Help me understand focusing on the front sight

[LKB3rd]

The advice about getting rid of the target is very good, and worked for me to break the habit of looking at the target.
I start out with my .357 mag, and no targets. I fire anywhere from 15 to 50 rounds this way. I do some with targets after that.
When i go to my .45, not only does it feel moderate in the recoil, but having practiced with no target to even tempt me to look at it, i am able to focus on the front sight until the shot breaks.
It was counter intuitive for me at first, but using the no target heavy recoil "warmup" many times, it has definitely made a big difference.

 

[cp1969]

I have never focused on the front sight, except maybe when shooting off a bench.

I always look at the target when shooting moving targets or bowling pins, plates, etc. There is not enough time to acquire the target, then shift focus to the sights, then back to the target to see what happened. I guess I'm in 'fire for effect' mode but it gets results.

 

[wanderinwalker]

Front sight, front sight, front sight! That's really ALL it takes.

I helped a gentleman at the range last weekend, who is a new shooter and was having some difficulty staying on his target. I offered some unsolicited advice (and a .22LR pistol to try said advice). What I told him was, "Take your drawn sight picture, focus on the front sight. Let the target and rear sight blur, just lock on that front sight. Now squeeze the trigger until the pistol fires." It was like a light-bulb for him. After that little tip he was shooting much better.

After reading Cirillo's book, I've tried his "silhouette of the pistol" alignment trick at close range, and WOW! It works great when you do it right. He recommended taping the rear sight to start this, which I haven't tried yet but likely will.

The only other trick I can think of is to learn to just squeeze through your wobble area. Don't try to get the front sight to stop and then pull off a shot. Just squeeze the trigger as a you wobble. Learn slow, in baby steps, then build speed as a you go. The fundamentals, applied quickly, will out-score just shooting fast and blindly, and can be just as fast.

 

[336A]

Read over this, heck print it out ant take it to the range with you. Just go slowly, take your time and your shooting will improve.

Next time you go to the range take some time and concentrate on the principles.


PRINCIPLES OF SHOOTING.

The two firing tasks.

(1) Properly point the weapon (or insert any projectile launching device) at the target.

(2) Fire the weapon without moving it.


A. FIRST PRICIPLE OF SHOOTING.

(1) SIGHT ALIGNMENT.
Sight alignment is the clear tip of the front sight in the rear sight both vertically and horizontally. All to often people believe that sight picture is more important than sight alignment. This simply is not true, if you have bad sight alignment yet a good sight picture (Center Mass), your bullet will not hit where you think it will. It makes no difference what weapon you are shooting; always concentrate on proper sight alignment.


(2). SIGHT PICTURE.
(a) Correct sight picture is simply the introduction of a target, into properly aligned sights.
(b) Unfortunately we easily become fixated on the target and look past the alignment. Since we already established sight alignment we could easily look past it.
(c) The eye can only focus on one thing that focus needs to be on the front sight, ensuring the Continuous process of sight alignment

Focus on the front sight, NO EXCEPTIONS.


B. Second Principle of Shooting.
(1). Trigger Control

Trigger control is the movement of the trigger to the rear, in such a way as to not disturb sight alignment.

• The most important thing about trigger control can be summed up with one word SMOOTH!
• By not moving the trigger smoothly, we misalign the sights when the weapon fires.
• This can happen because the weight of the trigger that we’re moving to the rear has to go somewhere when the hammer is released.
• Often this disturbance is masked by recoil, or your perceived anticipation to the recoil.
• Remember even the slightest misalignment will throw the projectile off course.

(2). Follow Through:

• Continuing to apply the two principles until recoil has ceased.
• Keep your head pressure on the weapon the same (when firing a rifle).
• Keep your grip pressure the same.
• Keep visual focus on the clear tip of the front sight.
• Keep your aiming eye open through recoil.
• Ensure that all of these are held until recoil ceases.

C. Shooting is:
(1). Properly pointing the weapon with consistent Sight Alignment.

(2) Firing the weapon without moving it utilizing SMOOTH Trigger Control.


Remember the Principles of Shooting apply to any projectile launching device!

