Hello,
I am a fairly new gun owner. I have Beretta M9. For Christmas my wife picked up the Crimson Trace LaserGrips.
I installed them, but have yet to use them.
As I started to mess with them. I noticed that the red dot was not pointing at the same location as my iron sights.
The manual states that they are configured out of the box at 50 feet.
To me, that seems like an awful long distance. Doesn't it?
At the range I normally shoot from 7-15 feet at the range.
Like I mentioned, I am pretty new to this. 50 feet seems pretty far for a hand gun, not to mention any sort of home defense situations.
Should I leave it at the factory settings, or move it to something around 15 feet?
What is the best way to do this myself?
I've used lasers and red dot sights for years. I suggest you leave your laser grips sighted where they are and this is why-
Remember, the laser is not on the same plane as your sights, they will only meet once at the point that the laser crosses the sight plane (approx. 50' per CT). Closer than that and the dot will appear low and right of your sight's point of aim, closing the gap as you get closer to that magic 50' mark. Beyond that it will show high and to the left of your sights with the distance increasing the further out you go.
From the muzzle of your gun until 50' and a good 50' beyond that, there will only be a few inches of variation from right to left in where the laser's dot appears in relation to the your sights. So, holding the dot center mass on your target anywhere in that 100' distance should give you a will give you a POI within about 1.5" of where the dot appears on the target.
Yes, you can adjust them so that the dot and the sights line up at a closer point but the distance between the dot and your sight's POA will increase faster beyond that point. For instance, let's say you set the laser to meet your guns POI at 15'. The variation right to left variation will be equal from the muzzle to 30', let's say it's a total of less than an inch. But go beyond 30' and the distance between the dot and POI grows faster because the laser beam is on a steeper angle to achieve the 15' POA/POI. So, at 50' or 100' you're going to go from a half inch to several inches of difference between the where the dot appears and where the bullet hits.
Take the gun to the range, shoot it at different distances using a target with a grid on it. Note where the dot is in relation to your sight's POA at each distance and where the bullet hits, that will tell you how close your dot is to your POI at each distance, they'll be much closer than you think.
Also, shooting with a laser aiming device is not the same as shooting with your sights. You don't focus on the dot like you focus on your front sight. You focus on your target and superimpose the dot on it, you're using it instead of your sights. Take it to the range and try I so you can learn to trust that the bullet will impact within and inch or two of the dot at any distance you may have to shoot inside your house. If for any reason the dot fails, you always have your iron sights to fall back on.
Finally, start practicing at longer distances. 7-15' is very close, learn to shoot accurately at greater distance, 75' is only 25yds, if you're shooting a 3" group at 15' that equates to a 15" group at 75. You may never "need" to shoot that distance but to have the ability, just in case, could mean the difference between winning or losing a gunfight. If you're a good shot at 25yds you'll be a great shot at 25 feet.
