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AR15.COM
2/10/2009 7:30:11 PM EDT
Question.
I was shooting a target at 25yrds, and my groups were about 0.5" to 1" high from X. When I moved the target to 50yrds my groups were 2-3" high, but my point of aim was the same, X. Is this becouse I was shooting from a position lower than my targer? Thats my theory, Im thinking as the bullet travels farther it is going higher...which makes sense, but....
How do I correct for this?

I drew up my theory, bored at work hehe.


2/10/2009 8:02:35 PM EDT
[#1]
Too tired for mspaint; see http://homestudy.ihea.com/ammo/23trajectory.htm, for example.

The bullet path is a parabola (roughly).  If your sight line (straight line to point of aim) was parallel to your bore, your bullet would always fall below the point of aim.  Therefore, one normally aims the sight line down into the bullet trajectory such that it intersects that parabola twice.  You can see from the figure linked above that the "point of impact" curve (the bullet trajectory) will rise above the "point of aim" line for some portion of the bullet flight.
2/10/2009 8:05:35 PM EDT
[#2]
Quoted:
Too tired for mspaint; see http://homestudy.ihea.com/ammo/23trajectory.htm, for example.

The bullet path is a parabola (roughly).  If your sight line (straight line to point of aim) was parallel to your bore, your bullet would always fall below the point of aim.  Therefore, one normally aims the sight line down into the bullet trajectory such that it intersects that parabola twice.  You can see from the figure linked above that the "point of impact" curve (the bullet trajectory) will rise above the "point of aim" line for some portion of the bullet flight.


Ok, makes sense, line of sight isn't the same as, lets call it "line of barrel" lol, you get me...so whats the solution?
2/12/2009 4:20:22 AM EDT
[#3]
See here for some ways of dealing with this.
2/24/2009 11:14:43 AM EDT
[#4]
i'm no expert, but I would imagine any high powered rifle cartridge would cause the bullet to have a pretty flat trajectory over a range of 50 yards where the drop is negligible.  If you're shooting about .5 to 2 inches higher at 50yards than 25 yards, I'd assume that your sight system is just .5 to 1.5 inches above the axis of your barrel's bore.  Could you zero your rifle at 50 yards?  If all my assumptions before are correct, that'd cause you to shoot maybe 0.5" to 2" low at 25yards.  I'm not sure if this makes sense or not.  Maybe I can use some mspaint later to draw up a picture.  IM me if you'd like!