Very interesting; thanks. It's illuminating to get this kind of perspective, especially from people who can shoot (USPSA GM) and who also work in an environment where shot accountability is paramount (LEO).Originally Posted by Gio
Very interesting; thanks. It's illuminating to get this kind of perspective, especially from people who can shoot (USPSA GM) and who also work in an environment where shot accountability is paramount (LEO).
In your opinion, where does introducing a new shooter to target focused shooting with irons begin? I was taught to shoot front sight focus like everyone else and it was until after shooting an RDS for months was when I realized just how well I could shoot with target focused even with irons.
I would start a new shooter right away on target focus with irons and be sure to use a high viz front sight. It's much harder to target focus with black on black sights. It definitely takes conscious practice if you are used to a front sight focus, and I find that the harder the target difficulty, the more likely a shooter is to revert back to a front sight focus.
Using an RDS isn't a cure for sight focused shooting though. Most shooters tend to red dot focus as well instead of target focus with an RDS. The best way to break this habit is to turn the red dot intensity down to where you can hardly see it and dry fire and live fire with it like that.
This is very interesting. I've always assumed target focused shooting with irons, particularly at longer distances was a more 'intermediate' skill, something you learn later on.
Very interesting indeed. Basically two very different schools of thought, clear sights/fuzzy target and clear target fuzzy sights.
This really does make the adage, see what you need to see to get the hits you need to get.
IMHO target focus, with the assumption of target focus being much faster than sight focus for handgun distances; what is the max distance; 15 yards, 25 yards...??
For the target focus proponents do use it for say 25 yard B8 shooting??
I am just curious because I use sight focus and I don't see changing. The Old dog New trick thing, but the concept is interesting.
Also IMHO sight focus relies on a tremendous amount of hand/eye coordination, which many may simply never achieve, but WTF do I know.
Interesting topic indeed.
Yes, but my index and recoil control are just now getting good enough that I can pull it off at 25 yds. It would be great to be able to take a new shooter down this path quickly, but in my experience this takes a lot of practice. There are two schools of thought: go for target focus right away (as @Gio suggests), or wait until a shooter's index (automatic sight alignment) is mature enough, and then switch to target focus.
Shadow2, Production rig. 25yd Bill Drill. Target focus. One of several good runs today. Maybe more importantly, I didn’t have any disasters.
Last edited by Clusterfrack; 08-22-2020 at 09:21 AM.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
Interestingly, a local match yesterday included multiple 35-40 yd classic targets (turtles) and steel. I shot the entire match target focus, and it didn’t work that well for me. It wasn’t a disaster, but 3 Deltas, a Mike, and makeups on steel were frustrating.
I’m going to continue to explore the best way for me to confirm sight alignment on distant or high risk targets. Clearly I’m not yet able to do full target focus on everything.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
I front sight focus for a bullseye course because a hard front sight focus really allows you to get perfect centering of the front sight, perfect level of the top of the front sight with the rear, and the gun isn’t moving and the single target isn’t moving. For any action pistol sports, defensive shooting, etc, the sights are never stationary and perfectly aligned anyway. I can get them just as close to aligned at speed with a target focus as I can with a front sight focus on a single target, and I can drive them much faster to the spot I need them to be on the next target by staring at the spot I need them to move to. Some great drills for practicing this are 7 to 25 yd Blake drills and Ben stoeger’s accelerator drill. Try running the drills both ways dozens of times at different distances and see what wins out. For me, I am faster and get the same % of A’s/C’s with target focus as I do with front sight focus at distances out to 25-35 yds. My hits are actually better on the transition shot with target focus because I am less likely to under or over transition compared to a front sight focus.
@Gio, I've come to the same conclusion, and like those drills a lot. It's an interesting question of whether I'd have dropped 3 Deltas anyway on the two 40yd turtles using front sight focus, just because those targets came after a long sprint, and a wide transition. I'm not quite there yet, and but I think fully embracing target focus is what I need to level up to G.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
Out of curiosity, what type of sight setup do you have? Front sight width/rear sight width, etc?
Also, do you shoot one eye closed or both open?
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