Sight Picture

K

kwhi43

New member
For those of you who might wonder how we sight our pistols in serious
competition, I can show you how I teach and sight mine. Now you can use
the 6:00 hold also and it does work for some, but I find the center hold a lot
more relaxing . As long as the front sight is in the black area, apply pressure
on the trigger until the shot breaks. Using this method you will get lots of 10's
and a few X's with only a couple 9's. Sometime you get lucky and all will be in
the 10 ring. With a 6:00 hold it is a lot more likely to throw a 8. You try to
make it too presice. With my method the rear sight will be blurry as will the
target. Don't worry the 10 ring is in the center of the blurr. Just keep the front
sight clear. Only look at the front sight. As long as the front sight is in the fuzzy
black apply pressure on the trigger. The worst you will get is a 9. You eye will
naturally seek out the center of the fuzzy black and that's where the X ring is.
I've been shooting in National competition for over 25 years and this is how I
do it.

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how to sight

I was taught both ways.
Yours is excellent for target shooting at a known distance and if you have to move to a new distance and you have already pre-determined the needed adjustment for the sights at the new range. Normally just an elevation change if no wind.

But I still prefer the 6:00 hold in hunting where the distance isn't exact, and you don't want to move the sight in the field.

I'm in Wyoming so a lot of our shots are 100 yd plus. I know my rifle with my load and projectile out to 150 yd.
So I hold at 6 at 50 sight for center to 12 hit. At 100 I will be very close to dead on. at 150 if I aim at back bone or just below, almost guaranteed a center of body hit (top to bottom) or at least close enough it will be in the kill zone.
However, it does come down to preference and KNOWING where your particular rifle will consistantly strike with a known load.
Been doing it this way since 1968
 
I've always used the center sight picture. Only hold off center if I know the round will go high--either due to range to target or that particular load will land high and I'm not in the mood to adjust the sights.
 
I have always used the 6 o'clock hold for pistol shooting but I just might give your way a try the next time I shoot pistol matches.


A couple of years ago, I shot my best pistol score, beating my fancy target pistol scores, with an open top Colt revolver with "as issue" sights. It wasn't a six o'clock of the bullseye hold, it was a six o'clock of the entire target frame hold, essentially using a clump of grass under and behind the target frame as an aiming point.
I believe that it removed the distraction of having the bullseye perfectly aligned with the top of the sight and allowed me to devote all my attention to having the sights properly aligned.
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I believe that with a center of the bull hold, there is less point of impact shift when light conditions change.
When the light is low as in an overcast sky, the bull is more blurred because your eye's pupils are wide open, and a blurred bull looks larger than a sharply focused bull causing a six-o'clock hold to shoot low.

I know that the rifle bench rest competitors will hold their fire if a cloud puts their target in shade.
 
My guns are sighted in to shoot dead on between noon and 2:00 in the afternoon. If I am forced to shoot before noon. I have to hold to the right
because the light pulls the bull to the right . Same way after 2:00. You have
to hold to the left. It's fun seeing the newbies pull out their screwdrivers and
start cranking their sights around though out the day. Understanding light
and wind are very important to winning matches. The old saying is shoot into
the light.
 
I have never figured out how light shifts POI left or right unless it's the light hitting the gun's sights. At the Brady range where the TMLRA shoots are held, I have learned that if the sun is hitting my sights under our covered firing line, to take a step back and get the sights back in the shade., usually only a problem on the first relay of the day.

At the Fredericksburg TX shuetzenfests, I remember seeing a lot of competitors smoking their sights with carbide lamps.
 
kwhi - looks to me like you better find a new supplier of targets as the ones you're using are all defective . . . for some reason, the X ring is all tore up on 'em? :D

Excellent post and I can't think of a better gentleman to give sighting lessons! Great information and great photos! Thanks! :)
 
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