A question to FP gunnuts: where does the bullet actully go? - General

Before all, I have never shot a gun before, so I don't know jack about firearms, I'm just curious. This might sound like a stupid question, but I have no idea on how this works, it is hard to explain in words so I drew up a 2 minute picture in MS paint. [IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/23hlsvq.jpg[/IMG] grey: where the barrel exit is blue: where you see when you aim down the iron sights green: where you see when you attach a scope red: where the laser goes on a laser aim. where does the bullet actually go? Does it magically move to a different position depending on the attachments?

The Barrel

The Barrel.

So if you stare down the sights you must aim a little higher?

On the laser!of course!

The bullet travels in a mostly straight line from the exit of the barrel (here, the grey line), dropping over time, affected by wind conditions, gravity, shape of the bullet, powder charge, barrel length, et cetera. Sights, including both ironsights and attached accessories (aside from non-adjustable ironsights), are calibrated before use by target shooting the weapon (or by putting a laser in the barrel), then adjusting the sights so that they match where the bullet actually goes. For example, you attach a scope to a rifle, shoot the rifle at a paper target, then adjust the scope's controls until the crosshairs line up on that bullet hole. The scope is now sighted for that distance, so at that distance the bullet will go where the scope is pointed (depending on the accuracy of the scope and the weapon itself). Aiming devices don't have any affect on the bullet, you just adjust the aiming device until it visually matches where the bullet goes. Think of aiming devices like a recorder - last time the rifle fired, the bullet went [i]here[/i] under these conditions. If it fires again under similar conditions, the bullet should go [i]here[/i] again.

[QUOTE=EFG;21267144]So if you stare down the sights you must aim a little higher?[/QUOTE] The attachments don't change the way the bullet moves or anything, they're just used to help you aim at targets far away. For instance, if you were trying to shoot someone/thing at a few hundred feet (obviously you'd not be using that pistol you have right here, some form of rifle :v:) you could use the scope and laser to get the aim right, but you're still going to have to get trajectory and angle and stuff right. Like if it's past the distance that the bullet goes without dropping you'll have to aim a little higher, if it's a moving target you'll have to aim a bit infront.

It depends how the sights are zero'd

bad guys

Can people be this stupid? It goes to the grey line, you then adjust the sights, scope, or laser to that point. Lasers aren't really used for aiming though, they are for designating targets and signaling.

Your sighting is done based on distance and environmental variables.

your butt