The competition PCC standard — and a trajectory where the sight-height offset up close matters more than the drop far away.
Pistol-caliber carbines live in two worlds at once: USPSA-PCC and steel stages engage targets from 3 to 35 yards, while the occasional rifle-bay stage or plate rack sits at 50 or beyond. The 50 yard zero is the accepted compromise — far enough that midrange targets need no thought, close enough that the 9mm's rainbow arc hasn't taken over yet.
Here is the part that separates PCC from every rifle page on this site: with an AR-height dot sitting 2.6 inches over a 9mm bore, your practical problem is not drop at distance — it is offset up close. At the 10 yard line this setup prints well over an inch low, and at contact distance the full 2.6 inches. Hostage-taker heads and tight no-shoots at club matches are lost to this, not to trajectory.
So treat this target as two lessons in one: the 50 yard crossing zeroes the gun, and the short-range rows of the table below are your offset card. Our height-over-bore guide in the Learning Center explains why the geometry works this way.
Bullet path relative to line of sight, 9mm, 124gr at 1150 fps, 50 yard zero, standard atmosphere. Plus is above your aim point.
| DISTANCE | BULLET PATH | HOLD (MOA) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 yds | −1.3″ | 12.8 UP |
| 15 yds | −0.8″ | 5.3 UP |
| 25 yds | −0.1″ | 0.2 UP |
| 50 yds | 0″ | — zero |
| 75 yds | −3.7″ | 4.7 UP |
| 100 yds | −13.1″ | 12.5 UP |
Two things: the close-range offset above, and ammo sensitivity — 115gr, 124gr and 147gr loads leave a carbine barrel at meaningfully different speeds, and subsonic 147gr in particular arcs visibly more past 50. This target is computed for 124gr at 1,150 fps.
Height over bore. Your dot sits 2.6 inches above the barrel, and at close range the bullet simply has not climbed to the sight line yet — that is geometry, not a zero error. Check the 10 and 15 yard rows in the table and build the hold into your close-target index.
Some shooters do, and it is defensible for a pure close-range gun. But a 25 yard PCC zero pushes the far crossing and midrange rise into the exact band where 35–50 yard steel lives, trading a known close offset for a mushier midrange. For mixed club shooting, 50 remains the cleaner answer.
Yes. At roughly 950–1,000 fps from a carbine, a 147gr subsonic drops away noticeably sooner than this 124gr load — the two do not share a zero past close range. Print a separate target via the custom generator with your suppressed load's velocity.