CQB and Sights

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amprecon

amprecon

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For those of you who have gone through the training or experienced CQB firsthand, do they teach you to use your sights? Or is it just a point and shoot method? It seems under such close proximity 20ft or less, it'd be much quicker to point the weapon at the target and get the shot off rather than take the valuable time required to bring the weapon up to use the sights.
I remember reading somewhere a while ago that the Israeli's taught their trainees a particular method with handguns where they could accurately point shoot at their targets within a given distance and be consistant.
I know some rifles and handguns would be more difficult to point shoot with because of their design than others.
When I went to the Reserve Police Academy, they taught us to focus on the front sight of the handguns and never take your eyes off the target if you have to reload or if you have any other distractions.
I have seen many instances where the handgun or rifle or shotgun is already up at eye level when clearing, but do the sights really get used at such close proximity when the adrenalin is pumping?
 
yeah thats the reason for training yourself. you need to aim and be able to do it under pressure.
 
At a distance of approximately 5-7 yards or less, I don't use or need my sights for defensive shooting. Over the years I've also learned to be much quicker at acquiring my sights, so they are often still in the picture by the time the gun is "up".

But, you can in-fact "point shoot" without sights at short distances without any practical loss of accuracy (head shots/COM on targets), and I was initially trained to operate using this very practical method.

There is no one hard and fast rulel that defines how every shot should be made under every circumstance, at least in my opinion. I can "point shoot" out to about 5-7 yards without any issues... Beyond that I'll certainly be using my sights! But, on the other side of the coin, I was even trained to use an entirely different stance and technique for shooting at distances of an arm's reach from your attacker... I've had folks argue with me that training at that distance is pointless, as you don't need to train to shoot from a 1 yard line. But, training for that distance is all about speed. At 3-feet you don't need skill to make hits, you just need a gun. At those distances speed wins the gun fight.
 
As Clint Smith wrote in the January/February 2008 American Handgunner:

"It's always argued that in a fight shooters will not look at their sights. I strongly agree -- if no one has ever taught them otherwise. To say that people don't, or won't, look at their sights is wrong. People have, they will in the future, and they'll hit the...target too. The correct alignment of the sights is a learnable skill. Is a textbook perfect sight picture available in every fight? Of course not....In fairness, the sights are only part of the issue -- the jerked on trigger doesn't improve anything."

With the proper training and practice, it's amazing how fast one can acquire a flash sight picture and hit accurately. Learning those techniques and developing proficiency in the use of those techniques also gives you the flexibility to deal with targets at pretty much any distance. Yes, most gun fights are close range affairs. But what do you do if you've focused all your training on engaging targets 5 to 7 yard away; and the one time you really need to use your gun, it's the one in a hundred case in which you must engage an armed threat 10 to 15 yards away and partially behind cover?

The idea behind the flash sight picture is to focus on the front sight quickly and align the sights only as precisely as warranted under the circumstances. At distances on the order of 5 to 7 yards, when the target is the center of mass, a rough alignment will be sufficient to assure good hits (as long as you have good trigger control). As distances increase or the target shrinks, the alignment needs to be more precise. But with training and practice you can develop a good sense of how good is good enough and be able to make instantaneous judgments.

Even when one has been taught to look at the sights, how much has he actually practiced quickly seeing the adequate sight picture and acting reflexively, without conscious thought, on the rough sight picture? As another trainer, Bennie Cooley, once told me, "It's not that I shoot quicker than you do. It's that I see quicker."

I often wonder if the reason there are so many misses in fights has less to do with the particular technique that shooter has been taught, but the fact that he hasn't trained sufficiently for the technique to become truly reflexive.

And whether you use the sights or point shooting techniques to direct the muzzle of the gun in line with the particular part of the target you want to hit, if you don't have trigger control, your muzzle will not be in line with the part of the target you want to hit when the bullet leaves the barrel of your gun -- and you will miss. But if you have controlled the trigger properly, you will hit. There's no target too close or too big to miss.
 
Some people who have trained with a specific firearm for long enough can point and shoot with VERY good accuracy out to 60 feet or so. They know what the gun looks like when it's aligned with the target and can do it without even using the sights. Mostly it's about training.

When I was around 12, I got to where I could do that with my BB gun. I could shoulder the gun and fire it, and hit 12-ounce Coke cans at 60 feet every time without even using the sights. Nowadays, I can do similar with most 1911-angled pistols at shorter range as I've trained to make them an extension of my hand.

The optimal sight for CQB is a red dot, though. As soon as you see that dot on the target, fire and you'll hit it.
 
fiddletown

You wrote: "There's no target too close or too big to miss. " Very well said.

That is the bitter truth. One can easily miss at arm's length.

Whenever possible, I want the best sight picture I can get under the circumstances I'm dealing with, but working in very close, sometimes the gun never comes up to eye level. You have to train for that too.

Just my thoughts.

Respectfully,

DarkSoldier
 
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