Question on sight focus...

[fw190fan]

Hey all,

I am brand new to the world of shooting and recently purchased a new P229 .40 (with a 357 Sig barrel of course!) that I haven't had the chance to shoot yet, but I've been doing a LOT of dry firing lately with snap caps. I'm working on my trigger pull, grip and such.

When I line up my sight picture, I'm noticing that it feels rather unnatural to focus entirely on the front sight.

I find myself focusing either:

A) on the target (target is sharp, sights are fuzzy but still easily visible)
-or-
B) about halfway between the front sight and the target (where both are mildly out of focus)

I then use my peripheral vision to line up the front sight over the target (the gun has night sights + a fiber optic tube in the front so it's easy to see). I do this with both eyes open. I'm right-handed and right-eye dominant.

This method seems completely natural for me, and I have absolutely no issues thus far lining up the sights as even in my peripheral they aren't too fuzzy. However, being a new shooter I don't want to start enforcing bad habits early on.

Any advice from you grizzled vets out there?

[1911su16b870]

Focus on the front sight as much as possible with it in between the fuzzy rear sight and center of mass on the target.

[MossbergMan]

With focus on the front sight, everything else should be out of focus. You have to learn to trust your sights. At some point in time you can start "calling your shots" by looking just at your sights and seeing them superimposed on the target as the gun discharges.
Visual focus is on the FS but the most critical fundamental is trigger control. Concentrate on moving the trigger straight back, pressing it until discharge. Hold the trigger back for a split second (follow through) before releasing it to it's reset.
I do trigger control demos for students, headshots at 7 yards with the gun inverted, using my little finger to press the trigger, just to prove all you have to do line up the sights appropriately and move the trigger in a fashion that doesn't distrub the sights. Improper grip, crummy stance, but a good single shot on target. All the other stuff just allows us to shoot follow up shots faster.

[S.F. 1357]

Front sight. Front sight. Front sight.

Your rear sight and target should be slightly fuzzy.

Watching your front sight guarantees the placement of your shot, trigger control ensures it gets there.

[ZombieTactics]

You can do a further test to prove this point by trying to track a movingtarget. With focus on the frontsight, you can easily track, but focusing on the rear sight or the target will almost ALWAYS take your sights off target as you track.

[1JimMarch]

Read and learn:

http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/pdf/Handguns_2008June.pdf

http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm

This can be fitted to a Sig at Tim's shop.

You're right. Front sight focus sucks. There's a better way. This ain't available for my gun, so I rolled my own . Best sights I've ever shot. Changed the whole game. Target-to-target transitions are blindingly fast, and without conscious thought. Once a target is IDed and the decision to fire is made, you fire. Period. You don't have to shorten up your focus first. And holding both eyes open is both easy and natural.

[sp_train_77]

You can view your sights however you convince yourself is your "style"...but unless you FOCUS on the front sight and no where else you will be not hitting where you aim on the target.

The most common problem students have is looking over the front sight which causes the group to print high on the target

[pMcW]

Focus on the front sight.

I remember when I was in rifle training, and one of the instructors drew on board, saying, "this is your front sight."

___

I thought that "Huh, that looks sideways," but what he was drawing then was the flat part of the top of the sight.

___
|O|

I never looked at my sights (rifle or pistol) quite the same after that...

[lazs]

Yep.. front sight. As your eyes age it is even more important. The hex sight shown is just an aperture sight.. your eye naturally centers anything in a circle.. I guess even a hex huh?

With an aperture.. you can and do focus on the front sight naturally. Otherwise.. you need to let the rear sight get fuzzy and the target too.. The younger your eyes.. the less fuzzy they will be.

[fw190fan]

You can do a further test to prove this point by trying to track a movingtarget. With focus on the frontsight, you can easily track, but focusing on the rear sight or the target will almost ALWAYS take your sights off target as you track.

Yeah I definitely noticed that. I can keep them aligned while focusing on a moving target but it takes far too much effort.

Oh and 1JimMarch, I've seen that before! I don't think I'd put that on my Sig, so I am willing to force myself to focus on the front sight.

Thanks for all the info, everyone.

[1JimMarch]

Real Hexsites aren't near as spectacularly weird looking, and fit in a regular holster.

Click on the linkies at least once.

[fw190fan]

Real Hexsites aren't near as spectacularly weird looking, and fit in a regular holster.

Click on the linkies at least once.

Ohhhhh. Wow. I just read the article. That's actually amazing. Focusing on the threat in a close combat situation always made more sense to me, and I'm glad to know I'm not crazy after all.

[1JimMarch]

What I've got works like a real Hexsite, just doesn't look like one.

See, part of the "Hexsite recipe" is all-black sights with no glint. To get there, real ones use high-tech polymer coatings over steel cores or mounts depending on type. Extremely tough, and they can't wear so as to reveal "glints in the corners" the way holster wear can on blued steel front posts.

Lacking such materials I had glint problems until solving them with a full-length protective tube. That meant all-custom-holsters but since I roll my own leather, not a problem.

See also:

http://www.thehighroad.us/showthread.php?p=5224500

In use, my tube isn't visible at the dominant eye because the hex aperture towards the rear covers the inside very well - all I see is "hex and post" same as a real Hexsite. The tube forms a ghost image in my off-eye but that's OK, it's easy to ignore when target-focused.

This does NOT work like a regular pistol ghost ring setup. The hex shape lets you index it despite being blurry front and rear. That allows target-focus, and that changes *everything* for the better.

This really, really works. And yes, send that Sig to Tim (who holds a gunsmith FFL) and he can set it up. He has user installable bolt-on sight sets for Glock so far, others coming.