Splitting attention between the trigger and front sight

[MDS]

So OAK's Vision article, combined with GJM's checklist question, has me thinking about what I pay attention to as I move through the shooting cycle. While I draw, I pay attention to clearing the garment and acquiring a good grip, simple enough. But as I bring the gun up and prepare to shoot, it gets more complicated. Specifically, I find I have to pay close attention to my eyes and the OAK Vision technique until the sights are aligned, but then I have to pay close attention to my trigger pull. This attention shift happens quickly but if I'm conscious about it I can pull it off pretty consistently during the press out. Where I have more trouble is with splits, where I have to pay attention to the front sight again to line up the follow-up shot and then very quickly shift my attention to my trigger pull. In fact, I suspect there's actually a lot of overlap, so that I really want to pay close attention to the sights and the trigger at the same time. I have a very hard time doing that, I don't think I actually can. So if I need accurate splits, they go way slower than they could because I have to serialize the process: I pay attention to the sights until they're pretty well lined up, then pay attention to the trigger pull after that. Obviously, easy shots are easy and fast, this problem only manifests for example during draw-&-2 to a 3x5 at 7yd, or similar drills. When I try Bill drills, say, at 25yd, this falls completely apart for me and I find myself with slow and jittery splits and a general lack of confidence in the hits.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this. Do you split your attention between the sights and the trigger in this way, or do you do it differently? Is it possible to pay enough attention to both at the same time for difficult shots? Can you train enough so that you don't really need to pay close attention to the trigger pull, so that you can mostly focus on the front sight and let your trigger finger do its thing "on autopilot" while your conscious mind reads the sights? Or is this a dumb question that misses some important points? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Mr_White]

Great questions MDS!

I suspect there are a lot of valid answers for different people facing different shooting problems.

Some thoughts though:

My strong preference is to 'look the shot off.' Calling a shot means more than just looking, or having the sights in front of my eye. I have to be paying some mental attention as well.

There are times I shoot a shot and fail to call it, and it doesn't go where I wanted. I also didn't notice the sights telling me it didn't go where I wanted. I was looking, but didn't see. I wasn't paying mental attention to what the sights were telling me right there in front of my face. I don't like putting mental attention on the trigger because I feel like it undermines having my mind on the sight picture and looking the shot off. The sights did move out of alignment, I just didn't notice.

That said, I also think that what you describe is something that I have to do when the shot is hard enough for me. I think it's normal and natural to switch attention to the trigger when you feel it's needed for you, on this shot. Or back and forth between the sights and the trigger, or maybe something else. So I'm not sure it's bad that attention goes to the trigger when it's needed for the shot at hand. I just don't want my attention there when it doesn't have to be.

To expand the range of shots where you don't have to do that and can let your finger run the trigger on autopilot, you gotta get better at pulling the trigger faster and without letting the gun move.

There was a time I did a ton of dry trigger presses aiming at a spot - almost the most basic form of dry fire. I worked on a spot, not an area, and I worked on pulling the trigger well, faster and faster. A person who can pull a trigger without disturbing the sight picture might want to continue doing so faster and faster. I think that did a lot for me to expand the range of shooting problems where my skill will allow me to address the trigger unconsciously, or less consciously.

[MDS]

Makes sense: see what you need to see, pay as much attention as necessary to what needs your attention.

There was a time I did a ton of dry trigger presses aiming at a spot - almost the most basic form of dry fire. I worked on a spot, not an area, and I worked on pulling the trigger well, faster and faster. A person who can pull a trigger without disturbing the sight picture might want to continue doing so faster and faster. I think that did a lot for me to expand the range of shooting problems where my skill will allow me to address the trigger unconsciously, or less consciously.

This is friggin genius! I've stopped doing the Wall Drill because eventually I could always get the gun to stay still - or at least, still enough that I couldn't tell it was moving so I couldn't really tell if I was getting better. But just like live-fire marksmanship, when you can hit a given target, the idea is to learn to hit it faster. I'm going to start doing Wall Drills again, and work on speeding up the trigger pull without moving the sights. What's more, this seems like the kind of practice that benefits from as many reps as possible, since you're basically trying to ingrain some very precise muscle memory. Thanks!

[Mr_White]

It's also a nice drill because you can get a ton of reps for the time spent since they are so quick.

I've always included a target at some kind of actual distance (even scaled distance with miniature targets) in that drill. My vision gets messed up when the front sight is super close to the aiming point, even if it is a blank white wall with no aiming point, and I really prefer paying attention to the sight picture, which is a more complete view of gun-target alignment than sight alignment alone with no target present. I know a lot of people get a lot of benefit from the regular wall drill, but that's how I do it for me.

Kind of a tangent, but I've come to recognize that my vision getting weird and messed up on the regular wall drill at 0 yards is because the lack of distance between the point of convergence (the wall, even if not aiming for a specific spot) and the front sight. It's very nearly like I am both converging and accommodating to the front sight, which, for me leads to a tightly doubled rear sight and inability to read the light bars on both sides of the front sight.

