Point blank Range?

Z

ZVP

New member
At what distance do you zero your revolvers?
I have my BP revolvers set for a 7 yard zero (Ball impact at the top center of the leveled sight picture)
This range was chosen from law enforcement reports listing the average modern shootout distance as 21 ft. I figgured it would fit so I adopted the range.
The one exception to this is my .357 Vaquero which was sent back to the factory for massive warranty repairs and arrived with the front sight zero'd @ 25 yards. Various loads change this a bit but generally it shoots high at my preferred 21 ft,"Combat distance".
Zeroing the revolvers took some front sight work (on the Remingtons) and in the case of Colt styles, hammer reshaping and opening of the rear sight notch for a easier L/R estimation.
What distance have you picked? Why?
Thanks for reading and responding!
ZVP
 
Well... what are you using them puppies for? I also like to have my pistols/revolvers/rifles/projectile firing weapons zeroed to the range I am going to use them at. BUT... are you target shooting at formal range, are you just plinking, are you using your revolving pistols for self defence?
I realize on this forum we are generally speaking about fixed sighted handguns but that covers a whole buncha ground.
Please to have some more specific info :p:cool::rolleyes:
 
What Hawg said... if you set your sights at 25 yards you are pretty much minute of grapefruit at 7 yards. If your gun or you can shoot a basketball at 25 yards you are gonna be a gunslinger at 7...
If you can't get a shotgun .:p:D
 
I most often shoot pistols & revolvers at 12 - 14 yards.
I'll sometimes move the target out to 25 yards or somewhere in between depending on how well that I can shoot with it and its sights.
 
7 yards or 21 feet is the minimum distance away that the 95 percentile human can perceive and then respond to movement towards him by a 95 percentile human adversary. In other words, you should be able to draw and shoot someone before they reach you if they start from a minimum distance of 21 feet away. Should. Important word, that. Center of mass, no aiming, just point and shoot as was mentioned.

I use 10 yards. If you can do it from 25 yards, so much the better - you still win.
 
All my pistols -- modern and old design -- are sighted for 25 yards. It's a good, workable distance.
Whenever I read a gun report that lists groups at 7 yards, I always wonder if the gun isn't such a poorly made POS that it couldn't group beyond that range.
For decades, accuracy tests in gun magazines were conducted at 25 yards. Even the snubnose .38s. The past dozen years or so, it's become fashionable to use 7 yards.
Well, statistics are fine -- but not set in stone. I shoot my S&W 637 .38 snubnose out to 25 yards, and keep all rounds on a paper plate at that distance. This is using single-action, of course.
Being able to hit a man's chest consistently at 25 yards builds confidence. Statistically, if I'm ever in a gunfight, I'll be shooting at 7 yards or less and the entire affair will be decided -- one way or another -- with a total of a few shots fired by both sides.
I'd never sight in a pistol for 7 yards. That's just point-and-shoot range. Sighting in for 25 yards gives me the option for longer range shooting, if necessary, out to 50 yards.
Yeah, a 50-yard handgun fight is very unlikely, but I'm the guy who had TWO flat tires simultaneously deep in the northern Idaho woods more than 25 miles from the nearest residence.
Sometimes, the gods make sport of us.
 
Even a low velocity pistol round has a flat enough trajectory that I wouldn't sweat the difference between a 7, 25, or 50 yard zero.

Here's approximately what you can expect from a bullet traveling 800 fps out of a revolver with sights .75 inches above the center of the bore.

7 yard zero:
7 yards zero
25 yards 0.7 inchs high
50 yards 1.5 inches low

25 yard zero:
7 yards 0.2 inches low
25 yards zero
50 yards 2.9 inches low

50 yard zero:
7 yards 0.2 inches high
25 yards 1.4 inches high
50 yards zero

Actually, it looks like 7 yards is not a bad distance to zero at, not because that's the range of the average gunfight but because you are close to perfect out to 50 yards, your second zero will be 38 yards and you will be +- 0.7 inches out to 45 yards.
 
Gatofeo, Idaho backwoods will do that to you for sure. I once was driving out to a spot in the mountains to begin my trek when what was hard and frosty ground became a slip and slide as the sun rose. I started traveling laterally down the side of the mountain. Had to hike out 12 miles in brand new Danners and had silver dollar sized blisters on the balls of my feet to prove it. To add insult to injury, it cost $489 for a tow trick to hike my truck back onto solid ground. BTY, 20-25 yds is where I like to practice with my revolvers.
 
Hawg Haggen said:
Any accuracy problems at 7 is going to be worse at 25 than 25 will be at 7.
Click to expand...

No argument with that, but I was talking about the optimum zero yardage, not the best distance to judge the performance of the revolver or load.

Acutally, I would sight in at the second zero yardage, 38 yards, not the first zero yardage, 7 yards. Now you have a revolver that hits within 0.7 inches of the point of aim from zero to 45 yards and any distance in between.

Also, the above only applies to revolvers that have the sight .75 inches above the centerline of the bore, i.e. a ROA flattop with adjustable sights.

I measured a Colt 1860's sights and they are about 0.4 inches above the bore line so it would obviously have a different optimum zero yardage.
 
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