It's been a month since I had an opportunity for live fire, but I made it to the range last night after work to zero my wife's AR upper and get in a few rounds of practice with my AR. Slow fire prone at 100 yards (single loading) was on the menu, since that's been kicking my butt for months.
My first shot was a 7 at 5 o'clock. I'd called it as a 10, so I cranked my sights up and left. The next shots were a 9 at 11, and another 7…at 11 o'clock! Unfortunately, these also felt like 10s, so I backed off my sight adjustment, switched to a 6 o'clock hold, and shot seven more rounds into the fuzzy gray blur downrange without plotting my calls or looking through the spotting scope. The result? Not what I wanted, but…it was still a 2 MOA group, because I was able to focus on the front sight. This is circled in red on the target.
I'd been shooting with an 038 sight hood in my A2, and the black clouds combined with late evening had killed my sight picture. I swapped in an 042 hood and it was as if someone had turned the lights on in a dark room. I switched to my usual center hold and shot a more respectable score, but more importantly, my calls were correct (except that 9, where my eyes were closed).
The moral of the story: Appleseed teaches a 4 MOA standard for slow prone, and we've all heard that story of the guy with an M1 Carbine who shot into a gray blur with good sight alignment and front sight focus. Well, it actually works, and now I know how it feels to shoot at a little gray blur; I apologize for making fun of you old geezers who deal with that all the time. ;D
This is/could be this phenomenon that HP shooters refer to as "spiderwebs" in the rear peep.
I actually thought it was a piece of hair....and my eyes are not what they used to be. I asked an AMU shooter 2 years ago at Camp Perry about it.....and the guy spent a LOT of time explaining the phenomenon to me. Unfortunately I do not remember all he had to say about it.
Definitely make sure the peep is free of lint, dust etc.
The FIX is a diopter in the rear peep. That was what I was told. This was before I got better at focusing on the front sight and calling my shots.
I ordered the Bob Jones diopter and it really did bring the FSP more into focus. Which in turn allowed me to focus on it, and learn to call my shots.
After a few months....I removed the diopter during a practice session. I can shoot 200/300/400 yards fine with iron sights. 600 is where it gets real tough for me. I get vertical stringing....and it is definitely not my breathing. It is my eyes unable to find a repeatable aiming point on the target. I tried Center of Mass, 6 o clock, sub six, line of white.....basically everything except a frame hold.
Couple things that helped were putting a WIDE front sight post on. .080 I was able to find, think at Compass Lake.
That wider post helped...but still not good enough to score well. Lots of high and low 8's and 7's.
OPTICS fixed that for me.
So....not sure Maxwell if this is in line with your post or not. But it was what immediately came to mind as I read your post.
R/
Chris
Quote from: navybowhunter on May 12, 2017, 02:50:48 PM
This is/could be this phenomenon that HP shooters refer to as "spiderwebs" in the rear peep.
I actually thought it was a piece of hair....and my eyes are not what they used to be. I asked an AMU shooter 2 years ago at Camp Perry about it.....and the guy spent a LOT of time explaining the phenomenon to me. Unfortunately I do not remember all he had to say about it.
Definitely make sure the peep is free of lint, dust etc.
The FIX is a diopter in the rear peep. That was what I was told. This was before I got better at focusing on the front sight and calling my shots.
I ordered the Bob Jones diopter and it really did bring the FSP more into focus. Which in turn allowed me to focus on it, and learn to call my shots.
Yeah, similar problem; I've seen that phenomena, and you can't get rid of it with canned air :). I do have a +0.25 BJones lens in a White Oak hood, since I was unable to maintain front post focus about halfway through slow prone at a recent match. The lens seems to make it darker, though, so the 038 hood is just too small under the light conditions I had yesterday (hour from sunset, surrounded by trees, with heavy, dark clouds). The better string was shot under the same conditions (same rifle, ammo, lens, etc), just with a larger aperture.
Quote from: navybowhunter on May 12, 2017, 02:50:48 PM
After a few months....I removed the diopter during a practice session. I can shoot 200/300/400 yards fine with iron sights. 600 is where it gets real tough for me. I get vertical stringing....and it is definitely not my breathing. It is my eyes unable to find a repeatable aiming point on the target. I tried Center of Mass, 6 o clock, sub six, line of white.....basically everything except a frame hold.
Couple things that helped were putting a WIDE front sight post on. .080 I was able to find, think at Compass Lake.
That wider post helped...but still not good enough to score well. Lots of high and low 8's and 7's.
OPTICS fixed that for me.
Yes, exactly: not having a "repeatable aiming point" is what killed me on finding the 10 ring, and it was really frustrating. Line of white gave me a semi-repeatable aiming point, but a 2 MOA group is not acceptable on this target. I use a 0.072" front post, but an 0.080" is on my list of things to try; Tech Sights get this backwards, IMO, with the skinny post and huge aperture.
I didn't even bother taking pics of my optic session from yesterday, since it was
way worse, with 7-ring vertical stringing. That should be an obvious fix, once I get time to play with it more.
-- adam
I know you're doing actual distance, but I gotta say that after I took the scope off of my LTR and installed tech sights, the 4 moa boxes on the 25m drill targets are just what you said: Tiny grey blurs. I'm quite literally guessing my point of aim. Finally after a LOT of practice i managed consistent 8 hits out of 10. I maybe shouldn't, but I feel pretty good about that lol