Shooting my Contender 14" barrel in 30-30, dead on at 35 yards, roughly 3" high at 50 yards. Balistics calculation indicates should be about .3 high. Am I gripping to loosely and allowing the recoil to jump that much? Similiar results with my 14" .44 mag barrel and my 7.5" barrel Ruger SRH.
???? Any thoughts or suggestions?
This is off a "field" type rest, fore-end resting on a fork and butt on at pad. Arms & elbows not resting on anything.
thanks,
Charlie

Most likely the ballistic calculations you're looking at are rifle ballistics; it'll be different for handguns.

True, the calculator is setup for rifles, is there an Internet accesible calculator (for free, hopefully) setup for handguns?

Do you know the actual velocity of your loads from your guns. If not, you can throw the calculations out the window. Just adjust your sights so you are hitting where you want.

Yes I know the velocity of the load. That said, I now feel that the recoil differnce will be more in tune with "me" and probably not calculatable. In other words, where do I shoot at this distance, at that distance, etc.
thanks all,
Charlie

It's a little hard to use ballistic tables with some handguns because how you grip the gun and what it's rested on can have pretty big effect on POI. You'll even notice a difference between a bench and field shooting positions. My best advise is to shoot enough to really know your gun.

Charlie where to hold at typical distances is something you will have to confirm yourself with time on the range. What kind of sight setup do you have on the 30-30 barrel. If it is a scope setup with high rings so you don't need a hammer extension you wouldn't have to be but just a little high at 35 to be close to three inches high at 50. Go ahead and sight it in at 100 and then drop back to 50 and 35 to see where it hits.