A lesson learned

Not a handgun but still pertinent. Bought this CZ 457 and it's bull barreled counterpart at the end of the season last fall, had it shooting nickle sized groups at 35 yards when I put her away. Wanting to get some time in the woods with it I took her out this morning and left the handguns behind. Long story short, take your weapon to the range before the season starts. Missed the first five squirrels before I figured out it was hitting about 1 1/2" low.

I had the same thing happen earlier this year. A rifle that has sent many a hog and coyote to hell missed a fallow doe not once but twice ! The rifle had never been bumped, dropped, etc. I still don?t know what happened, but to miss a whole deer ? I borrowed the host?s .280 Rem and collected my groceries but it hurt to miss twice.

DON'T KNOW WHY, NOR HAVE I COLLECTED STATISTICS, NOR DONE STUDIES, BUT I HAVE ALWAYS "FELT" THAT I HAVE HAD LESS NEED TO RE-SIGHT IN AFTER TIME AND/OR TRAVEL WITH MY HANDGUNS THAN MY RIFLE BUDDIES.

Temperature, barometric pressure, humidity will make your guns shoot a little different when not used for a while.
Rey, I have some SPs and revolvers that never change POA, but I have others that are a few inches off. Luck of the draw, I guess.

Every .22 rimfire rifle I've ever had would change point of impact when removed from the stock, cleaned, and reinstalled. I finally bought a Contender rifle and have never hand an issue with it. What do you have wrapped around the barrel and forestock, that could be part of the issue.

your eyes change over time and with it parallax.If you haven't used a particular rifle or handgun with a scope for a long time and pick it up one day and the ocular is out of focus it's your eyes not the scope.The same thing has always bugged me too and that's the explanation that I'm going with!The only remedy for this is shoot often my friends!!

Kind of amusing how some guns can hold their zero despite being banged and slammed around, but others seem to start shooting way off if you so much as breathe on them wrong.



I've always thought that part of it has to do with the fact that handgun optics are built tougher than long gun optics.