Posted: 7/15/2013 2:17:29 AM EDT
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What's the proper procedure for zeroing a pistol with adjustable sights? I zeroed my XDm 5.25 when I first got and shot a perfect match. Then I ran the Pan Am 3gun match at Rockcastle and I was missing entire cardboard targets at pretty close range. Most people said I was having an off day and we all get it but I really didn't feel off. I spent one stage trying to just take my time and basically use the match to check zero and still I couldn't hit anything. The closest I got was a hit on a half target for rifle stapled to the bottom left corner. After the match I was allowed to make up a stage I missed and I switched to my XD45 Service and all my hits were in the A ring. I was also dead on with rifle and shotgun.
The point is, it wasn't me. At least it wasn't my shooting. So how do I zero this and what could have thrown off my sights so bad? Do you have to re-zero when you disassemble the pistol for cleaning? |
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Quoted:
If you missed at close range, it was you. A bad zero would only cause distant misses. Your sights would have to be cranked almost off the gun to cause misses on close targets. Proper rigger control will get you back on target. Close range would be the 4" plates at 20ft-ish and 15-20yrds for the paper. It wasn't me. I'm not a particularly new shooter by any means and my other XD was getting A-ring hits at speed 20mins after the last stage shot with the XDm. I do suspect possible foul play, I had recently kicked my teenage brothers friend out of the house and my brother lives with me and has access to my work area in the basement. They were both pretty pissy about the whole thing and knew I had another match coming up. Teenage boys being teenage boys could of decided to act like teenage girls and "teach me a lesson". But either way my fundamentals are fine and I want to make sure my zeroing process for pistols is ok. I'd like to know what can change my zero on a pistol. I zeroed it at 25yrds using a sand bag. I also disassembled it several times and I never thought about whether that would cause an issue with my zero. |
| I'm not that familiar with the XDm, but what caliber?.... white box 115grain 9mm will not shoot that well at distance compared to a 147grain .....I shot a poor match at Ft Benning in 2010 due to poor ammo selection... when I got home, the white box shot no better than 8" at 25y... the 147 around 3" |
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Quoted:
I'm not that familiar with the XDm, but what caliber?.... white box 115grain 9mm will not shoot that well at distance compared to a 147grain .....I shot a poor match at Ft Benning in 2010 due to poor ammo selection... when I got home, the white box shot no better than 8" at 25y... the 147 around 3" I always use the same ammo. American Eagle 147gr 9mm Quoted:
Check your sights to make sure nothing is loose. Maybe a loose front sight or rear? I checked the rear sight but I never though about the front. I use paint marks on everything but the marks on the rear adjustment screws were wiped off, which is another thing that made me suspicious. That and an incident in the Army when another platoon thought it would be funny to screw up all of our sights kind of scared me lol. |
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The front sight post seems to be off center but I can't wiggle it. It's hard to tell in the pics but there's a gap between the sight post and the stake mark, but it's pretty much on top of the other stake mark.
Does this need to be sent to the manufacturer to be fixed or can I just re-center it? Can I use a .45 and still stay in Tac-optics? All I have are a bunch of .45s. 
The gap is a lot worse in person, I couldn't really pick it up very well with my camera phone. |
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XD front sights are almost impossible to move. If you shot clean one day and missed the next, you were having a bad day on one of those days. Odds are that your gun is fine. Take your time. You'll get it next time. I didn't just shoot bad, I missed every single target. Then 20 min later switched pistols and shot perfect. Not the next day. I checked zero again today and it's not even on the cardboard at 25yrds. And again my other XD shot a 1in group in the A. My bad days are B and C ring hits, not missing entire silhouettes. Let alone every silhouette. Whether they are almost impossible to move or not I have a front sight that's been shifted about 1/32 of an inch and a pistol that can't hit anything. |
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Quoted:
Did you go check your zero since the match on paper at various distances? He'll your sights could be off, your ammo could have been built by the new guy in a Friday, or you had a case of buzzer fever. I checked it yesterday at 25yrds and it wasn't even on the paper. I didn't change distance, I was in a hurry and only put 1 mag through the 5.25 and 1 through the XD45. I tried adjusting it but I was out of time. After adjusting I got 1 round on the bottom left corner of the target lol. But again the regular XD was hitting the A-ring. |