daniel craig
Member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2009
- Messages
- 2,815
So here's the deal. I've been shooting for 30 years, actively shooting with weekly range visits and monthly matches for about 8 years. I only started recently shooting paper, working on Bill Drills, Dot Torture drills, etc. And I've come to the conclusion that I don't shoot "right" according to most things I've read (and actually according to what I teach new shooters. I teach sharp focus on the front sight, target is out of focus, rear sight slightly out of focus. But I don't think I have been actually shooting that way, at least in matches or when doing drills.
Something intrigued me about what Travis Haley says here, at 10 minutes 53 seconds.
The "hard threat focus" he discusses is apparently what I've been doing, or at least something closer to that than "clear front sight." I have weird eyes. I wasn't diagnosed with a lazy eye as a kid because I memorized the eye chart because I didn't want to fail the test. My right eye didn't develop properly. It's kinda like poorly developed film or a digital image without half of the pixels. I'm strongly left-eye dominant but right handed, so I shoot long guns lefty and handguns righty, using my left eye. I am what most people would call competent or moderate/advanced handgun shooter; I usually place top 15 percent in local matches and I have won a few. Not state or national level, so take that for what it's worth. But I feel like I'm reasonably competent.
In shooting drills on paper recently, I've become aware that when I really try to get a sharp focus on the front sight, two things happen:
1. It slows me way down; and
2. I see two targets and have to kind of pick the correct one. This happens whether at 3 yards or 20.
I have never really seriously evaluated what I'm actually doing when I shoot before. I just shoot and the plates fall. I have had moments in matches where I have tried to pay attention to where my focus is and have had mixed results.
Shooting a red dot has probably concealed this issue because with a dot you have a "target focus" and the dot just hovers over it. You're not focusing hard on the dot/optic. At least I'm not. This works okay for me; here's a recent video for reference if needed.
However, I've been shooting iron sights the past couple of weeks and I've learned that it's rare for me to actually have a sharp, clear, front sight focus. I can see the sights reasonably well aligned with each other and with the target, but they are somewhat blurry; my actual focus is on the target or somewhere between the front sight and the target.
My question is... at this point in my life should I actually put in the effort to try to learn to shoot with a sharp, clear, front sight focus? Or is the result what matters? If I can hit targets reasonably quickly does it matter where my focus is? Should I perfect and continue refining and progressing using my natural instinctual sighting method or should I learn to "do it the right way"?
As Travis says in his video above, in an actual fight your focus will likely be on the threat. I imagine it's somewhat controversial to contradict 100 years of handgun fighting canon by suggesting that you can shoot quickly and accurately without a sharp front sight picture. Maybe this doesn't matter, but I am pretty curious about it.
My thoughts....if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If you’re shooting fine as is don’t change.
My handgun is mostly for SD. For ME I figure that if I’m far enough away that I need to aim I’m better off just getting the heck out. The human body is big. At 7-10 yards it point and shoot.
Out of curiosity, do your shoot with both eyes open?
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