Lots of good here, thanks for the comments.Originally Posted by Gio
I’ve basically lost the ability to focus on the front sight at all. What’s been surprising to me is the quality of hits I’m getting all the way out to 25 yards. I haven’t really experimented with a target focus at that distance.
I am 79 and have terrible eyesight but I would never depend on batteries or electronics on my self defense weapons .
All of my shooting now is target focused or what some call point shooting and done mostly from the draw .
I scatter fired shot shells on the berm high , low , right and left . Back off 3-10 yds. and all in between . Draw and try to hit the shells and maybe a double tap mixed in but mostly single shots .
I either use my G19 9m/m or the same pistol with a .22 conversion kit installed .
I hit a few , hit close enough to make them move and miss a lot but always close enough to defend myself against them .
I do this both with and without my glasses so I can keep track of what I can do without them .
Last edited by ken grant; 10-23-2017 at 11:45 AM.
If I'm wearing my glasses, the target is in well defined, crisp focus with the (two pairs of) sights coming up in peripheral vision. Following them without looking at them, but fully aware of where they are at all times. Just gotta remember to use the pair on the left (kidding, there's no real possibility of using the wrong set of sights..)
Without glasses, absolutely correct -- nothing is in crisp focus, at least not until I look well beyond what anyone would consider a pistol shot distance.
'Non transferred focus.' That's about the best technical description I've heard of what's actually going on."Non transferred focus". Basically, transposing sights over your eyes without any conscious focus shift. I use focus shift to get out of being reactive to a target. I want to see my foe, I want to stop reacting to them once a decision to shoot is made and that is my biggest take on not staring at it and bringing that "attention" back to the front sight that is really driving/confirming the shots and placement.
I have a suspicion that what many here are saying is target focus is actually front sight attention with no focus. I have a suspicion that the inability to see sights in perfect focus is forcing "trigger focus" and is also helping to get rid of some trigger snatch.
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius
I don't think the terms are really mutually exclusive, but I do think your reframing is more precise which is great.
I think you are absolutely right on the trigger focus. This was entirely my experience during my last class with Tom, after an extended lecture based on John Hearne's flash sight picture research and presentation.
Letting go of the hard front sight focus for all but the most precision shots, where the refined sight alignment really does matter on the level of trigger control, allowed me to simply confirm alignment with a flash sight picture and focus a majority of my attention to working the trigger on the appropriate target. I saw clear gains in my discrimination ability and speed with no loss of accuracy when applying the concept.
I really saw the payoff for working presentations so much with a single firearm after this aha moment.
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I think you are on the right track LSP552! If you can't get the front sight sharp and clear, then you just need to work on noticing more detail with your mind, out of the (now blurrier) image your eyes present to you.
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I've really enjoyed reading the thread. At 58 and wearing a 2.5 bifocal correction in the progressive lens these days I don't get a sharp front sight unless I lean my head back to get my progressive lens to come into play. I don't shoot with my chin up in the air so that sharp focus on the front site is out. I do still get a very good read on equal height and equal light of the sights.
After shooting some groups with the front site all the way to the left and then all the way to the right in the rear notch. I realize it is less about site picture these days and much more about my grip and trigger control. There is more to hitting the target than sight picture and in my hierarchy of precision, sight picture is moving down the list.
Fascinating thread. I had cataract surgery in my late 40's and lost the ability to clearing see my front sight without correction. Now I have monovision "shooting" glasses with my dominant eye corrected for near focus (i.e. the front sight) and the non-dominant eye corrected for infinity. They're great, however I probably won't be wearing them in a critical force situation. So I'm following this conversation with interest.
What I’m wondering now is how much practice with glasses I can see with vs without? I tend to do a mix of both most practice sessions. I “think” doing a mix hasn’t hurt me, but I’m not sure. Guess it’s time to start benchmarking drills over time both with and without my range glasses.
Perhaps dedicating entire practice sessions to a single method. I’m thinking the training where I can see my sights with glasses helps carry over and instills some Zen for the times I’m not wearing and can’t see a defined front.
Last edited by LSP552; 10-25-2017 at 05:04 AM.
This is where I was earlier this year. I tried regular reading glasses, SSP upper bifocal lens in my dominant eye and plain lens in my non dominant eye and standard safety lenses running various drills for pure accuracy,speed and accuracy balance and for speed. I found for me I get consistent accuracy best at longest distances with corrected lens of SSPs or reading glasses but give up speed everywhere and the accuracy penalty is minimal enough beyond 15 yards only. I have since switched to only shooting with uncorrected lenses for all shooting and adapted to the blurrier front sight and more target focus. If I was serious about competition or longer distance shooting more frequently I would go with full monovision set up and accept that I would likely not have them for a real defensive gun use.
I hope you find a good set up that works for you and experimenting with different glasses seems like the best way to determine it.
Okay, Ken, first things first. You're from Louisiana...stick with voodoo. (Don't stick any pins in me, I'm just the messenger.)
More seriously, you pose an interesting conundrum. My gut reaction is that you should practice for worst case scenarios the way you're most likely to be caught out if the worst should happen....On the other hand, if you do have that bleed over of skill from the sessions where you are using glasses, then perhaps it really does make sense to do so. It's hard for me to be objective because I've never worn glasses outside of my home unless I knew I'd need readers in a setting where I'd have to review or sign documents indoors.
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