Stick12

Haven't posted in quite some time but had a gun-related question and figured this would probably be the best place to ask it...

I'm fairly certain I am over-thinking this and I feel kind of dumb asking it as I have been around guns, shot guns, and hunted my entire life and this FEELS like it should be a "duh" type answer but I'm going to ask anyway just for peace of mind.

I am right handed and right eye dominant, if I have a slug gun with open sights zeroed and dead on for a certain distance and I take that same gun and hand it to my wife who is left handed and left eye dominant, with all else being equal can I expect the gun to have the same POI when shot by her as it does with me? Obviously there are lots of other factors that affect accuracy but just from a "mathematical/trigonometric" standpoint should the gun shoot exactly the same for her from the left side & left eye?

Thanks to anyone who can answer this.

Oldtimr

It should be close but everyone hold the firearm differently not everyone has the same cheek weld and not everyone is built the same so it makes a difference in where the gun will shoot. If you are going to let your wife use the gun you should have it sighted in for her. Your best bet would be to buy her her own gun, that way each of you would have a gun sighted in by and for you.

JW

OT hit it right on the head. Yes it shouldn't make a difference. But "Gun fit" changes everything.
Take the time and sight in with your wife using it.
With her doing that and seeing she hits the bullseye gives her confidence in her ability and the shot.
Hey be safe out there good luck.

JW

hunters_life

To make it a mathematical answer, with open sights, it will be about a 90% probability that it will not hit in the same spot that you sighted in at because of the difference in focal angle that you hold verses your wife's hold. Where your eye picks up the front site in the rear will more than likely be different than where she sees it. Even scopes can have different POI for different people though they are usually closer than open sights will be.

Nomercy448

“Mathematically,” if your scope is parallax free, a slug gun will never notice the difference between two shooters. Even a precision rifle will have less shift between two shooters going right to left handed in the same relative position than it will for a single shooter going prone versus free recoil.

I shoot both right and left handed quite often, hand my rifle to my left handed sis, or my wife 6” shorter than I or my son 2 full feet shorter than I, or any of a few dozen long range rifle students I’ve taught/coached over the years, and with parallax free optics, any will shoot sub-MOA out to 600 yards, or beyond.

That’s not to say two different people won’t jerk triggers differently, such if the rifle is zeroed to accommodate the first shooter’s bad habit, the second shooter’s bad habit won’t pull the bullet into zero in the same way. But the theory of “different shooters = different POI” is dramatically overhyped.

hunters_life

He was asking about an open sight slug gun not scoped.

Valorius

In my experience, everyone shoots to a slightly different spot with the same gun. This is especially true when we are talking about people with less than perfect eye sight.

Even if the group size is exactly the same, POI will very often be different.

Nomercy448

The same rule applies for irons as I stated for optics. If you’re aligning the sights the same and holding the same POA, the POI shift caused by the shooter change won’t be noticeable for a slug gun.

Any difference in POI should be (rightfully) attributed to the two shooters pulling the trigger differently, aligning the sights differently, or holding a different sight picture/POA. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill, and don’t ignore the real mountains.