TargetTalk

Why up close and personal?

I see this recommendation on USAShooting magazine.

I shoot 10m AP. Unlike most people, I use center hold. When I do this "Up close and personal" drill, I found my focus many times on the target since it is so "up close and personal" and not on my front sight.

This "up close and personal" dry fire, is it just for sub-six hold, and not for center hold?

The idea is to shoot against a targetless wall, or white object. There's no reason not to dry fire for centre hold, but you will obviously see a different sight picture. It's still a good drill to develope concentration on the sights, and add in triggering, follow through, etc....

Rob.

First part of that dry fire drill is to use a close white wall/ paper.

I have been doing that for a while.

I have past that white wall stage. The more advanced drill is to use a dot, then a target.

I am talking about "up close and personal" with a target on white wall, a few centimeter in front of front sight.

I have never tried the UP CLOSE methiod for dryfire but my goal when dryfiring has always been to place my aimong area at enough distance to clearly identify any incorrect focus. The blank wall also works just fine for me as there are no distractions that can disrupt me from my goal of perfect focus on rhe front sight. I train with an aiming area to reinforce what I want to see while actually firing a shot. Good Shooting Bill Horton

Doral wrote:First part of that dry fire drill is to use a close white wall/ paper.

I have been doing that for a while.

I have past that white wall stage. The more advanced drill is to use a dot, then a target.

I am talking about "up close and personal" with a target on white wall, a few centimeter in front of front sight.

There is no 'advanced drill', they are just different drills to be used for different goals. I advise people to do the plain white wall for most of their dry firing, and perhaps add in an aiming mark to check position and hold. The white wall is purer and enables a far greater concentration on the gun / sights with less distraction.

I should add that if you dry fire with a target, you can't do that 'up close' because the sight picture you are 'learning' is nothing like the real thing.

Rob.

The benefit of using a ‘spot’ in dry firing is that it can train-in the ability to look only at the sights while coping with the twin distractions of the target and the perceived movement of the sights relative to it. Moreover if placed at the correct height as described in the method, it helps to habitualize the complete shot sequence rather than the trigger release only.

Doral has highlighted the problem that ‘Up close…….’ presents in that the
sights and aiming ‘spot’ are not separated by 9metres but by less than
half a metre. This can result in the foresight and the aiming ‘spot’ both
appearing to be in focus at the same time.

Rob Stubbs makes the point that to aim at a target at this distance gives
nothing like the actual sight/target picture at 10metres.

Using ‘Word’ Shapes, I generate a scaled-down representation of the ISSF target to achieve something like the actual sight picture. The dimensions below suit me, my 4.5mm foresight appearing to be just slightly narrower than the black. Dependent upon how close to the wall you stand or how long your arm is may require changes to the dimensions but they’ll do for starters.

17cm x 17cm becomes 1.54cm x 1.54cm, fill ‘ivory’; outline 1/4 pt 15% grey.
5.95cm dia. aiming mark becomes 0.54cm dia., fill 35% grey; no outline (to simulate a blurred target effect)

Alan.

Alan,
Thanks for the details on preparing a scaled down dry fire target. I made one and have been using it for the past several weeks. An excellent supplement to dry firing at plain paper.

Fred

Mr. Horton,
Could you please describe your "train with an aiming area" technique as mentioned above?
TIA

I start with a picture of perfectly alligned sight [ No aiming point ] to fix in my mind what is most important, and add the fuzzy grey aiming point to work on establishing my hold area. I want to have the same visual relationships that exist when actually firing the live shot. Next, is acheiving a perfectly steady increase of pressure on the trigger until the firing pin falls within my ability to maintain best eye focus on the front sight, without any break in concentration. I also want the dry firing of the shot to occur within the period of my best hold. It usually takes about ten minutes of dry firing to bring all elements into reasonable perfection. I consider that as delivering a series of at least five shots in a row that are good enough to be at least tens. I really like it to be ten shots but that isseldon accomplished. I hope this is understandable and of some assistance. Good Shooting Bill Horton