot offhand.

Do not chase individual shots with the sight screws. Shoot a string of 5-10 shots and determine where the center of that group is relative to the center of the target and then make your adjustments.

But first you must readjust your sight screws to a neutral position and try to get yourself back on the target. Then proceed as above.

[eskinner]

Use two hands and support the end of the barrel on something to get it sighted-in for the desired aiming point. (I'm working to learn sub-6, roughly half-a-bull below the bottom of the black.)
Alternatively, let someone who shoots well do the sighting-in for you.
Once the sights are set, leave them alone.
I'm on that long road to trigger control and often do lots of different things wrong, but once I know the gun is sighted in, I know any deviation from the 10-ring is because of something I did wrong, and perhaps more importantly for your head, when you do hit the 10-ring, you'll know *you* did everything right.

[David Levene]

Alternatively, let someone who shoots well do the sighting-in for you.

IMHO This rarely works. We all have our own perception of where the correct aiming area is. There is no right or wrong providing it is comfortable and repeatable for each individual.

I prefer GaryBF's idea of a newcomer firing 5-10 shots, or possibly more, and adjusting the sights based on the centre of the group. As the ability to call shots improves then the number required before adjusting the sights will often fall to one.

[tenex]

I'd stack 2 targets (using the second for a backer) and shoot a whole match's worth of shots and then center the group. Chasing your sights can be an exercise in futility. It helps to know how many mm/click you get at the target.

I've recorded 100 shots and calculated the mean x and y to determine sight corrections, but you can do nearly as well with a large group on a backer. Even a good looking 10 shot group can be displaced enough from the average to be off by a few clicks.

I used to shoot a lot of archery, and I chased my sights for months until I just left them alone and then found out that my groups would wander in a repeatable pattern. Every time I moved the sights, I lost the calibration from the previous shots. Compared to that, pistols are a piece of cake.

Good luck,
Steve.

[derekm]

If you have shifted the sights so far that you are not even on the target, approach the target and shoot two handed (for stability) from say five yards. After a few shots, you should have some idea where it is grouping. Pull the group to approx. centre with the sight adjustment, step back two paces and repeat. When you get to 10m set the sights for whatever aim you want, centre, six or sub six and next time, count the number of clicks, before you alter the aim to any great extent!! Then you can at least come back to where you were.

[Nicole Hamilton]

If sighting in a pistol could be done usefully by clamping a gun in a vise, they'd have done that at the factory and there'd be no need for adjustable sights. The whole point of adjustable sights isn't to make sure that the gun's POA and POI are lined up, it's to make sure YOUR POA and POI are lined up. We're all unique. Everyone's eyes and all the rest of our bodies are different. When you fire a gun, it's a whole system of your body + the gun that behaves together to result in the shot going somewhere.

Where the shot goes doesn't matter so much as whether it's repeatable. If you do the same thing every time, so will the gun. And once you know what that is, as evidenced by a recognizable group, it's a simple matter to move that group around the paper anywhere you like just by moving the sights. Obviously, the best place to move it is so it's centered over center of the target, maximizing your expected score for future shots.