Acceptable movement:

Now I will add a little bit more here. It is time to talk about acceptable movement. No one can hold a weapon perfectly still to achieve a perfect sight picture, but we can attain perfect sight alignment. The only way you could attain a perfect sight picture is if the weapon is locked in a vice, or your clinically dead. So now you have to figure out what does your acceptable movement look like.

For some the front sight will appear to be moving on the target in a vertical motion, horizontal motion, diagonal motion, circle, figure eight, or even like an infinity symbol ( I've seen/heard it all). Now once you have figured out what your acceptable movement looks like you want to try and minimize it(or make the movement smaller), and pick a definitive spot in that movement. Once you have that figured out try to make all of your shots break at the same point every time. This is were the old adage of "Aim small Miss small" actually comes from. I hope this helps.

 

[-terry]

Nice. Thanks.

-terry

 

[GLOOB]

I find this discussion fascinating. Why would there be any difference between archery and firearms, in terms of where you should be focusing your eyes? I find myself focusing in on the front sight only when the target is smaller than my area of wobble... such as shooting at 6 inch iron plates from 50 feet, and even then my focus shifts only after I have the proper sight picture. This is a scenario where wobble will cause a miss, so the trigger has to be pulled in a moment of "trueness." (Even here, I would be quite confident of hitting this target at least 50 percent of the time, without the focused aiming, and I might be tempted to keep up a sustained rate of quasiaimed fire if someone is shooting back at me.) On the other hand, I have no problem firing shot after shot into a 3-4 inch circle from 20 feet, focusing only on the target and shooting in semi rapidfire without the least bit of concern over wobble. Don't most defensive shootings occur within this distance?

Many of the most legendary gunmen made their reputations in the era of single action revolvers, sometimes firing from the hip while fanning the hammer. The movie Young Guns depicts Billy the Kid filing the front sight completely off of his revolver, (I don't consider Hollywood to be always accurate in recounting history, but I still wonder if there's any truth to this bit). Good mechanics and muscle memory are key parts of firearms training, particularly with a pistol. Using the sights, at all, is sometimes secondary, is it not?

I am particulary baffled that a cop would be counting the serrations on his front sight while shooting it out with a bad guy less than 20 feet away.

 

[GLOOB]

I find this discussion fascinating. Why would there be any difference between archery and firearms, in terms of where you should be focusing your eyes? I find myself focusing in on the front sight only when the target is smaller than my area of wobble... such as shooting at 6 inch iron plates from 50 feet, and even then my focus shifts only after I have the proper sight picture. This is a scenario where wobble will cause a miss, so the trigger has to be pulled in a moment of "trueness." On the other hand, I have no problem firing shot after shot into a 3 inch circle from 20 feet, focusing only on the target and shooting in semi rapidfire without the least bit of concern over wobble. Don't most defensive shootings occur within this distance?

Many of the most legendary gunmen made their reputations with single action revolvers, sometimes firing from the hip while fanning the hammer. Good mechanics and muscle memory are key parts of firearms training, particularly with a pistol. Using the sights, at all, is sometimes secondary, is it not?

I am particulary baffled that a cop would be counting the serrations on his front sight while shooting it out with a bad guy less than 20 feet away.

 

[brickeyee]

The rear sight is a peep sight and the front sight is a sight pin, which could be analogous to the front sight on a pistol or iron sighted rifle.

Peep sights greatly increase the depth of field of the eye and can allow the rear sight, front sight, and target to be almost nearly in sharp focus.

For handgun target shooting a Merit attachment (other peep type device) works very well.
It seriously restricts vision and requires a relatively bright environment for hte gun and the target to work very well though.
Some bullseye shooters even block off the 'off' eye.

But target shooting is not self defense shooting.

Your brain will try to center up the front sight in the blur of the rear notch.

Since the target is normally pretty large, and you are shooting for 'center of mass' super accurate placement is not as important.

Focus on the front sight.

 

[DerbyDale]

Todd Jarrett IPSC Pistol Grip Lesson

 

[MrBorland]

For handgun target shooting a Merit attachment (other peep type device) works very well.
It seriously restricts vision and requires a relatively bright environment for hte gun and the target to work very well though.
Some bullseye shooters even block off the 'off' eye.

