Young shooter scope/aiming help

DonVathome · Nov 6, 2016

My 10 year old daughter is shooting my air rifle with a centerpoint 3-9x40AO scope.

I am right handed and so is the gun, she is left handed and left eye dominant. She consistently hits 1" left at 10 yards.

She will be hunting soon and I need to figure out how to get her shooting correctly.

Why is she hitting left?

pookiebar · Nov 6, 2016

LAST EDITED ON Nov-06-16 AT 01:51PM (MST)[p]Every shooter holds the gun differently. She is doing nothing wrong. You either need to center and sight the gun in for her, or buy her a gun.

Nine times out of ten the reason someone misses an animal with a borrowed gun is because they never took the time tos sight it in for them.

txhunter58 · Nov 6, 2016

Agreed, if she consistently shoots in the same place, just adjust the scope for her and know you will hit 1" to the right!

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

Uttaxi1 · Nov 6, 2016

Could be just a lousy trigger pull. Not to uncommon for right handed shooters to pull to the right with a heavy trigger. Would also recommend sighting in for her eye like the others have stated.

DonVathome · Nov 7, 2016

She does pull trigger hard not slow and steady (will teach her that soon). Issue is she is going to use by far my favorite and most reliable gun - my remington 700ml (Muzzleloader). I do not want to touch sights. I also do not want her to shoot it a lot yet - afraid she will start to flinch if she shoots it a lot - she is tiny and weighs only 60#

The scope I have has parallax adjustment and I hope that would fix it? Never had a scope with this before.

I also set rifle in a rest and moved my eye back so I was further then you should be and "circle" I saw as 1/2 the size it should be. THen I moved my head left and right and saw the crosshairs move - hence if she is not putting her head the right distance she could set it in the same place each time and hit left. My other daughter (same size but right handed) shoots right on where I hit.

I am just hoping I can solve problem so we both shoot the same.

pookiebar · Nov 7, 2016

Your going to give her long term shooting problems! She is left handed and will NEVER hold the rifle the same as you. Its better to buy her a lower priced muzzleloader that is still known for accuracy and reliability. Try this one:
http://www.cabelas.com/product/shooting/black-powder/black-powder-in-line-rifles|/pc/104792580/c/104701680/sc/104533380/thompson-47-center-impact-muzzleloader-150-blued-black/706448.uts?destination=%2Fcategory%2FBlack-Powder-In-Line-Rifles%2F104533380.uts

It is much harder to correct bad habits, especially if taught and reinforced early on, then it is to train a shooter correctly from the start.

DonVathome · Nov 8, 2016

True, want to at least let her try it before I buy set up and sight in a gun.

Basically I thought better scopes did not have this issue at all - which is I am hoping the AO on the objective lens is the "source" and solution.

Stonefly · Nov 8, 2016

ALWAYS go with the dominant eye. (I am left handed and learned to shoot right because im right eye dominant, years ago) as for her adjusting to your gun....well i dont belive it can be done,and trying may only cause her more trouble than either of you want. I found years ago that everyone has their own style. You should follow the basics and properly fit the gun to the shooter,but there is still an amount of Style, that everyone incorporates into their shooting form. I have raised 3 children this way and all are what i would consider better than average shooters. We also do A LOT of shooting as a result of our rural homelife. So, set HER up with the right equipment. Teach her the basics, and let HER develope her own style. Keep shooting and you will be surprised. Good luck

DonVathome · Nov 11, 2016

Again I agree but for the life of me I cannot figure out why I cannot stop this.

Correct me if I am wrong:

1. This is caused by parallax.
2. My scope has an adjustment for parallax
3. If I set the scope to 30 feet and shoot at 30 feet there should be no parallax
4. This should mean every hits the same spot

whitwell_56 · Nov 11, 2016

Like everyone else has said, adjust the scope for her, or get a different gun and sight it in for her.

It is not the scope, but how she holds the gun and looks through the scope.

pookiebar · Nov 11, 2016

Go to Brownings website and search MOA shooting. They have an interesting video showing an out of the box Browniing being shot out to 1,000 yards. If you want you can skip to the very end and see what we are talking about. The guy who sighted the rifle in for him is dead center at 1000 yards, he then hands the rifle off to another guy and though he hits the target consistently he groups them high and to the left. You can't just hand a gun off to someone.

DonVathome · Nov 12, 2016

Thanks guys I believe you but my engineering mind is still trying to do math!

Hopefully they get into hunting and if so a gun and xbow coming for xmas!

ELKOHOLIC · Nov 12, 2016

I have had the same issue growing up shooting my dads gun. He is right handed and I am left handed. Everyone aims a little different but I think a lot of it might be a parralax problem. Keep in mind that most scope are not set up correctly for parralax. Just because it says the yardage your shooting doesn't mean that it will even be remotely close. The only way to no for sure is put the gun in something where it wont move. Now move your eye left and right and see if the cross hairs are moving off the bullseye. Keep adjusting the parralax until you have taken most of the movement out. Thats the correct yardage and you can even correct the dial to much up with the yardage. Remember parralax is compounded at closer yardage.

DW · Nov 12, 2016

It's a cheap scope.... it's what they do. Wouldn't surprise me if you didn't pick it up for a few years then went and shot it it would hit different because your holding it differently than you did a few years prior. Good luck getting them kids in our pastime!

huntFX4 · Nov 12, 2016

If she isn't getting a good stock weld where she is looking down the center of the scope it will shoot different than it does for you. It's not her trigger control or she would be all over the place.

Adjust the scope for her. I personally would be hesitant to put a ML in her hand being that small. Mine kicks worse than my 300 winmag. After the first shot I would expect bad shooting habits.

DonVathome · Nov 12, 2016

Gun will be in a rest with sand bags and adsorb 95% of recoil and I am putting bubble wrap around eyepiece to be safe.

Longun · Nov 13, 2016

tell her to put sight picture just to the right of target....

elks96 · Nov 14, 2016

Not sure why you would argue with those who have told you the answer. As a left handed shooter I always shoot different. I have never picked up a right handed persons rifle and had it shoot the same. If she is grouping and always to one side then it has to do with the way she is holding her head. My wife as a left handed shooter always shoots slightly right of my groups by positioning her head.

At the range last month we experimented with head position. having my check a 1/8th inch higher on the stock than normal shifted my group by 3/4" at 100 yards.

She needs her own gun or a gun sighted in for her...

Growing up I was always told I was shooting wrong. My step dad would zero a gun and hand it to me. I would always shoot it 2" high and 3 to the right. Again it had to be me because he had it zeroed. I got all screwed up as I did not want to deal with the issue and eventually starting aiming low left so I did not have o hear about doing it wrong.

My daughter and son are both right handed. With their 22s I can zero it and have it pretty close but when it goes to paper at 50 yards they are both shooting low left. At 25 yards no big deal. On rabbits when they miss it is always low left. This year we are going to zero both guns for them and not me.