mzimmers
Bearcat
Hi, all -
I posted this to another forum earlier, but I thought I'd see what the experts here had to say.
Today I took a new (to me) rifle to the range. It's a Ruger 96/44 -- for those unfamiliar, it's a lever action carbine for .44 magnum. When I got the gun, the front site had been broken, so I called Ruger and got them to send me a replacement, which I installed yesterday.
I posted a target at 25 yards. I began with six rounds of some soft-shooting target ammo I had left over. First three shots all touched the "X" in the bullseye. Next three weren't quite that good, but close.
Then...I switch to full-house ammo. And, the rounds are hitting about 5-6" low. I move the target to 50 yards, and they're hitting about double that amount (10-12") low.
The rear sight is already in the highest position possible. Just for fun, I moved it to the middle setting, and the shots came out about twice as low. (I aimed for the top of the target, and they barely hit the bottom.)
Comparing the two loads: the target ammo was a much lighter bullet (215 vs. 265), but I checked the estimated velocities, and there is NO WAY that they were moving faster (or even as fast as) the full-house ammo. If anything, the full-house rounds were *considerably* faster. So, this doesn't appear to be a problem of bullet drop.
The sight radius on the gun is 15"; if I did the math right, that means my front sight would have to be 0.20" lower to get the rounds to print in the right area. And again, this is with the rear sight all the way up. There's a small chance that Ruger may have sent me the wrong front sight, but...I don't think they even make one that's enough lower to bring the shots up 12-24".
Can anyone hazard an explanation for this? I'm at a total loss.
Thanks...
I posted this to another forum earlier, but I thought I'd see what the experts here had to say.
Today I took a new (to me) rifle to the range. It's a Ruger 96/44 -- for those unfamiliar, it's a lever action carbine for .44 magnum. When I got the gun, the front site had been broken, so I called Ruger and got them to send me a replacement, which I installed yesterday.
I posted a target at 25 yards. I began with six rounds of some soft-shooting target ammo I had left over. First three shots all touched the "X" in the bullseye. Next three weren't quite that good, but close.
Then...I switch to full-house ammo. And, the rounds are hitting about 5-6" low. I move the target to 50 yards, and they're hitting about double that amount (10-12") low.
The rear sight is already in the highest position possible. Just for fun, I moved it to the middle setting, and the shots came out about twice as low. (I aimed for the top of the target, and they barely hit the bottom.)
Comparing the two loads: the target ammo was a much lighter bullet (215 vs. 265), but I checked the estimated velocities, and there is NO WAY that they were moving faster (or even as fast as) the full-house ammo. If anything, the full-house rounds were *considerably* faster. So, this doesn't appear to be a problem of bullet drop.
The sight radius on the gun is 15"; if I did the math right, that means my front sight would have to be 0.20" lower to get the rounds to print in the right area. And again, this is with the rear sight all the way up. There's a small chance that Ruger may have sent me the wrong front sight, but...I don't think they even make one that's enough lower to bring the shots up 12-24".
Can anyone hazard an explanation for this? I'm at a total loss.
Thanks...