Flat Trajectory of a .38 from a 2" barrel

[Guest Jack Brickhouse]

My father recently purchased a set of Crimson Trace Grips for his S&W 637 airlite .38 special. We are wanting to set the laser for the furthermost shot BEFORE the bullet drops. We're going to set it using cheap range ammo...130 grain. Any suggestions as to how far away we should place our target?

[jaredshs]

Hmmmmm...that is a tough issue to work on. I doubt that you will be able to see the laser at the range that the slug start to drop. In my view the laser is best used at

10 to 15 yards and it would be smart to sight it in with the ammo that the gun will

be carried with if he plans on using it that way.,

[molonlabetn]

Most .38 Special loads from a snubnose drop about 2"-2 1/2" at 30yd... so I'd say unless you can shoot a sub-2" group at 30yd with the gun, there's no point in doing more than setting it to actual point of aim at any yardage you feel comfortable shooting, considering that in actual use (which will hopefull never happen), you'll likely be within 21 feet of the target.

[Guest Jack Brickhouse]

For some reason I thought had seen on TV "Tactical Impact" that at twentyfive yards you should aim 4" high. Maybe it was further than twenty five yards.

[LngRngShtr]

The Laser will outreach the round,..that's physics.

a 125 gr. XTP from Hornady @ 875 fps. with a .5" sight height ( not sure how far below bore line the laser is.. ) to use numbers figured on a 6" target come out to this (courtesey of Real Guns - External Ballistics Calculator ).... yours may vary from this as pistols and ammo may vary but you can adjust once you fire a few over a chrono and confirm your BC to plug in to the website above..

Yards 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

FPS 875 866 858 850 842 834 826 819 812 804 797

Energy212 208 204 200 197 193 190 186 183 180 176

Path - in.-0.5 1.1 2.2 2.8 3.0 2.6 1.8 0.5 -1.4 -3.8 -6.7

Best Zero Results Near-Zero - yds. 3

Midrange - yds.38

Far-Zero - yds. 73

Max Ordinate - in. +3.0

Point-Blank - yds. 87

Remember bullets fly like footballs so it crosses line of sight (Laser) twice near and far zero now if you set the barrel totally level to the ground and it will drop as molonlabetn says but why throw away effective range ?

Depending on the size of the beam,... you may not have to sight it in too high and you will be good to 80+ yds. on a 6" target according to this simulation of course you should verify at a range and don't take numbers over real world holes in paper..

Seems close enough to handle anything close enough to be a threat..

John

Edited January 15, 2010 by LngRngShtr
reset chart.