Tell me about your sight pictures

[Boats]

Some sighting systems on handguns, such as on the Berettas I once owned, were of the "drive the dots" type, meaning that you lined up the sights exactly where you hoped to hit.

On other handguns, such as my 1911s and my Ruger GP-100, the preferred set-up is "six o' clock," where one holds the front sight below the point where one hopes to strike the center.

I find dot driving more intuitive. I find I also like six o clock for not obscuring the target. However, since the Ruger is adjustable, I have converted it to dot drive as I am more accurate with that sight picture.

Tell me what sight pictures are supposed to be used for your handguns as I can't yet own or shoot everything.

 

[Majic]

Except for some of the exotics like ghost rings, the sighting systems actually all work the same. The various dots, triangles, lines, and what nots just serve to aid in low light and increase speed. When all is said and done with aligning the various symbols you still end up with the top of the front sight even with the top of the rear sight and the front should be centered in the rear notch.
Some like to have a dead on aim and others like me prefer the 6 o'clock aim. That part is just a matter of preference and can be accomplished with all the sighting systems.

 

[JiminCA]

I like my guns set up dead on at 15 yards. This means a touch low up to 15, and a touch high on out to 25. Makes is possible to "float the ball" when shooting at 25 (assuming the ball is 1 to 1-1/2 inch dia).

 

[Standing Wolf]

Sight pictures vary from shooter to shooter. I've adjusted all my iron sights for the six o'clock hold, which has delivered better results for me for several decades. Since my sight isn't still acute, I've gradually switched to red dot scopes. I started out sighting them in at six o'clock, only to find the intuitively more obvious center hold works better for me.

The original transition from center hold to six o'clock with iron sights took me several weeks to accustom myself to. I think the advantage is that one gets to see the whole target.

 

[M2 Carbine]

I like my pistols sighted in so the bullet hits a couple inches above the sights.
So it depends on the size of the target and distance I'm shooting whether I'm using a 6 o'clock hold, a center hold or somewhere in between.

My carry gun, a Kimber Tactical Ultra (3 inch barrel) hits level with the sights at 50 yards and a few inches high at 25 and 15 yards.

Also at long distances the target is so fuzzy for me I do better just aiming for the center.

 

[P95Carry]

Some real basic stuff I posted not too long ago .... mainly for newbies but perhaps too a useful reminder ..... some diagrams too.

 

[cstuard]

My first couple pistols including Beretta92 ex-police were set up for the traditional POI is just on top of the front sight blade. Then I got my first Beretta Elite II which was using the 'drive the dots' system. It was quickly changed by fileing down the fr sight. I much prefer to be able to see the POI and this keeps all my pistols the same. Another advantage, for me anyway,is that as I as I transition to a more rapid rate of fire I also transition to a 'drive the dots' picture which helps compensate for my tendency to jerk a couple inches low. The gun then is moving around enough that covering the POI for an instant isn't bothersome. I'm certainly no expert but this works for me.