need opinions please

M

mike85

Inactive
Ok I purchased my fist pistol and after shooting a few different ones I went with the xd40 and love it. I actually want to get the tactical version in 45 now. Anyhow like most beginning shooters being right handed with a dominate right eye I shot low and to the left. So I after about 500 rounds or so and going to the range evey other week I no longer shoot to the left. How ever I do shoot low still. Using a POA sighting and about 20-25 feet I hit about 4 inches low with a consistent grouping. How ever if I raise the front of the gun putting the center front sight dot on the top of the two rear sight dots…bulls eye. I can hit wherever I want. Actually last night I was doing 3 rapid shots at a time with a silhouette target with two in the chest and moving up to the head of the target to practice moving and resighting and bingo right on. Even at farther distances I have to sight it like that and I shoot fine. I practicing dry firing through my house sighting on different items at different distances and payed a lot of attention to my grip, using the finger print of my finger and trying to keeps the sights still during the trigger pull. I didn’t want to blame the gun right away especially since I bought a quality gun but I was wondering some opinions of others on things to try. I have read some that said that file the front sight but considering im making a triangular shape I don’t think that much can be filed off. I did read about tucking in you head somewhere I don’t know if that could be a factor.

Thank you in advance.
 
Shooting low

The issue you may be encountering is anticipating the shot, pushing to the gun forward and down in anticipation of the shot. When you try fire try putting penny on the slide as you dry fire. When shooting at the range use slow fire and use some dummy rounds in you magazine with live rounds. Try that for a couple of magazines to see if that helps.

Andrew
 
As the saying goes, Consistancy is...

..more important than accuracy. If you are using fixed sights and putting the front sight dot above the rear sight dot to get consistent bullseye shots everytime then always shoot with the front sight on top of the rear sight dots and get a bullseye evertime, what is wrong with that? I have a lots of fixed sight guns, not one of them hits perfectly to POA. If you know what that gun does with that ammo, who cares if you dont have perfect form and grip?
 
It might be the gun

I know you said you do not want to blame the gun, but I know my XD -9 shot pretty bad from the box. 3 inches or so to the right at 10 yards. I've put several hundred through it now, and it still does so. I think Springfield might just not quality test such things. As far as height goes, I use a 6 o'clock hold and hit bull's eye height. That however, would not help where your gun is shooting. Like several others said, I'm under the impression that if you know how to adjust using the sights where they are, and the same ammo, then you're set. But this is just my experience and opinion of the XD.
 
sometimes i think about it like that to...as long as I am acurate with MY gun what does it matter. I want to be fully familiar with anything im carrying on my hip. plus i never cared for POA sighting cause i like to see the target as well. i perfer 6 o clock over POA. shooting this way is kinda the best of both for me right now. the center hits where i want and i can still view the sides of my object. i have a little experience shooting before i got this pistol...mostly with shotguns....this is a different ball game to me in a way.

thanks guys for you opinions...will try the penny thing
 
i think i figured it out

i think i figured out what im doing. when i raise my gun to a target in the range i only bring it to about chin or nose level naturally. So my sight line from my eye to the sights is not parallel with the barrel and the target. Now im over 6 foot and basically aiming downward at the target because of how low it hangs. The only time I naturally raise the gun higher is when aiming at a target higher. if i force my self to bring it up eye level with a low target i feel like im having to bend over.
 
I used to shoot low and to the left too. I was anticipating the shot and pulling the trigger at the last milisecond instead of consistently squeezing the trigger until the round was fired. That causes your aim to dip low and left. That might be what's happenning to you.
 
Can you raise the height of your target to eye-level? Maybe fold the head of the silhouette down so that the X-ring is at eye level? Or use a bullseye (round circle) target, hung at eye-level, and see if that works.
 
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