Front Sight Focus

[voodoo_man]

That is what I tell my students, almost verbatim. While I can do it myself, it's fine standing at a range and shooting a target, but to speed up or for better precision, I let my eyes relax.

The repetitions of drawing and firing on a target, either dry or live, culminates in an unconscious implementation during a stressful situation. While it does get easier after numerous stressful events the trick is to make perfect (or as near perfect) reps as you can so that when the adrenaline dumps and you begin to act on auto-pilot it will be the very specific reps you did and not something else.

There are a myriad of ways to add stress to help inoculate someone from such issues, but stress training should only be attempted once a person has a meaningful mastery of such skill sets, or else it'll be counter-productive to their development.

[JHC]

I shoot target focused with dots AND irons.

I've been playing with that on the days I'm wearing my super duper progressive multi-focal Varilux Physio glasses. It does NOT suck. Not at all. Hits are equal to my days with monovision contacts where the front sight is razor sharp and I use it.

[Mr_White]

JAG2955,

There are a number of huge discussions on PF that go through a LOT of this material in great detail.

A few short summary points:

Seeing a double image when you have both eyes open doesn't mean you are doing something wrong, it just means you have both eyes open.

These finer aspects of vision may be worth exploring, and may be even worth trying to change if you feel like it. At some point, you may want to just go with how you are built - people are pretty hardwired when it comes to how their brain and eyes work, some more than others.

If you have trouble with seeing enough detail in the sight picture to aim well enough, either shooting with a hard sharp and clear front sight focus OR with a high-visibility front sight (FO, bright colors, etc., that are very visible when blurry) may be a good way to go.

If you have trouble with the targets doubling, then either closing/squinting the nondominant eye, OR shooting with both eyes open but a target focus (blurry sights) may be a good way to go. (Ditto if you have trouble with the sights doubling on you, but I think that particular kind of visual confusion is less common.)

There's a lot of imprecision and conflating of the terms accommodation (focus/the depth in sharp and clear focus) and convergence (the spot the eyes are pointed at) when people talk about this - it's going on in this thread too. If you want to understand what these two processes are and a possible way to separate them, take a look here:

http://pistol-training.com/articles/vision

I don't think people need to beat their heads into the biological wall, trying to force front sight focus or shooting with both eyes open if it simply does not work for them. Try it yes, work on it yes, beat your head into the wall, no. Any look at the top technical shooters around shows plenty of closing/squinting and target focusing when it's sufficient for the shot at hand (the old adage of see what you need to see.)

[OnionsAndDragons]

I've been playing with that on the days I'm wearing my super duper progressive multi-focal Varilux Physio glasses. It does NOT suck. Not at all. Hits are equal to my days with monovision contacts where the front sight is razor sharp and I use it.

I think I mentioned it in one of the other sight threads, but I had been unconsciously doing this with my thinner front sight guns. I kept beating my head trying to figure out how I was splitting faster w the same accuracy on my G19 as compared to P226 which I have far more reps on. Turns out that the very thin fron sight I was running in the Glock was coaxing my brain to target focus and just sight align while I was using a standard front focus more heavily w the SIG.

I slapped an old dead heinie thin front on the P226 and it magically shot as well or better than the Glock. I backtracked my process and figured out that I was seeing around the sight when it was thinner than .125, really well.

I'm just starting to play with the concept past 10 yards, but so far so good. Within 10 yards I am faster and just as accurate, with stronger transitions shooting around the sights with a stronger target focus. Not saying that everyone's vision will work like mine seems to right now, but I do think anyone having trouble struggling with front sight focus probably ought to try this type of shooting.

[nwhpfan]

The true measure is the timer and scoring rings. If you are doing it fast and accurate your method, or how you perceive it is fine. Sometimes what you are doing is the same as a bunch of other successful people but the language is not connecting.

I sometimes see double also. I think a lot of people do to varrying degrees causing problems for some, mere inconvinience to others. This is more prevelant in dry fire and when I'm just taking too long looking at sights and targets. I shot some 50 yard groups the other day so I had some double sights and targets. I slightly squinted my off hand eye, thought more about the dominant eye and it went away. If I am closer with easier targets I don't get double vision. An eye doctor or Mr. White can explian all that.

[Clusterfrack]

I'm always impressed by what some people can do with a target focus. My vision works very well for a front sight focus: I am nearsighted in my dominant right eye, and farsighted in my left eye. So, it's natural for me to see a sharp front sight with my right eye and a sharp target with my left. For closer targets at speed, I notice that both eyes accommodate to the target and the sight is blurry. At distance, this doesn't work well for me at all. I find that centering a blurry blade in a blurry notch does not yield consistent A-zone hits beyond 15 yards. My POI is strongly affected by the direction of ambient light when I use a target focus (blurry sights).

[Auriemma]

Interesting thread... I am just beginning with all this.
At the range I noticed I was shooting with both eyes open (as instructed) and my dominant right eye focused on the front sight. Then I noticed the doubled rear sight and started closing my left eye to stop it.

Bear with me... I am nearsighted and wear contacts to correct my vision. No big deal, right? Well my contacts are set for mono-vision. Since as I've become older my close vision has slipped. My choices: reading glasses or mono-vision corrected contacts. With mono-vision, your dominant eye is set for 20/20 vision at distance. You non-dominant eye is set just under, like 20/30 to 20/40. That lets your brain choose which eye it wants to accept your sight from. Many people cannot do this.

Now here is the rub... my left eye is set for close vision, my right (dominant) for distance. So when I look at my front sight, my right eye sees it, but slightly out of focus (simply because of age), so my left eye tries to compensate by butting in, hence some pronounced double vision.

Needless to say, I have been working on both eyes open, and dominant eye focus.

[nwhpfan]

I'm always impressed by what some people can do with a target focus. My vision works very well for a front sight focus: I am nearsighted in my dominant right eye, and farsighted in my left eye. So, it's natural for me to see a sharp front sight with my right eye and a sharp target with my left. For closer targets at speed, I notice that both eyes accommodate to the target and the sight is blurry. At distance, this doesn't work well for me at all. I find that centering a blurry blade in a blurry notch does not yield consistent A-zone hits beyond 15 yards. My POI is strongly affected by the direction of ambient light when I use a target focus (blurry sights).

And all that adds up to you making Master Class in Production. Congrats!

[Mr_White]

Congratulations on M, Clusterfrack!!! Great work.

[Clusterfrack]

And all that adds up to you making Master Class in Production. Congrats!

Thanks dude. Feels good to see all the hard work yield results. The bar just got higher... so I've got more work to do.