Shooting High
 

Forgive me if I'm rehashing something that's already settled, but I have seen much discussion on the tendency to shoot the Luger high, and it occurred to me why that is. It's the rear sight, or what passes for one. With the sights properly aligned, you can hardly see the tip of the front sight through that channel. Every time I point mine, I seem to automatically set the front sight higher, presumably to see it. Obviously, one can control this and sight properly, but I imagine in a combat situation a soldier with not much training on the pistol would do the same thing. I would never countenance altering the rear sight but just content myself with aiming carefully, since I'm never going to be in combat with a Luger.

Saxman,

I hate to be picky, but if you raise the front sight higher in relation to the top of the rear sight, and hold to the same "point of aim", that is going to make your shots strike the target LOWER not HIGHER.
:rolleyes:

Is that true?, the armadillo thing, not the luger...................

Bear in mind the Parabellum, at least in military versions, is sighted for 50 meters. This means that if the sights are dead to specification, it can be expected to shoot a bit high at 25 yards.

Work up a nice flinch and then you will shoot low!

Hugh; I'm not talking about physically raising the front sight by installing a higher one - I'm saying if you hold the gun so you can see enough of the front sight to line up on the target, the gun will shoot high. The rear sight in this theoretical circumstance would be on target center but the top of the front sight would be above the center of the target. You shoot high. In order to properly sight the gun you have to line up the top of the front sight with the invisible line across the top of the rear sight notch. Since the notch is so small, this takes a moment, and the natural tendency is too put a little more of the sight up in the target, particularly if you're in a hurry. At least, that's my theory.

ratdog,

It's been my experience that armadillos sit in the middle of the road trying to make up their mind which way to run when you are bearing down on them in a car. The effort is so strenuous that you can see smoke coming out of their ears.

The ones sleeping in the road with their feet in the air are there for the Long Sleep. They can be distinguished from those overturned in the wake of a semi by the fact that the latter will be waving their feet.

Somewhere I have a mathematical treatise on the distance between two sleeping armadillos. For the mathematically inclined, it involves hyperbolic functions.

Ohhhh, hyperbolic functions. I knew this would get silly.

Eveyone with a sense of a math, like brain (like me, I got c+'s almost EVERY year!!), would know that hyper means fast-like, so you meant hydrobolic, cuz, I know that dillo's and water and cold don't mix, they melt like the wicked old witch in the Wizard of Oz, that is why they live down south!

my three cents! http://boards.rennlist.com/lfupload/2cents.jpg

With all the long straight roads in Texas, I’d guess that it would be more a function of Euclidian geometry than hyperbolic functions (spherical geometry). But I suppose if you did have two lines of dead armadillos that were parallel to each other, they could intersect at a point – Hugh’s house.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by saxman:
<strong>Forgive me if I'm rehashing something that's already settled, but I have seen much discussion on the tendency to shoot the Luger high, and it occurred to me why that is. It's the rear sight, or what passes for one. With the sights properly aligned, you can hardly see the tip of the front sight through that channel. Every time I point mine, I seem to automatically set the front sight higher, presumably to see it. Obviously, one can control this and sight properly, but I imagine in a combat situation a soldier with not much training on the pistol would do the same thing. I would never countenance altering the rear sight but just content myself with aiming carefully, since I'm never going to be in combat with a Luger.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Hi Saxman:

All of my Lugers shoot about 4 inches high at 25 yards. Yes, this is a little bit of an annoyance, but they were sighted in for twice that distance.

Regarding combat shooting, a soldier rarely gets to sight a pistol in combat, but rather, relies on instinct shooting. At this, the Luger is a real champ, as it has some of the very best natural aiming characteristics.

The Germans did improve the sights on their P-38 to allow for more light to be seen on both sides of the front blade. Unfortunately, the P-38s I have owned have never approached the accuracy of the Luger.

Bob

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Sieger:
<strong> Regarding combat shooting, a soldier rarely gets to sight a pistol in combat, but rather, relies on instinct shooting. At this, the Luger is a real champ, as it has some of the very best natural aiming characteristics.
Bob</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">My father used to tell me of a time when he and two friends were walking across a cow pasture and a snake stuck it's head up a few yards away. My father, Luger in hand, snapped off a shot from the hip and the snake's head simply disappeared. His friends just stood there with their mouths hanging open in complete astonishment. My father considers that shot to perhaps be the luckiest one he ever made.... but he didn't tell his friends that!
:)

Sieger; Just my point. For a zero at 50 yds., the 9mm Luger will be only 0.7" high at 25 yds. You're shooting high, probably because you're seeing a little too much front sight.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by saxman:
<strong>Sieger; Just my point. For a zero at 50 yds., the 9mm Luger will be only 0.7" high at 25 yds. You're shooting high, probably because you're seeing a little too much front sight.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Dear saxman:

I have shot 8 rounds in a hole just a hair larger than a quarter at 25 yards (bench rested hands, naturally). The group was approximately 4 inches high.

I've never tried 50 yards, but I have shot very excellent groups at 100 yard rifle targets. At 100 yards, it shot right on!!

Bob