Hunting season is upon us.  Be sure to sight in!  The deer rifle that was spot on last year may not be so as of now.  Moisture getting into a wooden rifle stock, swelling the wood so that it applies pressure on the barrel…a bump to the scope or the iron sights between last season and now can throw shots of the course of aim…a change in ammo can alter elevation and even windage…there are lots of things which can mess up point of aim/point of impact coordinates.

I was reminded of this some ten days ago in Arkansas, when I was testing a new pistol and teaching a first-level class simultaneously.  Using the test gun to teach with seemed like a good idea.  I sneaked onto the line with the new 9mm Walther (the PPQ M2, a pretty cool little gun, actually) and put a few shots downrange offhand with 115 grain ammo.  It shot where it looked. I figured it would do to demonstrate the qualification course to the class on the last day.

When that day came, I loaded the Walther with 147 grain ammo I grabbed out of the back of my van.  All went well until we hit the 15 yard line, and after the first six shots I noticed the group was going way high.  I corrected with “Kentucky windage,” holding proportionally low, and finished with a 298 out of 300 possible points.  Four of the rising six had gone into the upper part of the eight-inch circle in the center of the IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) target, but two had gone just over, costing me one point down apiece.

The deal I make with my students is that I and the staff will demonstrate the course of fire they’re expected to perform, to “model” it so they have a fresh mental image of what is expected of them in the next few minutes, and to “set their internal clock” as to the time frames in which they’ll have to perform the sequences of fire.  If they tie my score, they get an autographed dollar bill that says “You tied me at my own game,” and if they beat me, an autographed five dollar bill inscribed, “You beat me at my own game.”

Out of 40 or so shooters, that 298 cost me four five dollar bills and change.  It’s more than worth the money to have graduates who can shoot like that.  Still, as much as it pleases me to give out the $1 bills, I confess to mixed feelings about the $5s.

In the advanced course that followed, on the first day when that crew of students was watching the mandatory safety film, I slipped out to the range and tested the Walther on a bench rest.  Interesting thing: that particular pistol put its shots center at 15 and 25 yards with 115 grain ammo, but sent them way high at both distances with the 147 grain rounds I used in the qual. I should have done that part of the test before the first qualification.

Nobody’s fault but mine: I had not tested that gun with that ammo at “predictable using distance” before shooting it for anything serious.

There’s a lesson there.

The price I paid was cheap compared to losing the winter supply of elk meat because I had sighted in with a different load than the one I took into the hunting field. And a whole lot cheaper than if I had been shooting for survival instead of a “fistful of dollars.”

Learn from my mistake.  Get sighted in.

And if you have any experiences in this vein, please post them here, so others may learn in time to prevent poor shot placement.

1 COMMENT

  1. Mas,

    What I’m about to say,I know you are well aware of, but as this blog is about learning and sharing, maybe with this info some can add to every ones thought process as they try to improve their game.

    When I first joined my department all recruits were issued a model 10 S&W .38 revolver to be trained with and carry after graduation during their field training. After being released from field training, the department was very liberal in allowing you to carry whatever you wanted as long as it was a.38 spec. or larger and a Colt, Smith, or Browning. Your twice yearly qualification could be done with your city issued .38 using light wad-cutter loads no matter if you carried a “Dirty Harry” .44 mag. with the hottest full power loads available. Some officers would actually carry sidearms they had never shot much less passed a PPC with. On the other hand we had numerous officers that, on their own, carried these more powerful weapons that were exceptionally proficient with them because of their continual practice with the weapon.

    As with other bad policies, this one was changed after a tragedy that I mentioned in an earlier post. A young officer and his older partner were involved in a gunfight after a traffic stop. The suspect came out of his vehicle with a .22 rifle and opened fire hitting the older officer in the groin who went down using the squad car for cover and returning fire. The younger officer experienced a stove-pipe jam and took cover to attempt to clear the jam. The suspect stepped around the squad car and fatally shot the younger officer while he and his partner were struggling to get their malfunctioning weapons back into action. The suspect fled the scene when he saw officers arriving to the scene. He did not survive the ensuing gun battle after a 5 mile car chase. The senior officer survived.

    Both officers had bought identical Colt Commander .45 acp’s the day before this incident and loaded them up with what we called back then “bucket mouth hollow points”. I was carrying a Colt 70 series .45 myself at the time. I carried full metal jacketed “hard-ball” ammo because I knew from much practice that my pistol did not like anything else, but operated flawlessly with this ammo. This trait was common to Colt government models of the day.

