Beretta 1301 Comp

[GunNoob123]

This might be a dumb question. I'm new to shotguns.

The beretta 1301 comp has a rib rail with a front fiber optic and mid bead.

I was placing the mid bead covering the front fiber optic with the rib rail flat. The target was 25yds and I aimed center (bead covering fiber optic and target center). Shot a couple slugs out of a cylinder choke and was hitting high above target.

Is there a proper way of aiming this? Is it normal for shotgun point of impact to be above the bead?

 

[Mumbles Marble Mouth]

You're supposed to place the mid bead below the front bead like a figure 8.

 

[straightshooter]

You're supposed to place the mid bead below the front bead like a figure 8.

...which will raise your pattern even slightly higher still.

Basically, you don't want to cover the target with the barrels because you will no longer be able to see it. In this state, the shooter can no longer see the rate of ascent or decent of the target. In fact, he/she can no longer see the target at all. So, ideally you want the target floating just above the rib, so you can see it at all times.

The alignment of the beads that responders are talking about are somewhat theoretical in the sense that you don't aim shotguns like you do other firearms (except at the patterning board such as you are). Instead, shotguns are pointed, similarly to the way you point with your arm, hand , and finger. You look down the barrels with both eyes open and swing the gun at a speed and direction so that it will intercept the target. At the exact instant that your barrel(s) pass below the bird, you pull the trigger. The speed of the swing necessary to catch up with the bird provides the necessary lead so that you don't shoot behind the bird.

This is why shotgun fit is so important. You will never have time to line up the beads properly or even look down the rib. The correct sight picture can only be achieved if the gun fits such that the shooters eye is neither too high nor too low in relation to the rib(barrels) with an instinctual gun mount. If you have to think about the mount, the bird is long gone.

For this reason, most shotguns are regulated such that, aiming at a center point on a target, 30% of the pattern will be below the point of aim and 70% above. This results in the center of the pattern being in the field of view as you shoot.