re: classic .38's....a glitch?

Thee are people who try to use the ghost ring sights on handguns...for me it won't work with the apature at arm's length. The idea is that with a big apature close to your eye, it kind of dissapears...your eye centers the hole, then it kind of ignores the thin ring. You really don't even notice it BUT with a rifle you have something to keep you face plasterd in the same place (a stock). With a handgun, there isn't anything to keep yur head in position. Was NEVER designed for precision, it's supose to be "fast"...and it is on a rifle or shotgun.

With a handgun, the ring never becomes a "ghost"...you still see it and have to exert the same effort at sight alignment as with open sights.
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For your old guns, try blackening the sights. Know that bright colores are the "hot" for gun sights, but a flat dull non-reflective black on a well lit range is tough to beat. your oldies have small sights, rounded sights, and probably well worn shinny sights...better to make them dull black.

When I need color, I use liquid paper....it comes in various colors, and I kind of like the canary yellow for use on poorly lit ranges. Cleans off with solvent aver the range visit.

Can blacken them with soot from a flame (a disposble lighter will work..so will a match). It rubs off, so it's not for duty use.

One of the odd things i've found with fixed sight revolvers (actually with all revolvers, just that the adjustable sight shooter re-adjust sights) is that how you grip the pistol will change POI. In general, the harder you grip a pistol, the lower it shoots on target.

That sounds odd...but if you get a dead straight edge and run it from the tip of the front sight to the rear sight, will notice the sights actually point ABOVE the bore line (or the bore points below the sight line). What actually happens at a shot is that we line up the sights to the target...but the bore is lined up BELOW the target. At the shot, recoil starts as the bullet moves...long before the bullet actually exits the muzzle. If everything works out, the gun rotates up (along with the arm hanging on to it) and the bullet exits pointed in the right direction. Anything that changes this roation can change the POI.

The sight to bore line differnce is less noticable on low recoil guns (like .22's), less noticable on heavy weight guns in any caliber, but VERY noticable and measurable on light weight big bore guns (the old Charter Arms .44 specail didn't even need a straight edge to see the difference in lines).


It's one of the reasons that when we get tired (and don't grip so strongly) we get fliers.

...sorry...server trouble, and I had to either post or get dumped off line.

In classic one hand shooting, can make the revolver an extension fo the arm...you are more sideways to the target, so you can look straight down your arm and the handgun that follows the same line as your arm. MOST of us actually hold the grip a bitt off-line...the more we face that target, the more we "monkey wrist" the grip to get the barrel to line up with our eye. Really not a problem if you can do it exactly the same each time...but it does induce more fatigue.

Id shooting two-handed, it's nearly impossible to get the arm in direct line with the barrel.
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Lots of advice on grip strength...I'll try grabbing the gun as in line with my arm as the stance will allow, and grip as hard as I can without shaking...usually "ill grip to a shake, then back off until the muzzle stops jumping, and luse that pressure. Is way more than a .22LR or light loaded .38 will need for control, but as I shoot a pile of calibers (some that do tend to recoil a bit) find it better to err on the strong side of things.

Been a while for me as well...at least where the scores will be posted for all to see. Found that as time progresses, the ability to shoot long strings decreases. If you cut the scores into 1/3's, will fothen find a consistant decreases in each of the secotions. Can still hold one handed and squeeze off 10-15 rounds well, but with decreasing ability thereafter.

Picked up the cap-and-ball revlovers again after a long leave-off. If you think the sights on the old Colt's suck, this will make them look like the big improvemnts they actually were.

If I were starting freash (and young) would consentrate on paper targets more and plink less. While we all enjoy plinking, do find that there is no feedback for misses....don't get that paper confirmation that you pulled one way or the other, so difficult to sourt out the error. The second poor result of plinking is that it draws attention AWAY from that front sight...we all do it...it's just so much fun to watch that target shatter, leak, explode, zing off into the sky, or topple over.

When I was more serious about poaper punching, would often shoot home made targets. Would use black construction paper with a white bull just big enough to aim at clearly. Didn't so mauch give a rat's-rump where the group was (with an adjustable sighted gun, can make them land just abouth where ever you wanted) just how small and how round it was. Oddly, pretty happy with a 1.5" circular goup...unhappy with a 1.5" string or "cluster'flier" group. Same results, but the round group (the goal was one that looked pretty much like the top of a pepper shaker) showed a btter hold than the smaller strung out group...with that last, know I could have done better.