    Soon after this incident, the department implemented a simple policy change requiring that you qualify with not only the weapon you carried but also the ammunition you carried in that weapon.

    It might not surprise you that within a short period of time the .44 mags. started disappearing or being loaded with .44 specials when officers found out how hard it is to qualify with 50 rounds of full house magnums. Those carrying 1911’s rethought their ammo selection after experiencing many malfunctions in their attempts to qualify.

    Later, political correctness lead to further policy changes banning anything larger than a .357. 1911’s were banned because the powers that be thought it was an unsafe weapon for the average officer to master. This broke my heart as it made me give up my beloved government model for on duty carry.

    My point is this- know your weapon, know what ammo it likes, save the changes of either for the range until you know what both will do when it really matters. Young officers are usually not gun nuts (in the good sense) but are young people starting a career that they hope will provide for their wives and children. They are on a learning curve as are any other young person. The senior officer who survived was maybe 5 years older than the younger, who had just graduated college. If anyone responds to this post, do so in kindness and respect to those who experienced this horrific incident, not with a self-righteous “I would never do what they did”. When I retired after 34 years, I was still learning, as I am today.

  2. Long ago I had to switch bullet brands just before hunting season. The bullets looked identical, 180 gr RN .30 caliber flat based. Brand H, my usual choice printed right where it was supposed to. Brand S, shot just as accurately at the correct height, but about 2-3 inches to the right at 100 yards with everything else the same.

    Much more recently, I experimented with a different .308 match bullet for long range matches. The latest & greatest printed 3 inches right and 2 inches low at 200 yards from my regular zero. Both these examples were with handloads, so only the bullets changed.

    Dealing with mechanics, I had a varmint rifle with a wood stock that would shoot one hole groups. I just never knew where that hole was going to be on any particular day. I tried all the tricks to seal the stock with limited success. It wears a kevlar stock now.

  3. Interesting topic Mas.. For me i allways like to but 2 or 3 rounds on target before the shot on game! Our season runs from August 15’th till January 1’st.. Back on opening day my good bud was hunting with me. And around 45minutes of legal shooting daylight left, he fired off. Not once but six times.. I thought MAN he must be stacking them up! Well seems it was only one deer, but he had some optic trouble. His crosshair was gone ! Good news he got deer. But even better, he learnd a valuable lesson in the process! Allways check your equipment! Just a story from my end.. Great topic,and God bless!

  4. I helped a friend sight in his rifle, a slim barreled 30-06 bolt action with his factory 180grain rounds (brand W). Then, ran a bunch of my rifles 175 grain SMK match ammo accuracy handloads through the same rifle, and got a nice, tight .75″ 5 shot group about 6 inches high and 3 inches right at 50 yards. Had to shoot at the closer target, because I was missing the 100 yard target.

  5. Mas,
    I bought a 33rd magazine for my 9mm glock and a friend of mine told me to get rid of it, that I can’t justify owning or using it and if I ever shot a perp in self defense with it, the prosecution would spotlight me as a rabid killer. What are your thoughts Massad? What would be the best explaination for implementing such a tool to everyday folks who don’t carry and are not LEO’s?

  6. I learned ‘my’ lesson on an AR. Sighted in with 55gr dead on at 100. Went to shoot a match, the only ammo available was 62gr (my shipment never made it). I ‘assumed’ the hold would be good, but the entire group was three inches high and three inches left at 100 yards. Embarrassed the hell out of myself, because I was ‘offered’ time to check zero and didn’t do it… Lesson learned and never forgotten. Today I will ALWAYS check zero before I shoot, either at the range or in the field… sigh

  7. On the subject of hunting, years ago I had loaned out my only deer rifle, a ’98 mauser re-barreled to 30/06. When he returned it, he told me he had used up the box of 165 gr. ammo I had sent with the rifle, but had bought me a box of ammo to replace it. When I arrived at our farm in the Arkansas Ozarks for opening day at about 4 am I discovered the replacement ammo was 220 gr. which at the time I did not know even existed. With no time to change this situation I entered the woods just as shooting light was occurring and just as I started down of a ridge I saw a doe travelling down a trail some 250 yds below me. I sat down next to a tree, hoping a buck would be following, at the same time making mental calculations as to how much bullet drop would differ between a 165gr. sited in at 100 yds. and a 220 gr. round that I had never shot, when I nice 8 pt. appeared. I held right at the peak of the shoulders and took the shot, thinking that the bullet would drop into the heart/ lung area. The buck dropped in its tracks. When I got to the deer, I discovered that the bullet had struck almost exactly where I had aimed, taking out the spine atop the shoulders. I had left out of my calculation the steep down hill angle of the shot which made the actual horizontal distance about 125 yds. If I had held 2 inches higher it would have been a clean miss.

  8. My dad bought a Win. 1894 30-30 for deer hunting when I was about 12. He could always hit a reasonable sized target out to 100 yards as would be expected. I couldn’t hit a 5 gallon bucket at 50 yards with it. I went on to other rifles but brought the 1894 home with me after dad passed away as he had told my son he could have it. We took it to the range and shot if off the bench where, once again, I couldn’t hit the target at 50 yards. We moved it in to 25 yards and I put 5 rounds dead center on the bottom tack holding the target. The sights were totally out of range and could not be adjusted. It will go to Missouri with me over the holidays this year with a new front sight and a Williams rear sight. I expect it to take any deer in the cornfield. I’m still amused (and amazed) that dad just adjusted his aiming point and not the sights. We won’t go into the story about the fellow at deer camp two years ago who, in sighting in, missed the target and killed the gate hinge 5 feet away. Nice to bring back fond memories.

  9. P.S- I apologize for the typo’s in my posts. I ” started down off a ridge” “when a nice buck”———–. Never was a typist and failing eye sight. A man needs to know his limitations.

  10. Mas, good and timely reminder. It may be hard to argue that guns exhibit innate intelligent but it is undeniable that they have their preferences for ammunition. Competing or hunting with something other than that with which you practice is a crap shoot. You may shoot but you may not hit crap.

  11. 298– bet it’s been a long time since you didn’t shoot a 300. Even when that range officer doubled in Cedar Rapids you shot 300, no problem.

  12. And everyone should’ve sighted in their guns a month ago. Now is the time that all the morons show up to the range that only go once a year to fire their deer rifle prior to hunting. They exhibit horrible gun handling and safety at the range. Being muzzle swept is not a good feeling…I try to stay away if I don’t see only the regulars on the line in the 3-4 weeks leading up to deer season.

  14. I learned the same lesson at the end of the same class that you referred to. After I left the class, I was just looking at the Kahr K9 that I carry every day and had shot the entire class with and noticed that the sights were pushed all the way to the left side of the slide. Had I sighted it in before the start of the class the qualifying score should have improved greatly! The scariest thought was that I had been counting on it as my carry gun. Definitely a lesson learned!

  15. When I attended basic in 79, we had a genuine hillbilly in the platoon. This kid could shoot! On qualification day, we arrived at the range and found that some soul had removed his front post.He still qualified, beat me by one, and that very well may have been a defective target as the military had the falling targets there at Leonard Wood.
    I grew up shooting a Geco 1919 that had been my grandfathers, and then my dads. The front sight was a touch loose, so every time I went out, I took a pot shot at a piece of tin behind the barn. Kentucky windage served me well.

  16. Two lessons I learned the hard way 1) Pick the best ammo you can, and use just that. 2) Be absolutely sure of what’s *behind* the target.

    About twenty years ago, an Army buddy and I went out to his uncle’s farm (in Missouri) to have a little fun shooting our handguns. Being competitive, we wagered a small amount on the outcome of ‘one magazine apiece’ at the targets. The group from my Ruger P85 was pretty ragged, and a little high/left. He had holes all over the target, despite being a much more experienced handgunner. After some money changed hands, we tried to figure out what was wrong with his sights/handgun/etc…it turns out he had his ‘home defense’ magazine loaded, and it contained a mix of five different brands of ammo! (His theory was ‘I’m not sure which of these is best, so I’ll load’em all up’). Different brands, weights, and *types* of ammo gave him the worst results we’d ever seen. It was an object lesson that he took to heart, though. He tried several different loads with that gun and picked the best one – and that’s all he uses to this day. No more ‘party mix’ magazines for him, ever.

