TargetTalk

My wife is also a pistol shooter, and we share some pistols.
She is still a good shooter. However does anyone else, who shares a gun with a partner, have a problem with the sights?
We find that she needs to adjust the sights 9 clicks on the Walther GSP, and 16 clicks on the Steyr Air Pistol , as she complains that I shoot Low!

She has been told that this is a common problem between male and female shooters. Can anyone verify this?
I know that most shooters would have to make a small adjustment with the sights, but this many clicks seems unusual.

When my wife and daughter used the same pistol, they did not have to alter the sights at all. - only if it was my pistol.

I have the same effect when sighing in my son's pistol with exception that his shots are grouping to the side of mine.
I would speculate that main reason is difference in grip pressure and position of trigger finger. This is very easily check by altering your own grip and observing your group move.
I heard that difference in shooter's height has effect, but I can not really understand why.

Everybody's body & eyes are different. That's why the procedures for aligning yourself with the target is to get your stance first, they hopefully shots in a group, then adjust the sights - not your stance or body alignment with the target.
My past coach & I were about the same height - both short. However, if I picked up his gun, which was the same as mine, I shot in one corner of the paper. If he picked up my gun, he shot in the diagonally opposite corner of the paper - not the black - the whole target paper!
That's how different our eyes, perception etc. was.
I have your same problem with some juniors I coach, with more than one using the same air gun.
I have each of them keep a notebook. In it they make note of what adjustment they have to make one from the other.
The older thinking was that "the gun was zeroed in" so it must be you. What was true then, was that the gun was accurate, but your perception & body are different from the person who "zeroed" it in.
Personally, with a centre hold, I would adjust 8 clicks down & 6 to the right when going from precision to rapid-fire. Thought I was weird, until at my first world cup, all I could hear was clicking, from everyone adjusting their sights from precision to rapid-fire.
So no, it's not unusual. Just keep a notebook with the gun & adjust, adjust, adjust.

My husband and I used to share an air pistol when we were starting out and adjustments were required on a few fronts. Differences between us include 9" in height, several inches in arm length, grip size and vision made that necessary.

1. I'd have to move the palm swell, (I use 3 fingers for the same space he uses 2). And let's face it, the rest of grip couldn't fit both of us correctly. If it fits him perfectly, I can't reach the trigger.

2. At that time we both needed prescription glasses, however, mine was significantly stronger and I had astigmatism in both eyes. The adjustment was 15 clicks vertical and 12 clicks horizontal.

What's interesting is there have been some changes since then. He still wears prescription glasses fairly close to what he needed then. I had lasic almost 7 years ago and it corrected both my nearsightedness and the astigmatism. I do not require a correction for shooting. (And Knoblauch gave me an eye exam in Munich last year to verify that.) Also, we both shoot Walthers and sharing a gun means swapping out the barrel. This means we shoot with a grip that fits. I put his OSP rapid fire .22 short barrel on my grip for a match a while back. Where he would hit the target in the 10 ring, I hit the printing at the top of the sheet that tells you what kind of target it is![/list]

For pistol shooters such situation is not so strange. Recently I have found that difference about 25 clicks (!) is necessary when I use my son's rifle - that has been really surprising to me, as for rifle just centering rings is necessary (we both have passed opto-medic control without any problems).