danjordan78 Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 So what distance does everyone sight in for? I hear a lot of people say 35 yards, but not sure where people come up with that. I'm thinking 15 yards (45 feet) makes a little more sense. Here's my rationale, let me know what you think. If we look at all of the round targets on each of the stages, the average distance is about 14 yards (41 ft) or so (closest at 21' and furthest at 60'). I'm only counting the rounds because the smallest is 10", which gives us 5" of variation to still hit the plate. I am not looking at the rectangles because at 18"x24" still gives us 9" of variation side to side and 12" up and down, so really is not a factor. The farthest shots are 105' (35 yards) and are all on rectangles which have the biggest margin of error in the first place. If 15 yards is the average distance for our most common targets, why not sight in for that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 I'm in the process of setting up my M&P CORE to shoot open with and came up with 15 yards as you suggested though I came up with that number a little differently than you did. I calculated the average distance for all targets per stage and then took an average of those averages which worked out as follows. Five to Go - 37.2 Showdown - 49.2 Smoke & Hope - 27.6 Outer Limits - 76.8 Accelerator - 45 The Pendulum - 49.2 Speed Option - 52.8 Roundabout - 32.4 Average of the averages - 46.275 I'm still working on loads for the CORE so I haven't completed my final setup yet but once I do I plan to zero at 15 yards on paper and then try some runs on different stages to see how things go. I'm thinking Pendulum will be a good one for testing as it uses 10- and 12-inch plates at 54 feet. It'll be interesting to hear what distance other open shooters use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Bacus Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 I always sight my handguns in at 25 yards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Steel Challenge is an accuracy game. The reason most tell you to sight in at 35 yds is because that is the longest shot you will have to take. By sighting in on that it ensures when you take a marginal shot at the long target you will have a good chance to get a hit at speed. You can do what you want, but if you don't know where the dot is at 35 yds and wing shots at the stop plate on speed option you may not be happy..... DougC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxshooter Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 I shoot Open minor for SC. I sight in at 17 yards and my POA and POI are less than 1/2" different out to 50 yards. Your maximum distance is 35 yards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danjordan78 Posted May 30, 2014 Author Share Posted May 30, 2014 Zack and Jax, seems like we are thinking along the same lines. Doug, using the stop plate on Speed Option is an example I hear sometimes, but again, I dont understand it. The stop plate on that one is the 18x24 plate. That means you have 9" of verticle variation where as on the other plates you are working with a 5" variation. Funny enough, it may all be semantics. Calculated my ballistics and i have virtually the same POI at 15 and 35 yards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 Dan, this is not directed at you or any of the other posters on this thread, but around here the reason people don't sight in at 35 yds is because they cannot shoot groups at that distance to check their zero and dial it in..... DougC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 I just got finished working up a sub minor load for my new STI & then sighting in the gun. I set it up to be POA/POI at 20 yds since that is the farthest distance for any of the stages with a 12" plate. I then checked this POA/POI against the 35 yd 18" x 24" rectangle and 7 yd 12" plate. The change in POI for a center POA for those 2 targets was insignificant enough that no holds are required so I'm good to go ... even though I have a degree in AstroPhysics I'm not doing any math unless I have to ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I just got finished working up a sub minor load for my new STI & then sighting in the gun. Not to hijack the thread but that's for the Steelmaster, right? If so what load did you end up with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradhe Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I am way too anal retentive and spent way too much time on this, but if you take the distribution of distance weighted by the angle subtended by the target at a given distance (12 plate subtends larger angle than 10 at a given distance) and find the sweet spot you get slightly over 18.5 yards with a 115 9mm bullet traveling at 1150 fps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danjordan78 Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 That's interesting, thanks! Thats the kind of info I like too. I'm shooting a Steelmaster too. 124g bullet, 4.0g of 700-x puts me right at 1000 fps. Let my friend try it and he said I was cheating;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornetx40 Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 The distance of the center of the optic to the center of the bore will change your sight in distance. If You use the Sierra infinity program you can see the perfect distance to sight in for any load and gun combo that you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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