Advice on sighting in a new to me 686

[John G C 1]

I just bought a very nice looking used 686-3. Gorgeous gun, trigger is very nice at single action. Finally got some 38. special rounds!

When the gun arrived, the rear sight was moved to the right and the guy at my gun shop said the original owner was likely a lefty. OK. Acting on his advice, I turned the screw and I moved the rear sight back to the middle, roughly.

The gun is shooting a little to the right and maybe two inches low for me at 10 yards out with Independence 138 grain FMJ 38. special ammunition. Most of the shots are within 3-4 inches. I am new, obviously.

Here is my questions before I do anything else.

When I sight this gun at ten yards, should I be using the 6:00 sight position with the bottom center of the target sitting on the red top of the front sight like a lollipop? Or do you think it makes more sense to sit the center of the target on the top of the red sight?

Or should I cover the center of the target with the red portion of the front sight?

I am just trying to get a basic idea of how the gun should be sighted in at 10 yards and there is nothing on this in the manual. (Ruger manuals for the 22. caliber revolvers all say the guns should be shot and are sighted at the factory for 6:00 lollipop hold. ) Online advice seems contradictory, so I think I am missing something.

I am interested in target shooting. I figure ten yards is a good start and I can see if I can work out from there.

Comments appreciated, and thanks.

[OKFC05]

unless you are going to shoot bullseye, most sight so the front and rear sights are level, and the bullet hits just at the top of the front sight. If you sight at 10 yds, the bullet should be within an inch out to 35 yds.

That gun should be able to shoot 1" at 10 yds, so just get the sights roughly in the right place and practice fundamentals instead of constantly adjusting the sights. Everybody has to start at the beginning and get the fundamentals.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...4C&FORM=IQFRBA

[litenlarry]

When sighting in a pistol, I use sandbags and a bench for stability...You don't want any bad habit's like flinching to enter in to the process..
Get the pistol on target, then work on your off hand shooting..

[H Richard]

You are aware that if you use 138 gr. 38's it will shoot into a different POI with 158 gr. 38's or any .357's.

[John G C 1]

I am shooting only 38 special loads. I am aware bullet grain makes a difference but I know I do not have a good understanding of this.

I assume the best thing to do is find a brand and grain and then stick with it as much as possible so that I am practicing with a gun sighted for the one ammunition.

To do this I will have to buy as case, as around here now there are just occasional boxes of this and that available, usually Winchester White Box.

Thanks for the images. I will set up some sort of rest and then go with sights aligned and bullet arriving at top of post at ten yards.

I just wanted a starting point. Thanks.

[rwsmith]

I'm doing the same with my 686 and I'm going to try first setting it up so that it shoots where I see at 10 yds with defense rounds and I'll give it 'South Carolina elevation' (kind of like 'Kentucky windage') as I change loads and distance. This is more of a 'combat' configuration than 'target' (which uses the 6 o'clock of the dark portion of the target) I consider that the target config is more for shooting at exactly the same targets at exactly the same distance. Besides, though I hope I'm not going to be doing any combat, my gun doubles as a home defense weapon and I want it to shoot where I point it.

[Gyrene6891]

I agree with litenlarry, find yourself a stable placement to start. that way you know what the pistol does. Are you new to a revolver or to shooting in general? If you are bullseye shooting then always go single action, less trigger pull to maybe take you off center. It really doesn't matter a lot if you go six o'clock or center mass if you have trigger pull problems. Have a friend watch you shoot, hopefully if you have some control issues they can see what they are. Remember if nearly all of your rounds are hitting near the same place it may not be the sights, it could be a consistent control issue.

[John G C 1]

I am pretty sure I do have trigger pull issues. I am somewhat new to revolvers, having only shot a 22. pistol for a few years prior to this.

I want to make sure the gun is sighted correctly for a good shooter, so I will try to shoot it off some sort of bench.

Then I will shoot and try to get better. I just want to shoot decently. I have no illusions.

The guy at my local gun shop said there was no way to accurize a revolver and that I should just shoot and adjust the sights to my shooting. I may well be wrong but I would like to know the gun is set properly and then try to learn to shoot correctly rather than shoot badly and have the gun set to compensate for my errors and "reward" me for doing something wrong.

Maybe I am wrong, but this makes sense to me.

