Poll: Where Do You Aim?

[seamaster]

Center hold, influenced by Erich Buljung

When not shooting well, I will go down to sub-6 for diversion, but invariably always come back to center hold.

With Center hold, I am not as fastidious with perfect alignment, and I can shot off slightly faster than with su-6 hold

Between a good enough alignment and earlier shot of Center hold, and the more perfect alignment but longer shot of sub-6, I will take Center hold

I guess many people will disagree with Erich, that might the reason he was no longer the national coach.

[adair]

6 o'clock

AP 567
FP 545

[Coolmeester]

Sub 6, 3-4 ring

[Rune Kanstad]

Sub 6.

4 ring area

Center hold for Rapid Fire target

AP 577
CF 585
STD 569
MRF 579

[atomicgale]

@Rune Kanstand. Why "Sub-6 4-ring" on AP10, then Center-Hold on Rapid Fire string. Please elaborate.

All: How does eye visually actuate a Center-Hold on a Rapid fire string? How would this produce better result in a RF string, then trying to produce the Sub-6 image visually?

[David Levene]

@Rune Kanstand. Why "Sub-6 4-ring" on AP10, then Center-Hold on Rapid Fire string. Please elaborate.

All: How does eye visually actuate a Center-Hold on a Rapid fire string? How would this produce better result in a RF string, then trying to produce the Sub-6 image visually?

He said "Rapid Fire target".

Have you seen the size of the black on the RF target? It's 500mm (+/- 2mm) diameter, and the whole target is only 520mm-550mm high.. I'm not saying that sub-6 is impossible, but I cannot remember anyone using it successfully. You'd have all sorts of rubbish in your sight picture.

[Coolmeester]

He said "Rapid Fire target".

Have you seen the size of the black on the RF target? It's 500mm (+/- 2mm) diameter, and the whole target is only 520mm-550mm high.. I'm not saying that sub-6 is impossible, but I cannot remember anyone using it successfully. You'd have all sorts of rubbish in your sight picture.

I use sub-6 when shooting rapid fire. It's quite common.

[northpaw]

Sub 6, ca in the 3 - 4 ring. The eye will automatiacally center at this area, i feel.

Two of the very best AP, CF and FP "pistoleros" in my country use a sub-sub- 6 o`clock hold, - that is close to the 1. ring, near the lower edge of the target, for the slow fire stages.Their scores are impressive, sometimes.

[Rune Kanstad]

@Rune Kanstand. Why "Sub-6 4-ring" on AP10, then Center-Hold on Rapid Fire string. Please elaborate.

It's how I learned to aim on the old pre 1989 target, and it seems to work for me. It's my impression that most shooters aim in the center on this target, at least the ones I know.

[Scrench]

I just wanted to thank everyone who posted a reply and shared your preferences and PR's.

The reason I started this was because I feel like I'm pretty solid in all the things we should be doing to execute a good shot (stance, breath, trigger control, etc...), but I always aimed straight at the bullseye, essentially cutting the black in half with my sights. I've been stuck on a plateau for a while now and knew I needed to change something. Since the majority of you use sub-6, I decided to give it a try at our local match this weekend. The arguments for using it are sound, but the thing that put me over the edge was when I drew another circle the size of the black, right under it on a target. Geez, there's a lot of space down there, and it completely showed me why "area-aiming" is viable. It seems like it would be almost hard to NOT hit in that circle. Before, trying to hit just the bullseye, I spent a lot of angst trying to get a perfect sight picture, and of course more often than not, blew it. Area-aiming is a breeze. I don't even care about "being perfect" anymore because I know that as long as I'm somewhere in that circle I'll be fine. So instantly, a lot of pressure is off.

Two other things make a huge difference. Being able to clearly see the black sights against the cream target greatly increases alignment. Yeah, I though I was doing O.K. with black on black, but black on cream really allows me to concentrate more on the front sight. I don't have to "find" it against the black, and I can align the left and right light bands easier and more precisely subconsciously while focusing on the front sight. The other big thing that helps is that I have taken a cheap pair of clip-on sunglasses (ZZ Top anyone?), cut a hole in them for my aperture (tried different sizes on paper first), put black tape around the hole and covered the other lens, and use a piece of bicycle inner tube on the left frame arm as a blinder. The depth of field has made my sights razor sharp, but the big deal is that now I see the target as a fuzzy circle, whereas without them it was always clear. The importance of this cannot be understated. Before, I could see my misses, and that would cause even more panic. Oops... I shot a 6, now I HAVE to shoot a 10, ...more pressure. With the glasses I can't see the target clear enough to see my hits or misses, so I no longer care about it, just shoot, and I didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars for fancy competition glasses, but got the same effect.

But the proof is in the pudding, and this weekend I shot 12 points above my high score, a new PR for me at the range, and that was still with about 6 crappy shots for a 40 shot match. As soon as I practice a little more, I have no doubt I'll be setting new PR's in everything. So I wanted to thank you all for setting me on this road, because I really do enjoy the sport, and it was getting to be a little frustrating to be mediocre.

See Ya' Shootin',
Scrench