You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
- Mark Twain -
I've done a lot of shooting over the thirty three-plus years I've owned and operated guns and it's difficult to single out the most important thing I've learned...don't shoot yourself, would be right up there I guess though. With different firearms come different elements, different techniques and requirements, and as I shoot across many different systems I've had to master all.
Focusing on handguns, I'm going to single out one thing as critically important for tight groups down range...although keep in mind there are many other elements as stated.
Front sight focus
Focusing on the front sight of a handgun (with open sights) is critical. I don't mean looking at it, I mean focusing on it with laser focus. The rear sight is important too of course, but it's always out of focus, in deference to the front sight, or should be.
There's various techniques to train a person to do this, which I'll not go into here because you're never likely to need the skill or care, but I did and do so spent a lot of time working on this technique making it second nature; I was focused on focusing I guess one could say...See what I did there? Anyway, I'm very good at it and my shooting reflects that; I shoot very tight groups with a handgun, quickly, and am able to get onto a target confidently even when the action is very kinetic. But lately I've been focused on focusing because I've not been as focused as I need to be.
Getting old...and other things
My eyesight is declining due to age and a health condition and I've had to wear reading glasses for a little while now. Having prescription glasses brings everything into distinct clarity of course and I even have prescription lenses in my Oakley sun/shooting glasses as pictured in this post. It's worked well but now my eyes have gotten lazier and I'm having trouble focusing on the front sights of my handguns which means my accuracy and speed is...let's call it sub-optimal.
I get new glasses every year, a couple pairs for reading and new lenses for my Oakleys (wish I'm always wearing) so all good...but nope, it's not all good, only partially good, because my latest prescription works fine for everything except maintaining that front sight focus I need on my handguns.
Red dot solutions
I've decided I'll swap to red dot sights which isn't ideal because it's very costly; I thought I'd share the decision I made; first though, no it's not a visible laser sight projected down range like the Eotech OGL, like often seen in the movies. I just wanted to make that clear.
Anyway, I don't mean the little red thing on the front sight as pictured in this post, that's simply a fibre optic sight to make the front sight stand out better, I mean I'll be removing the rear sight of the gun and mounting a reflex red dot sight in its place. This type of sight projects a small red dot onto the rear of the exposed scope (some are tube-style scopes) which then reflects back to the eye as a red dot to aim at. Basically, once sighted in properly, wherever the dot is aimed the bullet will go...as long as all the other shooting elements come together well of course.
It means I'll shoot with both eyes open all the time, possibly with the exception of taking a longer range shot where I'll probably closs my non-dominant eye, and it means that the need for front sight focus is negated.
I have my preference is Trijicon products but for this particular firearm the slightly cheaper Vortex Viper is the way to go - it's not a gun I use a lot and both would do the same overall job, the Trijicon units are simply more robust...Vortex have a lifetime replacement guarantee (which they actually honour) so it seems a good option for this light-use firearm. There it is below.
Here's the Vortex Viper red dot sight I have ordered, the link takes you to the Vortex USA website where this images were sourced.
In the images above of the actual firearm I'll be mounting the red dot to you can see the front and rear sights. It's the rear that will be removed, a simple matter of undoing those two screws (bottom right) and tapping the sight out from its dovetail (top right). The base plate is then tapped in and the red dot sight is retained to it. From there it's down to the range to sight it in, which I'll do at probably twenty metres, and once done I'll be good to go. It doesn't mean twenty metres is the effective range, it just means that I'll need to place the red dot higher on the target at greater ranges to drop the bullet onto it; Contrary to the movies the effective range of a handgun (to actually hit and kill something) isn't as far as depicted.
I've not been missing everything with the current sights, it's just that I haven't been happy with the level of my performance, it's declined, and that doesn't work for me so a change is needed. This swap over is going to cost me around $800(AUD all up but once done I'll get the accuracy I need.
I've ordered the red dot sight as pictured above which is in-stock but the base plate isn't available until December so I'm not paying for the scope just yet. A mate of mine owns the shop I'm getting it from so he's happy to hold it for me. I'm pretty keen to get it up and running though and will do a post once that happens and maybe also on the sighting-in process.
I know so few of you shoot guns or have any clue about guns so feel free to ask any questions. Alternatively, maybe you'd like to comment on how you've had to change aspects of what and how you do things to account for physical limitations that have eventuated. If you'd like to do so please drop some comments, I always reply.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
All images in this post are my own except for the red dot reflex sight images - link above