Hi,

I just tried yesterday shooting at 50 meters (~55 yards). 7.5" barrel, open sights, sunny and windy day. I am pretty happy with horizontal spread, but I am not able to hold it vertically.

Any thoughts? Do I need glasses, or red dot? I just can't keep front and rear sight accurate enough aligned.

Jiri

That 5 big holes:

That is close enough to be human error, maybe just a bad day. Shoot it some more and see if it goes away.

Could be the results of the weight reduction from fired bullets, try shooting with a full cylinder as apposed to firing till empty.
left to right dispersion is from the shooter, I was at a shooting clinic where you fired a gun then put the same gun in a shooting type vise and the shooter induced error really showed up

Thank you.

Left to right is good enough for me. I need to work on vertical string. Will try next week. Need to load some ammo.

Load is Lehigh Defense 325gr Xtreme Pen. at ~1800 fps. (Yes, brass bullet in handgun is OK here).

After I will get better group, I will try, what is the impact shift for 350 and 400 gr bullets.

Jiri

You are not holding the recoil down with the same stiffness fir each shot. Vertices is caused by letting the pistol recoil vertically more with some shots. Learn to hold the revolver the same for each shot.

A firearm will always recoil toward the weakest point, has nothing to do with rifling as some think, to prove that do a one hand shot string with one hand then do the same with the other, the groups will skew towards your thumb. Depending on the firearm, muzzle jump is consistent with how high the barrel is above the the trigger finger (hand). Revolvers especially large caliber tend to muzzle rise on recoil but this can be somewhat controlled by a good solid gripe and firm arm muscle control. Now a days many semi autos do not have hammers which lowers the barrel towards the hand and as such do not muzzle jump as much, couple that with a solid gripe and upper body strength and there is no jump whatsoever. I was at a demonstration sponsored by Glock some years back and the repre was a competition shooter who started his demonstration by telling us ( (a group of firearms instructors from a round the country)to " don't try to impress him because you won't, and he was right. He took a glock M18 (auto fire) and put in a 30 round magazine. He had a target at 5 meters and emptied the pistol and his pattern was a elongated hole about 2" top to bottom and 1" wide, he was a big guy with alot of upper torso weight and as I remember the gun sat almost motionless.

Inconsistent sight picture for sure.

A dot and or scope well help.

As my eyes have aged I have the same trouble.

Now to shoot decent groups at the longer ranges I need optical help.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Inconsistent sight picture for sure.

A dot and or scope well help.

As my eyes have aged I have the same trouble.

Now to shoot decent groups at the longer ranges I need optical help.

Maybe change the target for something smaller? Such as orange clay target for example?

Jiri -- handloads? In rifles we look at primer choices to rule in or out vertical stringing. Shooting the big Smith X-frame? They are a lot of fun, but I didn't own mine long enough to really work up anything but cats-bullet plinking loads.

Yes no and maybe.

Shooting in strong sun light helps me also.

I came to the conclusion that longer range past 25 yards pistol shooting with open sights

Is beyond me now.

Add a dot or scope theses days I can still wack them out there.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Jiri -- handloads? In rifles we look at primer choices to rule in or out vertical stringing. Shooting the big Smith X-frame? They are a lot of fun, but I didn't own mine long enough to really work up anything but cats-bullet plinking loads.

Yes, handloads. But SD is very low. It is shooter error, not gun or ammo I believe.

I’m going to go with the answer from raamw. I think that it an inconsistent hold. It’s very difficult to hold with identical grip “every” time. Obviously, it can be done. Just requires time, and building strength and muscle memory! Good Luck, and it doesn’t look that bad at all. Maybe just more “trigger time” with that particular revolver! memtb

Another problem I experienced with the M500 Smith and I have 2 of them is the soft gripe that they come with, for me as hard as I try to hold a firm gripe there is that fraction on an inch movement in the gripe on the back strap when fired, this amount of movement multiplies with the range it is shot at. This can be somewhat compensated by site adjustment. but the smith is a tough gun to control due to the amount of recoil, practice makes perfect but shooting fatigue comes quickly with that revolver

I replaced grip with wood one, also rear sight is replaced for LPA: