TargetTalk

Does putting a small white line in the center of the front sight post help. I found a post on a bullseye sight about doing this to help your focus on the front sight. Wondering if anyone has tried this. Thanks

Try it with acrylic at first, see if you shoot better and if not just wipe the paint off. Let us know your findings!

Yes, there is such a theory, that having something (even a mere scratch) on the front sight could help you to focus on it. May be it is my eyes, but on indoor ranges I would never be able to see even bright acrylic paint, and so I would always revert back to the black front sight. To me, it is sufficient to see sharply the outline of the sight, and there is no advantage to focusing on anything else but this very outline.

is it legal to put white dots on ISSF pistols?
maybe i'll try it!

pgmlml wrote:is it legal to put white dots on ISSF pistols?

Yes it is legal.

It is extremely rare at top international level.

Here's the video that was posted on the Bullseye site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGsIVOyhQ7s
The video is more of a training exercise about focusing on the front sight and shows you when you're just looking at it, not truly focusing. The paint mark could just as easily be replaced with just focusing on one of the small lines etched into the sight. Lighting conditions play a part in which method to use. After the lesson is learned and focusing on the front sight is second nature there's no need for the mark. That's my take on it.

PS
I found that truly focusing on the front sight to be much more difficult than expected. I suspect that if you can accurately and consistently call a shot then you are probably already focusing on the front sight.

To make it easier to focus on the front sight, a positive lens may be used to bring the far point of your eye (the point where your eye is focused in a relaxed state) to where your front sight is. For a person with normal vision this is achieved by
1) measuring the distance from your eye to the sight,
2) Subtracting 2 cm (the typical distance from your eye to glasses),
3) Taking the result in meters and inverting it; this will give the dioptric power of a positive length for the optimal watching of the sight.

Say, you measure the distance from eye to the sight to be 84 cm, the lens you need would be
1/0.82 = +1.22
If your vision is not perfect you would have to add +1.22 to whatever lenses bring your far point at infinity.

shaky hands wrote:Say, you measure the distance from eye to the sight to be 84 cm, the lens you need would be
1/0.82 = +1.22
If your vision is not perfect you would have to add +1.22 to whatever lenses bring your far point at infinity.

I would suggest that, for most people, using +1.22 on your normal distance prescription will make it difficult to focus on anything beyond the rear sight (if that far).

The generally accepted figure for pistol is +0.5 to +0.75.

+1.22 was for illustration, 84 cm is too short for most people. For an average adult the distance to the sight will be closer to 1 m, making +1.0 the optimal choice for watching the sight. Admittedly, it would make seeing farther than the sight more problematic and may be psychologically more challenging, or just inconvenient for finding your ways around your shooting position. Ultimately, it is just a matter of finding an overall compromise.

Shantanu wrote:Is there really a need to measure the distance when operating a gun or a rifle?

I am not sure I understand the question.

shaky hands wrote:

Shantanu wrote:Is there really a need to measure the distance when operating a gun or a rifle?

I am not sure I understand the question.

A troll?

Jup i painted my front sight bright red. (Matchguns MG2)

I find that anything permanent gets boring over time, and becomes just as easy to ignore as a plain sight. The more uniform & symmetrical it is (like painting the whole back of the sight blade) just makes it a colored version of what you've been ignoring all along. I recommend orange chalk, which does no permanent damage to the pistol, and can be changed regularly if necessary. A random splodge with some character helps. Ideally, once you train your brain to stay focused on the front sight, you won't need the chalk anymore.

If your problem is keeping sharp focus on the foresight,then regular dry fire training will be far more beneficial than drawing a line on it

Putting something attention getting on the front sight is a training crutch. If you really do look at the line and not at the target, through enough repetitions, your brain will start looking for the front sight when the gun comes up, rather than the target. Your brain will eventually get bored with the line, so you need to get the brain up to speed quickly. Dry fire against a blank wall, or shoot at the back of a target. Dry firing at an object allows the object to seduce you conscious. just like that black dot on the target. I used an orange sight marker when I started.

By the way, I'm not a great fan of calling shots. If you can see where the gun is relative to the target when the shot occurs, you aren't looking at the front sight, and your follow through probably stinks too. I once told Vic I could see my air pistol pellets in flight and he told me that was a sure sign of looking at the target, not the front sight. Let your subconscious take care of the target while you perfect the sight alignment.