    Same farm, same buddy, the following year. We went out to the back forty to plink with some rifles, where an old dry creek bed crosses one corner of his property. People used to dump their old appliances into that dry creek bed, so it was full of refrigerators, washing machines, etc. We taped up some paper targets on a couple of the more upright junk items and proceeded to fire off some rounds. After about the fifth round went downrange, there was a bright flash and an explosion that blew both of us off our feet. Neither of us was seriously hurt, but we were stunned and surprised. It turns out that the refrigerator we had used as a target holder was a PROPANE powered model, many years old, that still had a ‘not quite empty’ tank. We were fortunate that most of the blast and debris blew upwards (thanks to the creek bed) or we would have been Missouri’s first ‘Double Darwin Award winners’! for sure. (I’ve been distrustful of major household appliances ever since, but that’s another story.)

    Be certain of what is behind your intended target, guys. Someone’s life may depend on it (and maybe it will be *your* life).

  17. Mas,

    Point proven again just 2 weeks ago…we drove 400+ miles to a .22 rimfire falling steel match, with a Ruger 22/45 MkIII, set up with dot sight for Open class. Switched from Federal 550 bulk pack (The Cheap Stuff) to CCI Mini-Mag (The Good Stuff) for reliability and accuracy reasons. The change left us both wondering why we had to hold at 5:00 off the plate to hit. Put on paper back home, we found it 5-1/2 inches high at 20 yards.

    As long as we’ve all been doing this, you’d think we’d know better by now!

    Good news is that we got to shoot team again; we’ve missed it since 3-man with you at Second Chance! Check out the results for PSA Rimfire Challenge.

    S & B

  18. Many years ago, I bought a brand new Colt AR-15A2 HBAR when it was first made available to the public. I grabbed a couple of boxes of .223 reloads that I had on hand & took it to the range to sight it in. Shooting off of sandbags from a solid shooting bench using iron sights, I couldn’t get any shots on paper at 100 yds. Frustrated, I tried to sight it in at 50 yds. & again I could get no shots on paper. Realizing that something was very wrong, I tried sighting it in at 25 yds. & I still couldn’t get a single shot on paper! At that point, I ran out of ammo & went home wondering what the hell had gone wrong.

    When I got home, I checked my loading data for the reloads I used to try to sight in the HBAR. My notes showed that it was good ammunition which had performed very well out of an older AR that I owned. The only unusual thing I noticed about the load was that I used Hornady 55gr. SX bullets, which at the time was a new product, instead of 55gr. FMJ bullets. Upon examining the box the bullets came in, I discovered a printed note tucked inside by the manufacturer warning consumers not to shoot SX bullets out of a barrel with a tight twist, such as the 1:7″ twist the HBAR had, because it would tear the fragile bullets apart in flight, especially at higher velocities.

    Sometime later, I returned to the range with the HBAR & easily sighted it in at 100 yds. using M193 Ball ammo. Since then, with a 3-9 power scope mounted on it, the gun will consistently shoot sub 1/2″ groups at 100 yds. from the bench with high quality ammunition.

    Needless to say, it was a very educational experience. Now I test every gun I have with every type of ammunition I plan to use in it before using them for any important occasion or for any potentially deadly situation, because you never know for sure what’s going to happen until you try it.

    One more thing…shooting all kinds of firearms in a variety of environmental conditions (wind, rain, snow, heat, cold, humid, low light, glare, altitude, etc.) can also reveal some nasty surprises.

  19. Nothing worse than having a safe full of guns and not knowing which loads they were sighted in on, let alone if the gun still holds the zero.

    What I did a while back was buy a box of little card stock tags that come with a piece of string attached (like old fashioned price tags). Now when ever a gun is sighted in, a tag is tied to the trigger guard and that tag lists what exact load was used to zero it. Next time it is shot, the tag goes back on afterwards. Saves wasted ammo trying to figure where it shoots, and if one needed to use a gun without being able to confirm zero it could make the difference between hit or miss.

  20. Make sure you are wearing what you should be wearing when you start the zeroing process. One neat little four round group, which would have been a neat little five round group, but for one flyer.

    The one was because I started the five round group having forgotten my eye protection; the muzzle blast from the shooter next to me gently reminded me and by adjusting my position to adjust my goggles . . .

    Well that’s the closest thing to “words of wisdom” I can offer. -g-

  21. Don’t forget to adjust for environmental variables. Earlier this week I missed a 850 yrd shot at a 4 point deer by a few very important inches because we forgot to account for the fact that the rifle was sighted in at a different elevation and temperature than where we were hunting. Especially if you’re going to go those little bit farther ranges I would sight it in where your hunting or at least put all the variables in a ballistics calculator to see how much you might have to adjust(before you need to pull the trigger).