Sight Picture and sights in general

[9mmepiphany]

• Are these instructions ambiguous? How can both techniques yield proper aim?

They are describing the "how" but not the "why".
The first sight picture, which they refer to as Point of Aim is a good all purpose sighting technique especially at varying/unknown distances
The second sight picture, 6 o'clock hold is good for accurately shooting at known distances where you can allow for how high above your Point of Aim (POA) the bullseye is.
Covering the target is something that arrived with the increased use of 3-dot sights and only gives a very coarse aiming point

• So there is no recommendation to place the front sight directly over the intended target? (By "over," I mean blocking it or superimposing the center dot on the bull's eye.) That's how I've been doing it, and apparently I've been doing it wrong.

That is a way that is somewhat popular, because it takes less effort to align your sights on a target that you can't actually see be because you're covering your target with the front sight

• It seems that in the second picture, the bull's eye is not centered in the target. Am I interpreting this wrong?

You're seeing the dotted line as the target...it isn't. The target is the solid line forming the outer circle.

What's throwing you off is that the target is smaller in the 2nd picture so that you can better visualize the relationship between the aligned sights and the target

I'm finding I like brighter, more visible sights, such as white dots front and rear, but I'm wondering whether a fiber optic front sight might be better.

While they are popular, any dots or outlines on the rear blade will actually distract from rapid alignment of your sights...because you're trying to align them with the front dot. Many folks find that a fiber optic dot, or even a plain dot on the front sight helps them find it faster...but you have to keep in mind that it isn't meant as an aiming point so much as an aid to sight location

 

[mavs]

They are describing the "how" but not the "why".
The first sight picture, which they refer to as Point of Aim is a good all purpose sighting technique especially at varying/unknown distances
The second sight picture, 6 o'clock hold is good for accurately shooting at known distances where you can allow for how high above your Point of Aim (POA) the bullseye is.
Covering the target is something that arrived with the increased use of 3-dot sights and only gives a very coarse aiming point

That is a way that is somewhat popular, because it takes less effort to align your sights on a target that you can't actually see be because you're covering your target with the front sight


You're seeing the dotted line as the target...it isn't. The target is the solid line forming the outer circle.

What's throwing you off is that the target is smaller in the 2nd picture so that you can better visualize the relationship between the aligned sights and the target


While they are popular, any dots or outlines on the rear blade will actually distract from rapid alignment of your sights...because you're trying to align them with the front dot. Many folks find that a fiber optic dot, or even a plain dot on the front sight helps them find it faster...but you have to keep in mind that it isn't meant as an aiming point so much as an aid to sight location

That makes sense because I finally figured out that using glock sights, the dot on the front is not aligned with anyting to get the POA correctly. You still use the top of the front sight and the top of the rear sights to determine where the POI is going to be with those sights.

I modified my sights by painting lines across the top of the front and rear sights and use the top of those lines to shoot and ignore the dot to shoot. I originally used the top of the dot to align with the top of rear sights and that was not aligning properly and actually that was much of the cause that my glock 44 was shooting high. The picture shows my glock 44 sights after I marked the top of front and rear sights and now I shoot it much better for height.

 

[deadeye dick]

I like the Heine 2 dot sight that came stock on my PT1911 Seems easier to line up. I also like the fiber optic on the S/A Ronin

 

[.308 Norma]

"6 o'clock" is for bullseye target shooting.

Or handgun silhouette shooting.

just "balance" the bullseye "ball" on the front sight.

Or 50-meter chicken, 100-meter pig, 150-meter turkey or 200-meter ram. At those distances with a handgun, the front sight wipes out half the target unless the target is "balanced" on top of it.
On the other hand, when my wife and I are using handguns to "exterminate" ground squirrels in the spring, we each try to keep "center or mass" on the top of our handgun's front sight as we squeeze the trigger. That's because we only use our handguns for ground squirrels that are 20 yards or less away. If they're any further out there than about 20 yards, we use our scoped rifles. Even though ground squirrels are vermin that dig huge holes for our rancher friend's horses and cattle to step in, we try not to make them suffer when we shoot them.

 

[brontodon]

Brontodon, just make sure you're following the rules of gun safety, have fun, and keep us posted.

What I can tell you now is that I've been approved for firearm purchase by the State of New Jersey and expect to join the ranks of firearm owners pretty soon!

 

[JJFitch]

Until you actually "bench" shoot your gun with you preferred ammo you won't know "it's" preferred sight picture for its "point of impact"!
If you must, you may have to adjust "your" sight picture, "POA" to hit "your" preferred "POI" if your gun has fixed sights!
Next comes mechanical sight adjustment if your gun has adjustable sights.

 

[brontodon]

Next comes mechanical sight adjustment if your gun has adjustable sights.

I haven't bought anything yet, but I am leaning towards guns with adjustable sights. How important is that?

 

[JTQ]

I haven't bought anything yet, but I am leaning towards guns with adjustable sights. How important is that?

Certainly, there are folks that use guns with adjustable sights for carry, and most revolvers have them, but most carry/duty/defensive guns will come with fixed rear sights, such as Glock G17/G19/etc., SIG P226/P229, Beretta 92/M9/PX4/APX, CZ75B, etc.

For most of those guns it's not a problem if you want to change to adjustable sights, as most have an adjustable sight option, though many may not have a lot of options and many may not be very good, but they will all probably fit into the standard factory dovetail.

Where you run into issues is with the 1911. There are a lot of companies making 1911's. Not all use the same sight dovetails, and not all sight options are available for all sight dovetails. Most 1911 adjustable sights are rather tall, square, and have sharp corners. They also have little screws, and aren't super durable. A "carry" 1911 with adjustable sights may need some workarounds. There are Novak adjustable sights that fit in the standard Novak dovetail, but again, you'll need to plan ahead to make sure you get a Novak dovetail from the factory, unless you want to have you slide milled or welded on.