Intermixing red dot and iron sight handguns

I currently spend ninety plus percent of my handgun training time with a red dot pistol. My carry pistols are about 50/50 iron sights and red dot.

At one point, I worried about getting “killed in the food court,” if caught with an iron sight pistol, and tried to devote more training time to iron sights. As I shoot more and more with a red dot, I have noticed something odd about iron sights. When I draw an iron sight pistol, without realizing it, I now shoot it like a red dot, using target focus. I feel like I am getting a significant amount of the red dot benefit shooting iron sights, especially at realistic defensive pistol distances. This was unanticipated, but it sure has simplified my pistol training.

I think the reason for this, is the red dot forces you to really refine your index, in a way that iron sights do not, since you can get away with much more misalignment with iron sights than with a red dot.

Todd Jarrett, a USPSA National Champion and IPSC World Champion said that he felt like shooting dot scopes back in the day improved his iron sight shooting.
I don’t have his depth of experience or the vast number of rounds @GJM has sent downrange, but I think there’s something to the notion of ingrained index, awareness of how one works the trigger(visual feedback from dot)and other kinesthetic development that comes from working with a dot.
I do prefer in my “seasoned” years to have a front iron sight highlighted in some way:GLOCK BOLD sight(orange), white outline/dot, gold bead, etc.
From what I’ve studied on what Cooper referred to as “interpersonal conflict resolution” and experienced, a fairly coarse index will get one through most handgun defense instances.
I do verify every few weeks or so with a drill/eval(thanks, Mr. White et.al!) that I can still perform to an acceptable standard with “irons”.

Same here. Uspsa carry optics, RMRs on carry 17, 19 and 34. Irons on a 19, 43 and 48 for carry.

Today I shot my CO 34, then the 48 and 43 with irons. Focused on the target With all, got great hits at 15 yards or so with the irons. Moved back to 25 and tossed a few C’s. More work required at that distance.

I find this a great thing as my current multi focal contact lenses make a crisp front sight focus difficult with my dominant eye. Weak eye, crystal clear but shooting target focused with irons makes it pretty easy.

The issue with target focus, as I discussed with GJM today, is of front sight visibility. In an outdoors USPSA match, with a fiber against light brown or white background, yeah, I dig it.
Darker areas, poorly lit, with carry sights (I won't put fiber on a carry gun), against dark background, I can't see the sight when target focused.

It is going to be hard to beat a red dot or laser in low light conditions.

The main point of my original post was that red dot training transfers over to and enhances your iron sight shooting, rather than degrading it.

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Originally Posted by YVK

The issue with target focus, as I discussed with GJM today, is of front sight visibility. In an outdoors USPSA match, with a fiber against light brown or white background, yeah, I dig it.
Darker areas, poorly lit, with carry sights (I won't put fiber on a carry gun), against dark background, I can't see the sight when target focused.

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I have noticed this as well. Sometimes when truly target focused, I can honestly barely see the gun, much less more subtle sights.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YVK

The issue with target focus, as I discussed with GJM today, is of front sight visibility. In an outdoors USPSA match, with a fiber against light brown or white background, yeah, I dig it.
Darker areas, poorly lit, with carry sights (I won't put fiber on a carry gun), against dark background, I can't see the sight when target focused.

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A bright HD style front sight solves this for me. You do have to keep it clean, as they tend to get less pronounced from carbon build up from shooting. I find if it is too dark to see the orange dot, the tritium is visible.

In my experience, shooting an RDS teaches my subconscious what I can get away with more than iron sights do. I noticed I tend to push the limit more with irons after training on a dot for several months, especially on transitions, movement, and position exits. I was already shooting target focus with irons prior to RDS training, but the RDS has made me more aggressive on them.