TargetTalk

I attended a match recently and was told of a technique taught in a pistol shooting seminar:

1. Have your vision set for 20/20 to see the target clearly

2. Add an adjustable aperture and stop it down until you see your sights and the target clearly

Then shoot.

Has anyone on the forum heard of this technique? It seems to be at odds with most everything I have read.

Your comments, please.

Tillman

I forgot to mention that this is for Iron Sights only, not for dot or scope sights!

Tillman

I shoot iron sights exclusively. I wear Knobloch shooting glasses. I use an aperture.

At first I thought that by closing down the aperture, I will have everything in focus by increased depth of field. When the target was in focus, I found myself looking at the target, not the sights. My scores suffered.

Now I use a lens that will put my focus on the front sight and keep the target a blur. I use the aperture to adjust the amount of light reaching my shooting eye so that I can see the front sight sharply so I can concentrate on sight alignment.

10/10 RJP

RJP wrote:I shoot iron sights exclusively. I wear Knobloch shooting glasses. I use an aperture.

At first I thought that by closing down the aperture, I will have everything in focus by increased depth of field. When the target was in focus, I found myself looking at the target, not the sights. My scores suffered.

Now I use a lens that will put my focus on the front sight and keep the target a blur. I use the aperture to adjust the amount of light reaching my shooting eye so that I can see the front sight sharply so I can concentrate on sight alignment.

RJP has it spot on.

You do not want the target in focus, because it's not what you need to concentrate on, and if it's in focus you will do. Get a lens which puts the foresight in focus, which will give a slightly blurred target.

Rob.

If you know the name of the seminar/person giving it, please publish it to keep new shooters from being misinformed. Sounds like like some of the bad stuff I was told when I first learned to shoot a pistol.

Since the conversation was "sidewalk" and very brief at the match, I did not get the name... only that it was an Olympic-level competitor.

I asked because I had never heard this as a functional style. The aperture is normally used for light adjusment, not for depth of field per se.

Tillman

tleddy wrote:Since the conversation was "sidewalk" and very brief at the match, I did not get the name... only that it was an Olympic-level competitor.

I asked because I had never heard this as a functional style. The aperture is normally used for light adjusment, not for depth of field per se.

Tillman

In shooting that's what it's used for - as in photography. But like that, if you wanted to reduce light then use a filter of some sort. By the way the technical name for the aperture in shooting is an iris.

Rob.

Don Nygord adn others have addressed this in their writings, and we have discussed it here in the past.

Not to cast any dirt here- perhaps the conversation was a simple misudnerstanding.

But trying to keep all three (RS, FS, DB) in focus at the same time has been tried and abandoned by quite a few folks over the years.

For the reasons already mentioned.

Heck, if they would let me shoot my match on a blank card I would consider it a blessing . . . !

What do you absolutely have to see in order to shoot well. Since the pistol sights are only inches apart any error in allignment is multiplied by the number of times the sight radius is devided into the distance to your target. With the exception of running target and the shot gun sports the target is perfectly still. Once your natural point of aim is established and you have settled into your aiming area the only thing that could still be moviing is the pistol containing the front and rear sight. Focus totally on your front sight , allign the top of the front sight with the top flat surface of the rear sight and center the front sight in the square notch of the rear sight. Using a steadily increasing pressure cause the pistol to fire without disturbing its stillness or the perfection of the alligned sights. Do this well and you will be a shooter, grasshopper.Good Shooting Bill Horton

Wow, it must be really bad, I think this is the first topic that I've seen with such a consensus of opinion against it.