Larry

Isn't seeing the gun relative to the target when the shot occurs the sight picture? To me seeing the sight picture doesn't mean focus isn't on the front post with proper sight alignment. You can have perfect sight alignment but you should also have an acceptable sight picture. Not calling a shot is likely a symptom of not precisely doing one of these two things correctly. And using a mark/color/etc is in no way a crutch, otherwise you could probably make the same argument for a red dot.

from my personal experience, I can say:

1- In a normal light condition indoor range, you will not have enough light on the front sigth to see the white dot with defenition! Contrast with target will be the key to a sharp front sight. Oudoors things may change a bit!

2 - You will never have a sharp front sight if you dont have a good stop! It's a lot easier to focus on a stoped object than on an object that's moving! So, good technique is the foundation of a good shot, and everything will come together if you keep on your good practising!

bullseyeman wrote:Isn't seeing the gun relative to the target when the shot occurs the sight picture? To me seeing the sight picture doesn't mean focus isn't on the front post with proper sight alignment. You can have perfect sight alignment but you should also have an acceptable sight picture. Not calling a shot is likely a symptom of not precisely doing one of these two things correctly. And using a mark/color/etc is in no way a crutch, otherwise you could probably make the same argument for a red dot.

We are starting to drift off the OP's question, so one more comment and I'm done.

I stand by what I meant to say. Marks on the front sight during a match are a crutch and should not be necessary. As a training aid they have value if used right.

As far as sight picture goes, the shot process, or fundamentals, are usually stated as "point the gun at the target, align sights, pull trigger". Sight picture (sights generally aligned and the front sight in the aiming area) starts the shot. Once sight alignment starts, focus goes to the front sight and the target blurs. You can only focus on one thing at a time. The only way to keep the target in focus during sight alignment is to peek over the front sight using a rapid oscillation of focus. Sight alignment deteriorates unless 100% of focus is on the front sight. You should not be able to tell if a shot is a 10 or a 7 or 8 when the gun goes off. Consider world class shooters that use a sub-6 hold. They shoot strings of 10's without anything on the target to tell them where the 9-ring is, let alone an inner 10. Focus on the front sight, let your peripheral vision and subconscious take care of sight picture and trigger pull.

Red dot sights project a dot at infinity, so all you have to do is align it with the bull. Sight alignment devolves into sight picture and you should be able to call those shots. Scores are always higher with them than with open sights. I once had a chance to talk to Darius Young (Olympian, 2 time camp Perry winner) about how much value his pistol scope had over iron sights. He said that he got 4 or 5 more points per match. Even in the rarefied world most of us just aspire to, not having to align the sights is worth enough points to win a match.

Just the opinion of a pistol hack, and worth every penny you paid for it.

Larry

funtoz wrote:...
By the way, I'm not a great fan of calling shots. If you can see where the gun is relative to the target when the shot occurs, you aren't looking at the front sight, and your follow through probably stinks too. I once told Vic I could see my air pistol pellets in flight and he told me that was a sure sign of looking at the target, not the front sight. Let your subconscious take care of the target while you perfect the sight alignment.

Larry

You should call your shots based on the alignment of the sights, not on their relation to the target. Being acutely aware of what your sights look like during the shot will tell you far more than their relation with the target.

I think both views -- 1. All you need to call shots is to pay attention to the sight alignment, and 2. If you call the shots you are looking at the target. -- are a bit extreme and not very consistent with the human physiology.

View 1. This would only be true if all motion in the shoulder joint were eliminated. This is as impossible as complete immobility in any other joint. You will not be able to call your shots (for the great majority of shooters) if you are not aware of your sight picture (relation of sights to the target).

View 2. Yet, being aware of the sight picture does not mean looking at the target. The mantra "you cannot focus at two things at the same time" is often misunderstood. It is possible to see without focusing your eye. There is even such a thing as peripheral vision. Conduct this experiment. While standing at the red light, look at the steering wheel and try to detect switching of red to green light. You will be able to do that as well as if you were looking straight at the light. Remember those old TV sets? With 25 frames per second your eye was not able to detect flickering of the screen when you looked at it, but your peripheral vision would actually be able to detect flickering. The reason -- peripheral region of retina has more rods and fewer cones, and rods, while less susceptible of color (only to the green part of the spectrum), are more sensitive to light. The bottomline is that it is possible to be aware of many things without focusing on them directly.