eli5 How are guns accurate if their sights are so high?

Question

Take the ak for exemple, the front sight is like 4 centimeters above the barrel, how is that accurate? Do you just have to compensate for that? Also aplies to scopes, some of the sight quite high on the gun

Edit: i already know they make arcs because of gravity and the angle of the barrel

In: 0

Answer 1

First, bullets don’t travel in perfect straight lines, they travel in arcs. With that in might, most guns have adjustable sights. That means you can zero in your sights (or whatever kind of optics you have) for any desired distance. In other words, the sights are calibrated such that, at a specific known range, the point of aim of the sight and the point of impact of the bullet are the same. You can make this happen for any distance. [This image might help you visualize how it works](https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-7063a9e532843a244371b562bacb0211-lq). Most optics also let you adjust left and right as well to compensate for wind and at extremely long distances, Coriolis effects.