Sight Picture for tactical shooting

[radioflyer]

While talking to one of the more experienced guys at an IDPA meet, he explained that he used different sight pictures for various distances to increase his speed while still maintaining accuracy. This included something caller an "imperfect sight picture" Which if i remember correctly is aligning only the front sight on target instead of both front and rear.

Does anyone have any further reading on various sight pictures for tactical enviornments?

 

[Texas1911]

Close up you are still going to be in the A-zone with the front sight in the center. As you move further out, like after 10 Yards, you need a good complete picture.

I went to the range this week and was just banging away for the most part. All of the shots were in center mass and the head, and I wasn't really looking for the sight picture. I was just going off general point of aim.

 

[fm2]

I think the term is "Flash sight picture".

The Combined Skills Class covered some history on this as well as applying it on the range. Most people can judge a sight picture in less than a tenth of a second.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

The way I learned it, think of it as varying degrees of clarity in sight picture. If you are taking a shot at speed at only 7yds or some other close distance, you don't need to focus ridiculously hard and have a crystal clear sight picture. At those kinds of distances, with proper sight alignment, even if the front sight looks a little fuzzy and your focus isn't 100% perfect, you still have proper sight alignment so you'll still get accurate hits provided you're doing the fundamentals right. When you start to make shots at distance though, the farther out it gets, the more precise those fundamentals need to be and therefore it helps to have more of a crystal clear sight picture to verify perfect sight alignment.

There's various terms people will use, like "flash sight picture" as FM2 mentioned. I've also played around with my focus as well, and have seen different ways people do it. One of the ways I've tried out is, at closer range, using more of a focus on the target while still paying attention to the sights. What I mean by that is my focus was on the target, but it wasn't point shooting either as I was still referencing and focusing my mind on maintaining proper sight alignment. The end result is a clear target focus and blurry sight picture with proper alignment. I've found when shooting at speed at shorter distances (usually inside ~10yds) with fast follow up shots, at least some of the time I could do so more quickly by not focusing so incredibly hard on a perfectly clear sight picture but rather focusing more on proper alignment, proper follow through, and just running the gun. I hope all that makes sense. There's also other ways people will do it, that I have tried before. Similar to the one previously mentioned, except that my focus is on the sights, or possibly between the front sight and target. Basically the focus wasn't a target focus but more a front sight focus, however it was a bit quicker and "rougher" one which means the sight picture wasn't perfectly clear and maybe a tad on the blurry side (somewhat similar appearance to the previously mentioned sight picture).

One thing that becomes readily apparent if you really start to learn more about running a firearm, especially a handgun, is the physiological aspects behind doing so are numerous. There are probably 100 or maybe even 1000 little physiological factors going on when attempting to do so proficiently, and it's amazing all the little factors you can play around with and the effects it can have on your proficiency. Heck, we could take a single one of those aspects, such as grip pressure from the support hand, and have a 10 page discussion on just that! It can be overwhelming and pretty in depth. It really is no different from becoming proficient in racing sports cars, professional sports, mastering a musical instrument, etc. It's all about obtaining that unconscious competence, which takes LOTS of practice, and not just practice, but rather PERFECT practice.

If you really want to learn a lot, there is nearly limitless info here:
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo! (Powered by Invision Power Board)

 

[Texas1911]

Freaking novel.

Basically you need to do what you need to do as a shooter to get good hits. If you can trust your technique and proficiency to return the gun on target then you can fire rapidly, 2-3 shots a second without a sight picture. At longer ranges, you have to slow down and start using the sights.

 

[Eagles1181]

Better than asking around here, is simply take it to the range. If you can get good hits quicker this way, use it. If not move on.

Eagle

 

[navyguy]

Point shooting, which for the most part involves just seeing the front sight, and using muscle memory along with a good consistent grip to give you the proper rear sight alignment (although you don't see it) can be quite accurate out to about 10 yards or so. Maybe longer ranges if you practice enough. You're probably not going to get fist sized groups, as most people can do with controlled slow fire shooting. But shots should be well within the kill zone, and that technique is worth practicing as it is most likely what you would use in a split second defense situation.

 

[radioflyer]

Better than asking around here, is simply take it to the range. If you can get good hits quicker this way, use it. If not move on.

Eagle

I tried shooting at an IDPA meet about 2 weeks after this conversation took place. The first few Cofs i took my time using just front sights, but after that I just pretty much pointed and shot. The entire night i think i got maybe 3 hits outside the A zone. This is probably a combination of my comfort with the P30 and years of training with various FPS games like "Area 51" Maximum force and Time crisis. I found that anything 7 yds or less i don't really have to have a sight picture as long as i can see the gun itself line up. 7-10 yds a front sight picture will keep in on target.

Video-game training ftw!
...the only catch is it didn't help me practice reloading

 

[Eagles1181]

...the only catch is it didn't help me practice reloading

Yea, but that you can practise in the back yard. Just leave the ammo in the house.

Eagle

 

[fm2]

You're probably not going to get fist sized groups, as most people can do with controlled slow fire shooting.

What do you consider controlled slow fire shooting? Something like 1 shot/second?

 

[navyguy]

What do you consider controlled slow fire shooting? Something like 1 shot/second?

Two handed grip, slow trigger squeeze with surprise break and no time limit between shots.

 

[jasont]

My sight pictures for IDPA and USPSA shooting on full targets go something like this.

Inside of 7 yards I use the entire gun as my sight picture, I see the back of the pistol in the center of the target, basically point shoot.

7-12 yards I'm aware of the front sight's location but not full on focusing on it, most of my focus is still on the targets. Dryfiring almost daily makes me certain that my front and rear sights are closely enough aligned at that range without verifying the position of the rear sight.

12-17 yards or so I focus on the target, then switch focus to the front sight, get a clear picture of that and am aware if it's centered in the rear sight.

17+ yards I focus on the target, then the front and rear sight making sure they are well aligned, prep and press the trigger. That's another thing, I will use different trigger pulls at different ranges. Going from what's called a trigger slap at close range to trigger reset, prep, and press at longer or tighter shots and varying degrees of that in between. I will also bump up my sight picture to a higher level on more difficult shots like head, partially covered, or nearby no shoots.

 

[Burt Gummer]

I try to use a proper sight picture when qualifying and target shooting past 7-10 yards. Closer than that and I can keep things really tight using proper fundamentals (minus sight picture/alignment).

When I was a teen I was big into Weaver stance and really good sight picture but as time wore on and I found out what "real" shooting is I learned that sight picture is very negotiable. I also dropped Weaver and picked up a more standard or isosceles stance. No matter how many thousands of rounds I fired, when it came down to shooting to save my life in combat the sight picture disappeared. I will not rehash what happens during a real combat situation but sight picture on a close-range target is one of the LAST things you worry about. I always found myself focusing on the target in that case and sometimes not even looking through the sights but OVER the sights..

Now at the range I use a lot of point shooting techniques and I try to keep things consistent with my grip and trigger pull to ensure combat accuracy when the SHTF should I need it again one day.