I've used the Merit attachment for the last few months and am now weaning myself off. A fine device, it allows you to see a the front sight as well as a small target at 25yds or more for bullseye-style shooting. Trouble is, I don't think it gives you infinite depth or focus, so the front sight and the target aren't really in the same focal place, and since you can see the target reasonably clearly, the temptation is even greater to take your attention off the front sight.

For long-range work and/or a small target, it works fine, but you have to make an extra effort to focus on the front sight. For anything under 25yds, IMO, you're better off without it in the long run.

 

[crebralfix]

The Sight Continuum

There are a variety of aiming techniques depending upon the nature of the shooting you're doing. Certain gun games require extreme proficiency in sight alignment and trigger control for success. Other situations just require a definition of "acceptable" and either a trigger pull/press or a slap. Distance, target size, circumstances, and urgency all determine what you'll do. For example, in a close fighting situation, it may be more important to protect the gun from grasping hands, so you point the weapon low and hammer the goblin's legs and lower body. People like federal agent 7677 have introduced the concept of the "sight continuum". It is a guide to which shooting technique you will use in a deadly force situation. It starts with "hip shooting" and ends with formal use of the weapon's sights (applies to rifles and shotguns as well).

Learn all these techniques and apply them as needed.

0-3 yards: Retention technique should be employed and relies on body indexing with very little hand/eye coordination.

3-5 yards: Fairbairn's "Half-Hip" position.

5-10 yards: One or two handed point shooting. ***I also recommend Jim Cirillo's "silhouette shooting" technique described in his book Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights***.

10+ yards: Sighted shooting.

The distances are not absolute and are dictated by the shooter's confidence in various techniques and circumstances.




source: 7677's "Sight Continuum" essay

http://kilogulf59.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=handgun&action=display&thread=1153661460

 

[kludge]

Peep sights greatly increase the depth of field of the eye and can allow the rear sight, front sight, and target to be almost nearly in sharp focus.

Fact. Just like a camera obscura (pinhole camera).

A small peep also does wonders for people with a slight astigmatism.

1000 points for brickeyee.

 

[jad0110]

For some the front sight will appear to be moving on the target in a vertical motion, horizontal motion, diagonal motion, circle, figure eight, or even like an infinity symbol ( I've seen/heard it all). Now once you have figured out what your acceptable movement looks like you want to try and minimize it(or make the movement smaller), and pick a definitive spot in that movement. Once you have that figured out try to make all of your shots break at the same point every time. This is were the old adage of "Aim small Miss small" actually comes from. I hope this helps.

A U.S. Marine Corps competitive pistol shooter gave me this bit of advice. He stated that it is impossible to hold the gun perfectly still, and trying to do so will only make the wobble worse. Let it wobble he said, and instead of trying to hold it still, try to let the front and rear sights wobble around the same axis point. In other words, the front and rear sights should waver in perfect sequence/alignment with each other. He used the figure 8 technique, but stated that it may be different for me. I'm still experimenting to see what works best.

As for a double target image, I found that focusing on the front sight against a bare wall made a huge difference. I would then move the unloaded gun to a picture hanging on the wall, all the while focusing on the front sight with both eyes open. In less than an hour of commulative practice, my brain learned to interpret what it was seeing: a clear front sight, blurred rear, and a single blurry target (no double image).

crebralfix,

I basically do the same thing, though I begin using the sights at 7 yards. Good info, and a very interesting thread. Thanks to all who have contributed.

 

[brickeyee]

"Trouble is, I don't think it gives you infinite depth or focus, so the front sight and the target aren't really in the same focal place,"

As the hole gets smaller and smaller the depth of field gets larger and larger.
Focus is a perception thing, limited by the resolution of the imaging system (the eye in this case).
You do not have an infinite density of rods and cones in your eye, so there IS a resolution limit.

A small hole reduces the size of the 'circle of confusion' for otherwise out of focus objects.
If you reduce the circle of confusion to below the resolution of the retina you have infinite 'depth of field'.