pickpocket
New member
A cant will make a gun shoot off to one side.
It has to do with gravity.
Bullets do not go in a strait line, but as soon as launched begin to fall to earth due to gravity.
Consider a scoped rifle sighted in for 100 yards. The scope is aproximately 1.5 inches above the bore. As the bullet is launched it will cross the line of sight at somewhere around 60 feet, and travel above the line of sight until it reaches 100 yards where it will again cross the line of sight hitting the target.
In order for this to happen the barrel is not parallel to the line of sight, but is angled upward. Now picture the result if you cant the rifle 90 degrees to the left. The line of sight is still on target, but the bore is angled to the left, which is where the bullet will go. It will also shoot low, because the angle of upward tilt to compensate for gravity is missing.
Yes a cant does make the gun shoot off to one side as I said earlier. It will also make it shoot lower.
If you know of any pistol calibers that shoot in straight lines and ignore gravity, I want to know about them.
PS this can be easily demonstrated at the range.
That's a joke, right? Your theory is sound, just completely backwards.
If you place a laser-boresight in the chamber of your weapon...would it travel at an upward angle? No.
If you were to place a laser on your rear sight and align it with your front sight, would you notice that it traveled at a slight downward angle? Yes.
THAT is what accounts for the fact that a projectile will intersect line-of-sight twice; NOT because the barrel is angled upwards. The projectile will NEVER rise above the front sight.
There is also nothing about firearm design that will "compensate" for gravity.