[MarkDozier]

You are on the right track. You have some good recommendations for resting the bun while sighting. Another thing I do is have others shoot the gun and see if they hit the same as I do. The will let you know if it is your or the gun that is shooting whatever way.
If it is you then get some coaching or training. If it is the gun there adjustment that can be made. A good place to start is ammo selection. You can may not like the bullet you shooting. Try some other round and see if anything changes with changing anything yoiur are doing.
Keep and markup your tagets and keep a log of the shooting. This is a good way to help correct yourself if you are honest in your logging.

[SurfGuitar]

This may, or may not help.....

I shoot a variety of styles and matches, so I have certain guns set up for Bullseye 6 o'clock, and some are set up for POA/POI or combat.
I sight all my handguns (both pistol and revolvers) at 25 yards, however at our range most of our matches are shot at 15 yards with the exception of Bullseye which is shot at 25 yards, and another that starts at 50 yards, and ends at 15 yards.

I found for me, that sighting everything at 25 yards works, so I stick with it. Every new gun I get, I pick up those "shoot & see" targets, bench rest it on sandbags, and shoot them single action in 3 shot groups, make adjustments as needed, then shoot another 3 shot group until my groups hit the center mark.

Another key ingredient is to find (what I call) the sweet spot on your trigger finger. Every gun is different, so your hand hold will place your trigger finger in a slightly different position, where you place your finger on the trigger will effect your point of impact as you may be either pushing the gun to the left, or pulling it to the right. Dry firing the gun in front of you at chest level will help you to see if you are pushing or pulling. If you see yourself doing either one, adjust where you place your trigger finger on the surface of the trigger and try a few more dry fires until you no longer see the end of the barrel move left or right when you squeeze the trigger.

Ammo is tough everywhere, but shoot as much and as often as you can find and afford ammo, practice makes perfect.

[Skunkhome]

Personally I like to shoot center of mass with a pistol or revolver. Aim small and shoot small. I think you should first work on precision. Once you get it to grouping tighter then you can start trying to bring it into the 10 ring. When you have 3-4" groups! what is sight in error and what is your consistency?. Read up on your hold...it could be that you are "thumbing" causing the rounds to "group" low and to the right. If you had left the sight where it was it is likely you would have been off the paper and not knowing where the rounds were going. You were right to bring it back to center. I am studying a hold now that says you squeeze the snot out of the grip with your trigger hand them ease up slightly before squeezing the trigger and squeeze the trigger with the finger on the trigger up to the first knuckle. I was shooting low and to the left with traditional hold but now I am on elevation and to the right. This is just one method that I am not sold on yet. Perfect your site picture, perfect your hold, tighten your group then worry about point of impact. Often times the first two issues will solve the third and fourth. Hey you are new but we all were once and some of us are trying to unlearn bad habits we have picked up over the years. Practive with live ammo as much as you can afford but practice dryfiring every day. Everyday!

[shawn mccarver]

Originally Posted by John G C 1

I just bought a very nice looking used 686-3. Gorgeous gun, trigger is very nice at single action. Finally got some 38. special rounds!

When the gun arrived, the rear sight was moved to the right and the guy at my gun shop said the original owner was likely a lefty. OK. Acting on his advice, I turned the screw and I moved the rear sight back to the middle, roughly.

The gun is shooting a little to the right and maybe two inches low for me at 10 yards out with Independence 138 grain FMJ 38. special ammunition. Most of the shots are within 3-4 inches. I am new, obviously.

Here is my questions before I do anything else.

When I sight this gun at ten yards, should I be using the 6:00 sight position with the bottom center of the target sitting on the red top of the front sight like a lollipop? Or do you think it makes more sense to sit the center of the target on the top of the red sight?

Or should I cover the center of the target with the red portion of the front sight?

I am just trying to get a basic idea of how the gun should be sighted in at 10 yards and there is nothing on this in the manual. (Ruger manuals for the 22. caliber revolvers all say the guns should be shot and are sighted at the factory for 6:00 lollipop hold. ) Online advice seems contradictory, so I think I am missing something.

I am interested in target shooting. I figure ten yards is a good start and I can see if I can work out from there.

Comments appreciated, and thanks.

Sight in from a sand bag rest at 25 yards. If you plan to target shoot, then sight for 6 o'clock hold. Self-defense is for point of aim/point of impact.

[John G C 1]

Thanks. This gives me a lot to think about and work on.

J