shotgun v. pistol: focus on sight or target?
Howdy all,
I've missed reading the shotgun threads for a couple of weeks while I focused mostly on pistol issues. (Just bought a Kahr K9 while waiting to find the 870P i want, so have had lots of questions about pistols, pistol ammo, holsters, etc.)
Disclaimer: I've never been much of a pistol shooter before now, but am planning to move into it now. So I'm a total novice there. At least with shotguns & rifles, I've shot a lot of both.
But after reading this thread (twice to make sure I'm reading correctly), I'm a bit confused about how to use sights on shotguns & pistols. Admittedly, this question might be more appropriate for the pistol forum, but since part of my confusion about pistols has arisen in this shotgun thread, i hope it's ok if I post it here. Besides, regardless of whether pistols & shotguns are used the same or different, the comparison is relevant.
If I'm reading correctly, you folks are - pretty much by consensus, it seems - suggesting that with a shotgun, one should focus NOT on the front sight, but on the target. The front site is only a "reference" or an index. OK, I think I can understand that.
Further, I'm assuming that this applies to ALL shotgun shooting, not just trap/skeet, right? That is, same thing applies when shooting a BG?
OK, so then if I've got that part right, then here comes my confusion.
Here's what Nnobby45 wrote in one of the last posts:
Your sight is very important as a reference and properly mounting your shotgun by bringing the gun firmly to your face and pivoting as you swing, in effect, makes your whole body the sight system. The sight is far enough away so that it isn't completely out of focus like a pistol.[italics added]
But wait, says the handgun novice. I thought with pistols, the golden rule was specifically to focus on the front sight, with rear sight AND target blurred.
Here's where I'm getting that. In a thread in the Handguns: Autoloader forum called
25 Yard Accuracy, Powderman says in two different posts to focus on front sight. It's a long thread, and no one has countered with other advice.
Powderman said:
As far as losing the target at 25 yards is concerned, you should not even be looking at the target. Your focus should be on the front sight.
Concentrate on that front sight--it should be clear, sharp and in focus. Let your eyes naturally center that front sight.
And later in the same thread:
Try focusing fully on the front sight. Practice presentations (first from the low ready, then from the draw--with an unloaded handgun, of course!) where your sole objective is to find that front sight and to focus on it.
So, i've been practicing this week with an unloaded pistol with first, target acquisition, then focusing on the front site and letting the target blur. (I can still see the bulls eye, or the sillouette, but I'm focusing on the front sight and putting it on the target.
So, which is correct with pistols? Focus on front sight or not?
And, if indeed one doesn't focus on the front sight of a shotgun, but only keeps it in the visual field as a reference, then I'm not sure that i any longer understand all the hoopla about ghost rings, especially for defense shotguns. (Surely for deer shooting it would be different.)
Can some of you please educate me? Show me the light?
Thanks,
NemA~