Shooting iron sights

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monotonous_iterancy

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Last weekend I took a few shots with a .270 at about 75 yards. I hit the very edge of the board I was shooting at, a few inches from the right. Then someone told me to float the sight right below the target, and I hit much closer.

I've always tried to put the rear and front sight in a perfect line with the target. The only problem with this is that at any significant ranges it becomes difficult to see my target, and it involves some guess work. I've heard of floating sights, but never really understood it. How much do you float it, for example.

I get that everyone has their own style, but is there a proper way to align the sights?
 
Put the target center or bullseye perched right on top of the front sight blade.
(that prevents the target from hiding behind the front sight so you cannot see it.)

Focus on the front sight only.

Let the rear sight and target blur out slightly.

You cannot focus on three different distances at the same time.
So don't even try.

If you have a clear & in focus front sight, your eye will take care of getting the other ducks in a row without you thinking about it.

rc
 
Never heard of floating.
Zero your rifle to put your load either right at your aim point or slightly above it at a certain known distance.

I zero most of my rifles to aim at one point and have the impact hit two inches above the point of aim at 100 yards.
You can put your sights right on a given target at anywhere from 75 to 150+ yards with your caliber & expect to hit it.
Denis
 
^^^^
Great Info. Posted

I call it "snow coning" the target. LOL

I love iron sights. With a little bit of trigger time, you will be amazed at your groups.

Keep after it. It will become second nature in short order.

BB
 
What you are asking about is referred to as a 6 o'clock hold or 'pumpkin on a post'

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6 steps to firing the shot:

1. Sight alignment

2. Sight picture

3. Respiratory pause

4a. Focus your eye on the front sight
4b: Focus your mind on keeping the front site on the target

5. Press the trigger, smoothly, without disrupting the sight picture/rifle (think squeeeeeeeze, surprise break)

6a: Follow through: Hold the trigger to the rear for a brief moment after the shot
6b: Follow through: Take a mental snapshot of your sight picture when the shot broke



Do you have any questions regarding any of those steps?
 
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=258808
There's a little clutter in the thread, but a lot of good information in it. It's a sticky in the rifle section under "useful links". Thread title "the finer points of iron sight aiming".

Pretty much, focus on only the front sight. Everything else will be fuzzy. The amount of fuzzy deoends on how good your eyes are. Get a proper grip on the rifle, meaning a comfortable yet stable grip with your firing hand and your offside elbow directly under the rifle. You will wobble. Fact of life. Learn to limit the wobble within an acceptable margin and squeeze the trigger to the rear. If it takes more than a couple secnds to break the shot, take a deep breath and start over. Your eyes are among the first organs to be affected by oxygen deprivation and after your body begins to deplete that one breath you've been holding (or even better, a portion of a breath after a partial exhale) vision begins to deteriorate from optimal.

Move your left hand (assuming a right handed shooter) a lot closer to the trigger guard than you've been taught (unless you happen to have been taught by an accomplished shooter) and make sure your elbow is directly under the rifle. Keep the right elbow (again, assuming a right handedd shooter) as close to parallel with the ground as is practical or possible.

Don't muscle the rifle on target. This will almost always result in a miss. Instead, point the rifle in a comfortable direction and move your feet to acquire the target. With a proper stance and natural point of aim, breath control will control most of your elevation.
 
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When in doubt, fall back on the old military acronym BRASS.

Breath. Taking a large breath, exhale, take another breath and hold (temporarily)

Relax. Your point of aim should be as natural as possible. Move your feet or re-position your body to get a more relaxed position.

Aim. Get your sights on target.

Sight. Once initially alighned, focus your entire vision on the front sight. Nothing else matters. Your world now revolves around that front sight.

Squeeze. The entire hand should be slightly contracted to eliminate pulling the rifle off to one side during trigger pull.

Again, if it takes more than a few seconds, start over.
 
I prefer the respiratory pause be taught at the 'bottom' of the cycle, at the end of a natural expiration. Most people are more relaxed at that point, and it is more consistently repeatable than holding your breathe after breathing in.
 
I agree. The first breath is to flood the system with as much oxygen as possible. The second is used to slowly exhale to control the expansion of the ribcage to achieve proper elevation control. Watch practiced High-Power shooters. You'll see their muzzles move straight up and down as they breathe between offhand shots. The near complete exhale and pause is most useful in other positions. The partial exhale and pause is gret for offhand shooting. Keep in mind, too, that the final steps of taking the shot should take at most one or two seconds. Prepping the shot is where you need to spend the bulk of your time.
 
When you put the front sight directly on the target you cover a large percentage of it. The six oclock hold lets you see the whole target, but also gives you a much finer aim point...the bottom edge of the bull. Aim small, miss small, as they say. I normally dont use any formal target, just a blank posterboard with about a one inch black sticker on it...but still, I am aiming at the smallest definable point on it..the bottom edge.
 
Daveboone said:
When you put the front sight directly on the target you cover a large percentage of it. The six oclock hold lets you see the whole target, but also gives you a much finer aim point...the bottom edge of the bull. Aim small, miss small, as they say.
Click to expand...

The limitation here is that you are then only sighted in for a specific target and a specific distance, of course.
 
Light bulb went on in my head. If you can't see the target using a dead hold, you're closing one eye. Shoot with both eyes open.

Or just do like Warp suggested and find an Appleseed. I have yet to attend one, but it's on my list of things to do within the next two years.
 
Hold

The limitation here is that you are then only sighted in for a specific target and a specific distance, of course
Click to expand...
And...how is that substantially different than the effect of a center hold? With a center hold and adjustable sights, one zeroes the gun so that the bullets impact directly even with the top of the front sight. As one changes distance, that point of impact will change as the bullet's trajectory changes. The same happens with a six o'clock hold except that one can see more of the target with the six.
If one is talking about three dot sights and sighting them so that the target is covered by the dot of the front sight......I don't understand why anyone would do that as it would be the least accurate of the three methods.
Pete
 
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And...how is that substantially different than the effect of a center hold? With a center hold and adjustable sights, one zeroes the gun so that the bullets impact directly even with the top of the front sight. As one changes distance, that point of impact will change as the bullet's trajectory changes. The same happens with a six o'clock hold except that one can see more of the target with the six.
Click to expand...

With a center hold the size of your target is irrelevant. If your point of impact is 2" high at 100 yards, you'll be 2" high on your target no matter what size your target is.

With a six o'clock hold, the size of the target becomes important. Sighted 2" high at 100 yards, a six o'clock hold on a 4" diameter target will put the point of impact dead center. The same six o'clock hold on a 24" diameter target will put your point of impact 22" below center.

A center hold on both targets will put the point of impact 2" above center in both cases.
 
If this has the typical vestigial iron sights, the rear sight, already not very large to begin with, is mounted very far forward on the barrel. Put an aperture ("peep") sight on the rear of the receiver and the front will center itself, leaving only the target to worry about.
 
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