Mounting A Laser

[Gunowner99]

I am in the process of mounting a laser to my personal carry weapon and was looking for some advice. What would be a good distance to zero it at? I’m just going to throw a number out there and say maybe 25 feet? Closer? Further? I know the further away I do it in reality the closer I shoot it will hit high so probably need to determine how high is acceptable?

Thoughts on how you all do it and do you somehow align them with your sites? Laugh if you wish that’s OK. It’s a serious question

[ray h]

I adjust mine on the longest distance of any possible use. The reason being, if you adjust it to 50 yards (way out there) even at point blank range it will still be off no more than the distance between the muzzle and laser, does that make sense? Let me try again, if there is 2" between muzzle and laser and you zero it to POI at 50 yards and you don't shoot past 50 yards the most it will ever be off is 2" at the muzzle.
If you site it in at 10 yards and have to shoot something at 50 yards it will be off a lot more than 2".
And, inside of 5 yards you probably won't use the laser anyway.

[luvdabums]

I zeroed mine at 25 ft. It's a CTC light/laser combo on my sd gun.

[Berncly]

I agree with Ray on this one.
Most people don't shoot their handgun beyond 25 yards which is the maximum target distance in most indoor ranges.
If you zero at 25 yards (75 feet) you are good to go.
Same with any distance you may prefer out to 50 yards.
Defensive pistol shooting is all about center mass, and a few inches up or down won't matter.

[Gunowner99]

I think I can go out to 25 yards at my range. So basically at that distance, anything closer will just be a touch high and anything further a bit low? At the end of the day, reality is if I have to shoot in defense it's going to be closer than 25 yards is my guess and zeroed at 25 yards I would shoot a few inches high which is still center mass?

[stainless]

Is the laser good enough to see the dot at 25 yards in bright light / Sunlight?

[streaker69]

Is the laser good enough to see the dot at 25 yards in bright light / Sunlight?

It's a phased plasma laser in the 40W range.

[Gunowner99]

Well if it isn’t I’ll zero closer I suppose. Good point. That’s why I need people like you all to snap me into reality!

[Berncly]

Well if it isn’t I’ll zero closer I suppose. Good point. That’s why I need people like you all to snap me into reality!

To clarify.
If you are a 10 yard shooter then zero at that distance or any distance that is best for you.
What I meant was that anything from 0-25 yards won't present much of an issue with a pistol laser one way or the other.
Center mass gives you room for drift up, down, or sideways, and your shot will still be effective.
Most defensive pistol shooting is going to be under 25 yards anyway, not giving enough distance for the laser to offset by much.
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[Knightshift]

If you zero at shorter distance i.e. 10yards and have to shoot a target at 7yards the laser dot will be hidden by the barrel so keep that in mind.