Adjusting rear sight as novice

[Ziperix]

I’m new to the sport and i’m trying to set the sights on my air pistol for sub6 hold but it’s hard for me to do so since I’m still pretty bad at shooting and my shots go everywhere, any advice? How can i know if my shot is good if my sights are not set correctly to shoot a 10 when it’s perfect?

[Gwhite]

You need to work on "calling" your shots. If you are focused on your front sight, and trying to keep everything aligned, when the shot goes off, you can learn to take a mental picture of what everything looked like at the instant the pistol fired. From that, you can estimate where the shot should have gone. With practice, you can learn to call your shots +/- 1 scoring ring, and +/- 1 "hour" (direction).

Even if you aren't grouping well, if all of your shots are going where you call them, then your sights should be OK. If you have no idea where the shots are going, you probably aren't focused on your front sight, and you need to work on that first.

Making sight adjustments without calling your shots can lead to large errors when you are starting out. If you just center your group, but are consistently yanking on the trigger and pulling your shots down & left, then the shots you execute properly will be high & right, which can be very confusing. Other technique issues will move your shots in other directions, and if you only work with your "group" (such as it is...) you will waste a lot of time & energy.

Just a couple weeks ago, I had a student who had a spray of shots roughly centered on the target, but he had a suspicious cluster of shots at the edge of the black at 3:00. I asked him if he had called the shots at 3:00 as looking good, and he said yes. I told him to adjust the sights to move the cluster to the middle of the target, and to relax his fingertips so he wasn't pulling shots to the left so much. His very next target was MUCH better.

I've had similar adventures in coaching for many years. One option is to have a good shooter take a couple of shots with your pistol. If you've cranked your sights off in some direction trying to compensate for technique errors, it will be pretty obvious. Everyone's "prefect" sight setting will be slightly different, but the difference is usually only a scoring ring or two.

[K38]

One exercise to try is shooting a blank target or just the center of a regular target turned back to front. Just shoot the center of the paper. It has a tendency to relax the shooter and eliminate target panic.

DLB

[JRV]

What do you mean by “shots go everywhere?” Are they all on the paper? In the scoring rings? Near all in the black? What’s “everywhere” mean?

There are actual coaches here, so take my input (not an air pistol coach, just a decently competitive bullseye shooter that dabbles in AP) with a grain of salt.

So long as the shots are on the intended safe target, getting a perfect zero is less important than developing your ability to shoot a group. A dead-on 10.9 zero won’t benefit you until you develop the skills to shoot a consistent group and call your shots.

Here’s what I would focus on:

Develop the skills needed to shoot a group by shooting at blank targets. Remove the bull (a distraction) from the equation and train your eye to focus on the front sight. Prioritize sight alignment, consistent grip and trigger, and sharp visual focus on the front sight. Aim for perfect sight alignment in a consistent area, not any particular point.

Aligned sight pictures make a small cylinder of error straight to the target, misaligned sight pictures make a cone of error that spreads larger towards the target.

When you get your group shooting skills down, then add the bull back in. Shoot groups with aligned sights held under the bull. Adjust until your sights to center your group is on the called “good” shots.

As you shoot groups, pay attention to the sights. Your eye will learn the difference between a good shot (aligned sights in acceptable area through and after the trigger break), an okay shot (aligned sights on edge of wobble), or a bad shot (misaligned sights, bad muscle tremor, pushed trigger)—then you’ll be able to call your shots. If you shoot 10 pellets, call 7 good shots, and you have a small circle of pellets centered somewhere other than the 10-ring, you dial the sights.

[PirateJohn]

When I was starting out, I'd rest my hand on a tripod to set my sights.

[Gwhite]

When I was starting out, I'd rest my hand on a tripod to set my sights.

With an air pistol that doesn't recoil significantly, that will certainly get you in the ball park. It works a little better if you support your wrist, and still hold the pistol with one hand.

I've seen people try to get their .22's sighted in very carefully with the pistol on a rigid support. They are surprised to discover that their zero is someplace else when they shoot one handed.

[K38]

I’m not sure target panic is a concept used in pistol shooting. I borrowed it from archery.

DLB

[BobGee]

I’m not sure target panic is a concept used in pistol shooting. I borrowed it from archery.

I reckon it is…

Bob

[JRV]

Target panic is enough of a problem that the USMC Pistol Team workbook (a bullseye development workbook) dedicates early efforts to shooting blank targets.

Blank targets build sight alignment and sight focus skills while also developing trust in the shooter’s area aim hold. The perceived error of wobble is always larger at the eye than it actually is on target.

[K38]

I thought it was but I didn’t know if it was the right term. I’ve never been a high level pistol shooter but I was once upon a time a good compound target archer and there is much discussion of target panic in both compound and recurve shooting. The “clicker” most often seen in recurve shooting helps with this along with the back pressure release for compound shooters. I’m not sure there is a corollary for pistol shooting. My thought borrowed from Zen in the Art of Archery is that “You do not shoot but rather it shoots.” Or rather just keep aiming until the shot breaks. Obviously in timed and rapid fire situations such ideas have to be adapted.

DLB

[Rover]

Since you suck, you'll have no trouble getting thirty or so shots on a single target. Find the rough center of that mess and adjust your sight to center the group at the rate of about four clicks per scoring ring.

Do this repeatedly throughout your shooting career. As you improve, you can put new targets over your "starter" for the same effect.

[mus]

The digital counterpart to Rover's method is an app like TargetScan which automatically calculates the size and location of the total group centre once you enter (=take pics of) a series of targets.

[Gwhite]

Don't worry about centering your group until your groups are around the size of the black or smaller. Work on consistency on the back of a target until you can do that. You will probably find that the group will grow when you start shooting with the black visible. The most common issue is high shots, which happen when you lose focus on the front sight. Especially with a sub-six hold and typical grips, your sights will tend to drift up when you do that. Again, if you can't call your shots, it's usually because you aren't focused on your front sight.

[atomicgale]

Since you suck . . . Do this repeatedly throughout your shooting career.

Oh Rover! How cruel . . . I thought I held the monopoly on "I totally suck," . . . especially totally sucking repeatedly throughout my career!

Anyway, as a "totally suck" representative of Men's Air Pistol, looks like you won't see any of us at the Olympics either . . . all the other quota spots got filled.