Finding the front sight off the draw

[alpha-charlie]

My draw reasonably fast and my technique is smooth. Using my production rig the fastest that I have hit the A-zone is .83 at 7 yards. However, this is without seeing any sight picture and relying on point shooting. Even slowing things down to get a 1.0 second first shot I still have trouble acquiring the front sight right away. Any specific drills or tips to help train my eyes to find the front sight faster? I think a major problem I have is transitioning from target to sights. I seem to look in the direction of my first target on the draw. Should I be looking downward and track the gun as I draw?? Have I just answered my own question??

[DoubleA]

What I do on my draw is pull the gun up to a somewhat "high ready" position with the the gun tilted back slightly so that the front sight is up there and easy to pick up right away. I then push the gun out and let the rear sight pull up around the front sight. If you start prepping the trigger about halfway through the push, you can be ready to fire pretty much as soon as you are extended. Practice that for smoothness and not for speed and you will be surprised at how fast you can get that first shot off accurately.

On a side note to the subject, I wouldn't worry a whole lot about getting a sub second draw since that is only a very small part of the whole stage. Instead focus on being smooth and in control as this will help you to shoot the whole stage in that state. You may be able to rush a .8 draw, but it won't win you the stage if all the following shots are all over the place because you rushed them too.

[alpha-charlie]

Good stuff. I agree 100% on not worrying about a sub second draw. I just included that part so that people wouldn't say get the gun out of the holster quicker, etc. I'll give that a try. thanks.

[Steve Anderson]

I was gonna stay out of this one, but since you quoted me in your sig I feel compelled to participate.

This could get a little messy so just bear with me, ok?

For starters, you didn't tell us anything about your accuracy in general. A 7 yd target doesn't require the same sight picture as a 15 yd target, so it's possible that you don't really have a problem.

You are obviously seeing what you need to see to shoot A's at 7 yds from a draw. You call it point shooting, but unless you have your eyes closed you are seeing something.

What happens if you move the target out to 15 yds?

Do you blow through whole stages without seeing your front sight or is it just on the draw?

What I would recommend is (big shocker) dry fire.

Specifically, draw to a target and DO NOT pull the trigger. Your goal will be to draw to an acceptable sight picture, not to drop the hammer.

This will solve your problem of not seeing enough on close targets that you're already seeing enough of to shoot A's because you're maybe seeing what you need to see whatever that is for you at that distance.

Like I said, there may not be a problem.

[alpha-charlie]

Good stuff Steve. My accuracy is good. I group well at 25 yards and regularly shoot plates at 40 yds. At farther targets I take the extra time to see what I need to in order to make that particular shot. You're probably right about not having a problem. I also think I might be rushing to get the first shot off on close targets just because they're close targets. I guess my thinking is that they're close up so I should be shooting them extremely fast. In doing this, I think I'm rushing the draw too much causing the gun to bounce around more, making it more difficult to pick up the sights. Smooth is fast. I'm also going to pay more attention to the sights as the gun is being presented. I do that now, but probably not as good as I should.

Edited November 28, 2011 by alpha-charlie

[dravz]

I was going to suggest drill #1 from Steve Anderson's book, Sight Picture Confirmation if I remember right, but you got the man himself to reply so nevermind!

[grapemeister]

In live fire practice don't draw on anything closer than 15 yards for a couple of weeks, and don't shoot at any targets without some kind of hard cover or no-shoots. That will be a true test of seeing what you need to see. Of course, the goal is to shoot all A's, and if you don't shoot all A's you'll be using up a lot of black, and white pasters. Drawing and practicing my reloads on anything closer than 10 yards, to me, isn't really practicing, or pushing myself to do better.

[alpha-charlie]

Well, with a little bit of focus and trial and error I believe I figured out my problem. What I really paid attention to was "what is causing me not to pick up the sights right away?" I found that during a slower, controlled draw I had no problem. When I would speed up to match speed I saw that the sights were bouncing back and forth. I played around with a few things and settled on the easiest solution. Over the years I've been trained in both law enforcement and by top level GM shooters. Of course, the 2 had different ways to draw from the holster. I've been drawing the way a GM recommended (which is probably correct for USPSA) by bringing my weak hand over as close to the holster as possible in order to get both hands on the gun as soon as possible in order to drive the gun faster. I'm sure there's more to that theory, but that's the most I can remember right now. I know my technique of drawing like this is off, which is why I'm having problems, but I'm not going to try and train through a problem considering it doesn't feel completely comfortable. ANYWAYS, when I do this I push the gun just a little bit too far to the left (right handed shooter) which makes me have to move the gun back to get any type of acceptable sight picture. Now on close targets it shouldn't matter if the sights are a little off to the left due to them being so close. But, I've found that I completely lose the front sight some times. This is never good. I remembered reading an article by Duane Thomas about drawing with your eyes closed (dryfire) and then opening them to see if your sights were aligned. Every time I did this they were pushed left.

Solution: I went back to the orginal way I was taught to draw in the academy. I simply moved my weak hand to mid chest and gripped from there, pushing straight out. I feel much more comfortable doing it this way and feel smoother by having to move less across my body. The gun snaps out and I'm picking up the front sight easier now. Thanks for the tips everyone. Nothing that a little attention to what and why was wrong, dryfire and patience couldn't solve.

[Steve Anderson]

I have found that simply doing a draw in reverse to hands at sides or surrender will find the most efficient "path" for the hands to take. I can see some benefit to the weak hand getting to the gun "sooner" and then pushing out, but only if it solves another problem or yields another tangible benefit for a specific shooter.