[littlejerry]

Great questions MDS!

I suspect there are a lot of valid answers for different people facing different shooting problems.

Some thoughts though:

My strong preference is to 'look the shot off.' Calling a shot means more than just looking, or having the sights in front of my eye. I have to be paying some mental attention as well.

There are times I shoot a shot and fail to call it, and it doesn't go where I wanted. I also didn't notice the sights telling me it didn't go where I wanted. I was looking, but didn't see. I wasn't paying mental attention to what the sights were telling me right there in front of my face. I don't like putting mental attention on the trigger because I feel like it undermines having my mind on the sight picture and looking the shot off. The sights did move out of alignment, I just didn't notice.

That said, I also think that what you describe is something that I have to do when the shot is hard enough for me. I think it's normal and natural to switch attention to the trigger when you feel it's needed for you, on this shot. Or back and forth between the sights and the trigger, or maybe something else. So I'm not sure it's bad that attention goes to the trigger when it's needed for the shot at hand. I just don't want my attention there when it doesn't have to be.

To expand the range of shots where you don't have to do that and can let your finger run the trigger on autopilot, you gotta get better at pulling the trigger faster and without letting the gun move.

There was a time I did a ton of dry trigger presses aiming at a spot - almost the most basic form of dry fire. I worked on a spot, not an area, and I worked on pulling the trigger well, faster and faster. A person who can pull a trigger without disturbing the sight picture might want to continue doing so faster and faster. I think that did a lot for me to expand the range of shooting problems where my skill will allow me to address the trigger unconsciously, or less consciously.

I've had to learn to "let go" in regards to trigger pull. The more I focus on the trigger, the more I agonize over the shot, and the worse my accuracy is. I've never thought of it as distracting myself from my sight alignment but it is entirely possible. I've always assumed my drop in accuracy was anticipation related. If I just put my finger on auto pilot, squeeze the hell out of the gun, and focus on my sights I drill the target. Every. Time.

Easier said than done. It's almost a "zen" moment for me when it happens.

[MDS]

It's also a nice drill because you can get a ton of reps for the time spent since they are so quick.

I've always included a target at some kind of actual distance (even scaled distance with miniature targets) in that drill. My vision gets messed up when the front sight is super close to the aiming point, even if it is a blank white wall with no aiming point, and I really prefer paying attention to the sight picture, which is a more complete view of gun-target alignment than sight alignment alone with no target present. I know a lot of people get a lot of benefit from the regular wall drill, but that's how I do it for me.

Kind of a tangent, but I've come to recognize that my vision getting weird and messed up on the regular wall drill at 0 yards is because the lack of distance between the point of convergence (the wall, even if not aiming for a specific spot) and the front sight. It's very nearly like I am both converging and accommodating to the front sight, which, for me leads to a tightly doubled rear sight and inability to read the light bars on both sides of the front sight.

Gotcha, makes sense. I'll work it with a target point at some "normal" distance.

[Mr_White]

I've had to learn to "let go" in regards to trigger pull. The more I focus on the trigger, the more I agonize over the shot, and the worse my accuracy is. I've never thought of it as distracting myself from my sight alignment but it is entirely possible. I've always assumed my drop in accuracy was anticipation related. If I just put my finger on auto pilot, squeeze the hell out of the gun, and focus on my sights I drill the target. Every. Time.

Easier said than done. It's almost a "zen" moment for me when it happens.

Same here. Having my mind on the trigger can induce anticipation for me at times because I am primed to notice when the gun is about to fire. I believe that putting my mind on the sight picture and continuously improving it while my finger is almost off on its own crushing that trigger saves me some anticipation.

Gotcha, makes sense. I'll work it with a target point at some "normal" distance.

Not saying it works the same way for you. Just wanted to share since my 'wall drill' is different from the regular one.

[JeffJ]

I start all of my dryfire sessions with a variation of the wall drill, I like having no aiming point but being across the room from a blank wall, it's tricky for me to be right up against the wall.

I also think of "looking off the shot" and my trigger press is tied to my vision. I actually sort of visualize a string running from my eyes through my arms to the trigger, which is kinda weird and esoteric, but it works for me. That's really more of a dryfire thing, I find that as the shots get harder I naturally refine my trigger press. The problem I run into is that when transitioning from fast to slow, or more appropriately from easier to harder shots, I tend to slam the brakes a little hard and snatch the kitten out of the trigger in the attempt to slow down.

[MDS]

Interesting, guys, thanks for the feedback. I find that if I don't pay close attention to the trigger pull, I snatch badly as I pay attention to the sights and squeeeeeeze NOW! Probably my trigger finger is not well enough educated and needs more mental baby-sitting than yours...

[JeffJ]

I find that when I've been doing a lot of transitions from wide open to tight targets in dry fire, my ability to control the trigger well throughout a variety of conditions in live fire goes up immensely. Guess what I don't do a lot of....