Sighting Problem

[iloco]

I have a North West Trade gun which I took to the range today for the first time shooting it.
  At 25 yards to see where the ball was hitting I was shooting about 6 inches low.
How I was sighting is looking across the barrel with the front spider sight centered on the bullseye.
 Where the tang screw is located there is a small filed V at the back of the breech.
Do I need some kind of taller sight or what am I doing wrong shooting the gun.

[George Sutton]

You need a lower front sight or you need to bend the barrel.

The Joy of shooting smoothbores.

Centershot

[iloco]

Centershot I have room to file some off the front sight if you are correct.....

[bob in the woods]

If you think about it…the rear sight on a rifle sits above the barrel. If you sight along the barrel, i.e. lower than the normal position of the rear sight notch, you will hit low.  I try to find a comfortable position re my cheek on the stock, and imagine the rear sight actually being there….just to work up a consistent mount/ hold.   Once I find that repeatable hold, I just use the front sight.  It is fast, and it is instinctive…a bit like archery..but I can hit what I shoot at and that's good enough for me.

[iloco]

bob in the woods I kind of got the feeling about the instinctive part of it after a few shots.
 I shot bows instinctive for years so know how it feels.  Just got to shoot it more and get use to it I guess.
Seems strange shooting a gun with no rear sight.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I try to ignore the top of the barrel flat at the breech for sighting smoothbores.  It is much too close to my eye to get a clear picture. Rather, I use the transition at the wedding band for my reference.  For 25 to 50 yard shooting, I place the tip of the front sight on the centre of the bull and see the entire front sight down to the barrel steel, above the barrel at the wedding band.  For my gun, that gives me a perfect centre hit at those ranges.  For longer ranges, I raise the front sight above the barrel steel so I see some barrel between the sight base and the wedding band.  The tip of the front sight always stays on the centre of the target, no matter the range.  For 100 yards, I see an equal amount of barrel as I see front sight, above the flat at the wedding band.  Your gun is likely going to be different, but I hope you grasp the concept.

There is no consistency in holding over the target.

[iloco]

D. Taylor Sapergia I understand you very well. It makes perfect sense to what you said.
 I will give it a try next time to the range.  Shooting a smoothbore with out a rear sight is new for me but I am getting the grasp of it now.

[iloco]

Now my trade gun is how I like it.
I ordered a PC sight from Clay Smith and had Dale Johnson install it for me on Friday.
Today I was able to get to the range and fire the gun to see how it would perform.
At 50 yards first 3 shots were dead on center and about 2 inches to the left.  I can move the rear sight to bring it to center.
 What a big improvement over not having a rear sight.

The weather was 70 degrees at the range.  Had to remove my jacket I was wearing.  They say winter will arrive on thursday. High will be only 30 degrees.