How to improve three dot sight shooting accuracy

T

TacticalDefense1911

New member
My wife just started shooting a few weeks ago. She has enjoyed it so much that we went out and got her a Sig Mosquito last night. She had been firing one at the range and she seemed to like it. Her groups were a little all over the place but she had good form and I just attributed it to her being a new shooter. Took her to the range with it today and she was having a hard time of it. I let her shoot my Ruger Mark II and she was shooting very well with the standard iron sights with great groupings. Went back to the Mosquito and she was all over the place again. Back to the Ruger; good groups again. She is a right handed shooter and left eye dominant. My conclusion is that she is having problems sighting in with the 3 dot sights.

Does anyone have any dry fire drills or drills she could use at the range to improve her accuracy?
 
My guess is that she's concentrating on trying to line up the three dots, and maybe even jerking the trigger when they appear to be lined up, instead of focusing on the front sight and pressing the trigger to a surprise break the way she should. I've never been a fan of the three dots myself, and generally prefer plain black sights on a target gun. (Tritium night sights or some color on the front sight can be useful in a self defense or IPSC/IDPA gun where quickly picking up the front sight, especially in poor light, can be important.)

Her visual cross dominance may be a red herring since she's shooting your Ruger well. That suggests to me that she knows how to manage her cross dominance. You might try blacking out the dots in the Mosquito's sights (or just the ones in the rear sight leaving the dot on the front).
 
Bring a magic marker and black out the dots.
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I told her before that it may come to that but I wanted to see if anyone had any other suggestions. I personally dont care for three dot sights either; I just dont think that she knows how to use them correctly. I was able to punch out the center with it so its not the gun. Whether she is doing it or not, I've taught her to keep the front sight nice and sharp in her vision while blurring out the back sights and target. I guess next time at the range if she is still having troubles I can black out the sights and see how it goes.
 
The ability to train new shooters with 3 dot sights improves tremendously when using the TruGlow sights, due to the fiber optic brightness in day light, especially in bright sunlight that we are blessed with a lot here in Florida.

Have your Wife look through the two dots at the rear, and focus on the front, how to do this is to remove the magazine, drop a piece of string down the barrel, complete the loop at the muzzle, tie a knot. Visually empty pistol!

Have her take her two handed stance (this is a in house exercise) from the front you look at her dominant eye, with your dominant eye, lift the rear sight (front sight not lined up, but down a wee bit) both your eyes are now lined up looking through the rear sight. "Look through the two dots, see them, but do not focus on them" Now bring the front sight up till it fits in the rear sight notch, you are aiming in reverse. "keep looking through the rear two dots, now focus on the front dot"

Move the hands down, and back, you are still focused on the sights in reverse, have her do the sights down. and up herself, correct the alignment if necessary.

This works on any pistol, I used this method when I taught Revolver armed individuals, using a stripped Model 10 S&W, no cylinder, but you could still press the trigger, and call the flinch! I do not advocate the look for the flinch with the string down the barrel Auto pistol method, but you can see the flinch from the side easy enough.
 
Wow, I'm really glad to see there are other people that don't like those stupid white dots. I find them distracting and they add nothing toward accuracy, at least for me.
 
Not to derail the topic, but are you sure you've isolated sight pattern as the offending variable? Difference in trigger, grip, balance, sight radius or tolerance, and so forth could also be influencing factors.
 
I dont know it is the sights for a fact, but I do know that she shot a J-frame snubbie with standard sights a lot better than she is shooting the Mosquito :eek: I'm going to start by covering her back sight dots with electrical tape. If she still has problems I'll black out all the dots. We'll see how it goes I guess.
 
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