Fixed Sight Handgun - What distance

[BigBlueDodge]

Most of the handguns you see utilized a fixed sight system, where shooter can only adjust for windage and not elevation. My question to you is

1. What distance are handguns generally designed to be zeroed at, (5, 10, 15, 25yds)?
2. If you have a gun that has fixed sights, and it is shooting high/low, what can you do to adjust where your shots are hitting (other than just holding over/under).

[Houston1944]

You can change the front sight to a taller or shorter sight depending on which way you need to adjust the POI.

[Bisley]

1. What distance are handguns generally designed to be zeroed at, (5, 10, 15, 25yds)?

I don't know if such a 'standard' even exists, but if it does, my guess is that it would be 25 yards. Some manufacturers (CZ, for one) include an inspector's note in the box that tells you the size of the group that the gun achieved when it was test-fired at 25 yards, which would seem to lend some credence to the 25 yard idea.

2. If you have a gun that has fixed sights, and it is shooting high/low, what can you do to adjust where your shots are hitting (other than just holding over/under).

The first thing I would do is try different ammo, with different bullet weights, to determine which shoots closest to POA. In all cases, so far, with a variety of different handguns, I have always been able to find a factory load that was acceptable to me, that fired near enough to POA to satisfy me. Generally speaking, if a gun is shooting low, you can use a heavier bullet to raise the POI up, because the bullet is staying in the barrel slightly longer, and is therefore being raised by the beginning of the recoil action. This should work in reverse, if the gun shoots high.

Worst case scenario, you can file the front sight down shorter, or deepen the groove in the rear sight, but this is to be avoided, if at all possible, because the chances of a screw-up are very high.