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How do you practice front sight discipline?


ArrDave

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Major match last weekend, too many points and a couple no shoots. Club match last night 3 mikes (1 piece of "steel" and 2 head shots that were botched (nearly) on partials)... This is the next thing I need to work on. Any tips on developing tighter front sight discipline? I have the time to spare in my raw speed to aim that tiny fraction of a second more, but it seems like I cannot help myself. Dry fire drills? Approach to dry fire drills? I think dialing in my accuracy will be the easiest way to up my game

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I'm going through a bit of this myself.. I had a big speed break through in a class a couple months ago. My match finishes have drastically improved, but my points are definitely not where they were before. Slow me shot about 90% of the available points, fast me shoots about 80% of the points.. So I have really been focusing on accuracy and trigger control in dry fire. The trigger control aspect I have been doing a lot of white wall drill, but generally trying to run two shots in .4 par without disturbing the sights. Then I have been using a metronome to see how fast I can run the trigger without disturbing the sights. For accuracy, I have basically just upped the difficulty of the targets I am using for dryfire. Instead of open 10 yd simulated targets, I am using 25yd partials and 50 yd open targets, shooting my drills, calling my shots and making up anything that looked suspect. For me, at this point, I still have to make a conscious decision to get on the front sight hard and be aware of what it is doing as the shot breaks.

I am hoping to get to the range this afternoon to see if any of this has been of benefit. Will test it in a match Sunday. If I can get my old degree of accuracy with my new level of speed, I will feel like I have accomplished something.

Edited by tha1000
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I have the time to spare in my raw speed to aim that tiny fraction of a second more, but it seems like I cannot help myself.

Forget speed for a while. Go and shoot groups or bullseye, or something.

As mentioned, your posting reveals that you really have a speed focus. The mental trick is to switch to VISION focus.

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I have the time to spare in my raw speed to aim that tiny fraction of a second more, but it seems like I cannot help myself.

Forget speed for a while. Go and shoot groups or bullseye, or something.

As mentioned, your posting reveals that you really have a speed focus. The mental trick is to switch to VISION focus.

the two miked headshots last night I called them as they broke as misses. I knew I missed, as I was pulling the trigger I knew I was going to miss, on an open target it would have likely been fine on a center mass shot. I guess I'm not giving the sights the respect they deserve. I've been shooting dots for a while, I'll try strict vision discipline next time because at this point the only misses are when the sights settle back down a little off (I have worked up to 5x per dot at 15').

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Steve Anderson's "leaving only acceptable shots" dry fire drill. It's a drill for working on calling shots and immediately making up misses for extended periods of time (i.e. USPSA stage times).

He talks about it on his podcast episode dated 6/15/15. That episode probably isn't available for free anymore, but it's definitely worth paying for the subscription to get all his old episodes.

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If you are seeing well enough, but not allowing for proper sight discipline, that is more of a visual patience issue. (visual patience = good search term)

Still the same though. It is a speed focus vs a visual focus.

Define the desired outcome clearly.

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not sure what your dryfire routine is like, but mine used to be mostly speed training. It has helped my discipline immensely to finish every speed drill with several reps of match mode practice, and usually the last 5-10 mins of the training session are some kind of mini stage with partials and stuff, run without a par time, lust letting my vision dictate when to shoot.

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Ron Avery has a target with 25 1" dots on it. Shoot it at 3-7 yds. Focus your attention on the sight and breaking the shot clean. After shooting it clean, add some speed (but not a timer!) This has helped me immensely.

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Focus on the front sight only. You can go a whole match and look back at it only remembering looking at your front sight. Stare at it. It wants your unwavering attention.

There are many things running in the same vein. Build your index. Grip hard. Focus on your front sight.

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Front site discipline... I primarily shoot Open, so front site discipline is a bad word for me! Because when i see that bright red fiber optic on the target, i squeeze the shot off (regardless of where the rear sites are).

So for me, when i need to focus for iron sights, i consciously tell myself to see the front site nestled between the rear sites. Front site discipline is not enough for me, i need both front and rear site discipline.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Its gunna take discipline more than any drill will help you.. Shoot your next match with the intent of calling every shot.. Take that extra little bit of time to let the sights settle and call you shots.

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If you are seeing well enough, but not allowing for proper sight discipline, that is more of a visual patience issue. (visual patience = good search term)

Still the same though. It is a speed focus vs a visual focus.

Define the desired outcome clearly.

Excellent, accurate summary.

You have to get comfortable with this feeling... The time it takes you to pause, long enough to know the sights are aligned on the center of the target, then watch the front sight lift off the center of the target - you will not notice that "time" on the timer.

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If you are seeing well enough, but not allowing for proper sight discipline, that is more of a visual patience issue. (visual patience = good search term)

Still the same though. It is a speed focus vs a visual focus.

Define the desired outcome clearly.

Excellent, accurate summary.

You have to get comfortable with this feeling... The time it takes you to pause, long enough to know the sights are aligned on the center of the target, then watch the front sight lift off the center of the target - you will not notice that "time" on the timer.

I get tired of trying to find all of Flex's posts on "speed/focus" and "shot calling". Especially when I'm trying to provide some insight or a link in some noobs thread.

I am calling you out Flex............IT IS TIME..........

Please write a book on these two subjects. SERIOUS.

I think the subjects warrant their own tome and your analysis on both has always been clarifying..

In addition, I believe the market is ripe and you'd sell them out constantly.

Just my .02 cents

Edited by Chris iliff
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Try slow-motion visualization in your walkthrough. Look at the place where you wanna hit (most of the time center of A zone or steel) then bringing the gun up, and your vision goes to next A zone and gun following. Do it in your practice first. Do slo-mo walkthrough with great details then execute it.

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I am calling you out Flex............IT IS TIME..........

Please write a book on these two subjects. SERIOUS.

I think the subjects warrant their own tome and your analysis on both has always been clarifying..

In addition, I believe the market is ripe and you'd sell them out constantly.

Just my .02 cents

I just re-hash what Brian has already done. It is all here, really.

If you want to link to my BS ;), and easy way to find it is to hit the search page with "Flexmoney" as the author, click to "only search titles", then choose to search in the "Shooting" parent forum.

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A good bit of my dry fire is dedicated to maintaining a pristine sight picture while pressing the trigger, and burning in the feeling I need in my hands and trigger finger to maintain that. Final step: carry that feeling into match shooting and apply it on all targets. Easier said than done, but not impossible.

If I'm going for speed in dry fire, I'll accept some less pristine sight pictures but I don't kid myself that my match shooting will be anything like my fastest dry fire.

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