Question: How to train for target focus?

[ardo]

Many books that discuss aiming technique - most notably from BE and Ben Stoeger - describe several ways of aiming the gun, from pointing at the target or just seeing the outline of the gun on target, to a sharp front sight focus.

It pains me to say this: I could never get the target focus working for myself. Anytime I try it, I'm flirting with disaster: I may get a hit, or I may get a mike. A mike on a 5-7 yard target is pathetic. So I resort to front sight focus on all my targets, which makes me really slow on hosers.

Is there a way to cure this? TIA.

P.S. I shoot Production.

Edited July 10, 2014 by ardo

[toothguy]

Most of the shooters that I have talked to that use a target focus still have a very good idea how the sights are aligned on the target. No matter what technique you use you should be able to get good hits at a 5 to 7 yard target distance. Most shooters don't have trouble getting good sight alignment it's keeping the alignment during the trigger pull. Many of the trigger pull issues can be worked out during dryfire.

[TerryT]

I agree with toothguy. I shoot target focus to about 10 yards. That doesn't mean I ignore the front sight. I still see that it is aligned in the notch - it's just fuzzy. The misses at 5 to 7 yards come from really bad trigger control or pulling off the close target too early.

[ardo]

Most of the shooters that I have talked to that use a target focus still have a very good idea how the sights are aligned on the target. No matter what technique you use you should be able to get good hits at a 5 to 7 yard target distance. Most shooters don't have trouble getting good sight alignment it's keeping the alignment during the trigger pull. Many of the trigger pull issues can be worked out during dryfire.

That's exactly the point: when I target-focus, I lose the 'awareness' of where my sights are. That's why I asked if someone can suggest how to train for this. Some visual exercises, perhaps?

For example, I know my weakness when shooting steel: if I lose focus of the front sight, I miss. So I train shooting a plate rack with airsoft, making sure my focus doesn't wonder off onto plates. Trying to 'see through the sights' results in a miss about 50% of the time.

I have no glaring issues with my trigger technique. It isn't perfect by any means, but it is not what causes my misses at close range. I do Bill drills in under 2.5sec.

[toothguy]

Personally I would stay with using a front sight focus.

[mgardner]

If I want to shoot faster I lose some of the front sight and see the target better. If I need to shoot accurately I see the front sight clearer and lose time. Try both and see what your hit factors look like. Usually faster is better. I do lots of dry fire drills where I snap my eyes to the next target then the gun to my eyes and break the trigger when the sights hit the target, which seems to help me. If the gun is coming to the next target with the sights misaligned you may have some grip problems to address.

[bajaholic]

Last night we had our practice meet. I was having trouble concentrating on the quick steels and then transitioning to the paper. Apparently, I was seeing more peripheral sight than I was supposed to be. (we had a feral cat that decided to climb the berm while I was shooting and it kept distracting me)

One of the other shooters suggested I wear a baseball cap and have the bill slightly lower to restrict my upper vision and even put a small piece of tape (clear) on the far sides of my glasses to slightly blur the outer peripheral's. ie: make my sight more tunnel vision.

I tried this in the next couple of rounds and it did help me to "tunnel vision" towards the targets and not get ahead of myself in the next areas to shoot. This is obviously a training crutch, but it definitely helped my learn to concentrate directly on the targets at hand. Not sure what the ruling on the tape would be for a actual match, but the hat is obviously an easy fix for every meet.

[ardo]

Thank you all for replies.

I practiced Friday night, trying to 'blend' seeing the front sight together with close targets, and it did help in yesterday's match. I had no issues pacing myself to see a somewhat blurred front sight when I press the trigger. This worked well, and I picked up some speed.

I also discovered another bad habit of mine while shooting yesterday's match. I shot a stage where one position had a popper-activated drop-turner and a regular paper target above the popper, all at about 10 yards. My plan was to shoot the popper, then paper, then drop-turner. I ended up getting an alpha and a mike on the stationary paper target... I think I was trying to 'peek' at the drop-turner while shooting paper, and pulled my 2nd shot. Other than constructing a drop-turner for my airsoft range, I have no idea how to practice to avoid this mistake in the future.

[bountyhunter]

I agree with toothguy. I shoot target focus to about 10 yards. That doesn't mean I ignore the front sight. I still see that it is aligned in the notch - it's just fuzzy.

That's the secret: you are still aligning the sights, they are just slightly fuzzy. Eye focus is on the target, but you are still looking through the sights and having awareness of sight alignment.

[bountyhunter]

Most of the shooters that I have talked to that use a target focus still have a very good idea how the sights are aligned on the target. No matter what technique you use you should be able to get good hits at a 5 to 7 yard target distance. Most shooters don't have trouble getting good sight alignment it's keeping the alignment during the trigger pull. Many of the trigger pull issues can be worked out during dryfire.

That's exactly the point: when I target-focus, I lose the 'awareness' of where my sights are. That's why I asked if someone can suggest how to train for this. Some visual exercises, perhaps?

You need to determine your dominant eye: look at a black dot on a wall some distance away and focus both eyes completely on it. Then point your index finger and raise it until you see the finger pointing at the dot on the wall. The finger will be fuzzy, your eyes still focus on the dot. Whichever eye the finger is "in line" with is your dominat eye. You need to practice sighting exactly that way:

look at a target dot taped to the wall and raise the gun until the sights align in front of the dom eye. You will look through the sights which are fuzzy but have visual awareness and align them easily and accurately.

[alma]

Many books that discuss aiming technique - most notably from BE and Ben Stoeger - describe several ways of aiming the gun, from pointing at the target or just seeing the outline of the gun on target, to a sharp front sight focus.

It pains me to say this: I could never get the target focus working for myself. Anytime I try it, I'm flirting with disaster: I may get a hit, or I may get a mike. A mike on a 5-7 yard target is pathetic. So I resort to front sight focus on all my targets, which makes me really slow on hosers.

Is there a way to cure this? TIA.

P.S. I shoot Production.

I am readings ones of Ben's newer books now and when he talks about target focus he mentions still seeing the outline of his gun coming onto the target. You don't necessarily have to have perfect sight alignment but seeing that the gun is in the correct general area may be enough for those close fast targets. The only way to test this for yourself is of course to go out and practice and see how much you needs to see to get your his. For me, the next level of focus is where I justice pick up my front sight and essentially pretend that my front fiber optic is a red dot and when the dot is where I want the shot to be then I let it fly.

[bountyhunter]

This is what I see when I use target focus, except there is a second sight/gun image to the right. Note that mechanical eye focus is on the target but you can still shift "brain focus" (awareness) to the sights and align them.