TargetTalk

Noticed something very wierd today.

When I shoot a blank card I can keep my sight picture nicely aligned and 'locked' all the way through the release. The top of the front blade is crisply aligned with the top of the rear sight.

As soon as that damned target is visible the 'natural' postition of my sight alignment (which was neat and ship-shape before) goes awry: the top of the front blade sits annoyingly 'just' below the top of the rear sights.

Is that just me or is it a common problem? Any advice on whether its symptomatic of something wrong and what I do to correct it?

I would say it is common, at least was for me too.
The problem is that you are watching the target and probably spending too much time in aiming process.
Try to give less importance to aiming. Release your shot in not more then 3 secs when your hand drop below bullseye. Do not care for results, I would suggest to shoot to an old target with lot of holes.

- Ned

Mike,
I would say it's a problem with the bit between your ears ;-). It's partly you getting distracted by the target and partly you trying for perfect sight alignment (I'd suspect). It's one of those things that you need to practice to overcome. Blank cards, dry firing will all help. When you shoot properly (in training) really concentrate on getting a good sight picture and don't try for scores. You will find that with practice it gets easier.

Rob.

You made a significant discovery in my estimation. Most shooters will tell you that they are looking at the front sight when in reality they are looking at the target and see a silhoutte of the front sight.

Consider a series of training exercises, and design a few of your own. Start by using a blank card (actually dry firing is not important at this point) and just study the front sight. After doing this with intensity some number of times, try with the same intensity on a card with a bullseye. Than back to the blank card for some number. Slowly change the ratio to more on the bullseye as you train yourself to stay on your sight and ingore the bullseye.

I use several clues to stay on the front sight and see the alignment.

Is the sight sharp, black, and am I noticing any lint on the sights, any glare or roughness? Ghost images, fading, etc probably mean I am looking at the target.

Am I noticing any slight misalignment of the front in the rear or am I noticing the front sight dancing on the target?

Mike S-J wrote: blank card I can keep my sight picture nicely aligned

target is visible the 'natural' postition of my sight alignment

Mike,

I too think you have noticed something significant, and your 2 phrases isolated above may be a clue. If, as your wording suggests, you are (consciously) "keeping" the sights aligned when you use a blank, and conversely, on a regular target you allow the sights to take their "natural" position, then it's not surprising there would be a difference.

I found that with certain guns, my front sight tended to droop during the hold, while with others it didn't. While it's still a problem for me, 2 things helped. First I tried to adjust the grip angle, where possible, so my "natural" hold kept the front sight at the proper elevation. Second, and probably more important, I have been concentrating on keeping my arm and wrist locked as I descend to the aiming area.

I think there's a tendency to use the wrist (unconsciously) to make minute adjustments in order to "perfect" the sight picture in the aim area. Once the wrist starts moving, everything is thrown off. You have to accept that "perfect" is gone by the time you react to it, so just accept what you see - if that makes any sense.

HTH,
FredB

My technique is to start the sight picture by "aiming" at a blank area below the target. When That portion of the picture is set and my focus is on the front blade, I then raise the "picture" until it rests just below the bulls-eye. I find that approaching from below to be better since the black blob moving through the picture seems to mess up the picture far more than adding a blob on top of the picture.

Best,

Joe

Lots of food for thought here guys - THANKS.

What I was trying to say was that my natural hold on a blank card is sweet, but it droops when the target is there.

So tonight I tried something different with my raise - I raised with the front blade proud of the rear-notch and focussed on it.

As I settled the sights into the target area (by lowering them) I aligned them. My ability to focus on the sight picture and avoid droop improved dramatically!

Cheers guys.

very interesting thread indeed, this has answered (and has given me things to practice on) one of my problems I couln't understand.