I had a similar experience shooting this past summer.
I did some unplanned shooting at 100 yards with my Dan Wesson Valor. I was planning on only shooting Bulls at 25 yards but I spotted two full sized silhouettes that were sporting only .223 holes at the 100 yard berm at my club. I figured my .45 wad-cutter holes would be easy to differentiate and decided to give it a go.
I know that my sights are perfectly aligned out to 50 yards but have never taken this gun beyond 50 until today. I was shooting 200 grain SWC loaded over 6.5 grains of Unique.
What I did experience that really surprised me was a 7" - 8" shift in windage to the left. This is the type of target i was shooting at.
Attachment 4618
I was aiming center of mass and hitting around the bent elbow on the left. The sun was high in the sky and at about 10 to 11-O'Clock (to my left) and very bright. I thought it was the sun or me that was causing my shots to impact to the left.
I ran across this on the net. A few people report that the Point of Impact tends to shift in the direction of the sun. Which is just what I experienced.
http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/...ghtsurvey.html
Glare and shadowing on the sights definitely affects my group size in general and POI. I haven't spent enough time in "bad" light conditions to know which way (I'll file GJM's experience away in the useful bits bin in case I need it) but I definitely know my group size will suffer if the sun is at an odd angle.
Worst for me is when shooting toward the sun so that the sun reflects off the top of my front sight. Not with the sun so low that it's in my eyes but in late afternoon in summer it'll make finding the top of the front sight post very hard and cause a lot of vertical stringing when I'm shooting for precision.
Interesting thread.
GJM thank you for giving me another plausable excuse for my suckage as a shooter.
Speaking of problems, I think your five shots in one hole drill sucks. At a match this weekend, I finished my second stage, on a four yard target with two perfect presses, that resulted in one hole. I didn't get credit for the double even though I was absolutely sure of both shots. I started mumbling about SLG and PF, and just got a glassy eyed look. So the drill ought to be five shots slightly spaced....
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
And let us not forget gravity. I learned that from an old Border Patrol champion shooter; "Every time you drop too many points at a regional or the nationals, it is undoubtedly due to the gravity being different at that range."
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