Trick to finding the dot on the draw

[ToddKS]

It's possible that you might be shifting your head a little, if you're used to shooting iron sights then you may have been dipping your head to pick up the iron sights. Try keeping your head upright and chin forward, focused on the target and then draw the gun and see where the dot is.

Thank you for this suggestion. It came in at a very timely moment last night while I was practicing. Shifting my head would be an overly generous description. I think consistent head position may very well be the final piece of the puzzle for me. It also appears to be the area that I am worst at. My head position is all over the place. This is going to take some work. I need to decide where I am going to put my head and maintain that position consistently.

Thanks again.

[ToddKS]

The suggestions here have been great and have already helped a great deal.

Would still welcome any additional input or drills as well.

[Shadyscott999]

Three things will solve your problem.

1. Repetition

2. Repetition

3. Repetition

There is no magic solution, trick or shortcut.

Scott,

Thank you for your input as well. As with my previous response to Jack, the purpose of my reply to for reference to others who may read this looking for help with their problems.

I agree with you 100% that repetition is the answer. My issue was that I was doing the repetition (lots of it) and not getting any results. This lead me to suspect that I was doing something wrong mechanically which is why I posted my question here.

What I was looking for (and received, thank you all for your posts) was suggestions on mechanical things I might be doing wrong and drills/ideas on what I could do to correct those defects. The suggestions above really helped me pin down some of the mechanical reasons I was not getting the dot on target. Now that I understand that better I am doing the drills to learn to do it right consistently.

Without the feedback I received here I would likely still be doing my reps and not getting much out of them. Sooner or later I might have figured it out but who knows. Now I much better understand what I am doing wrong mechanically and have a path forward to address those defects.

It takes more reps and a longer time than you would think. I think it was probably a year or more of shooting Open for me before the dot is just always there. That was 4 matches a month and a LOT of dry fire.

[cnote]

Thanks

[ToddKS]

Scott,

Based on what I am experiencing right now that 1 year time line could be optomistic for me as far as true mastery of the issue. I have seen vast improvement in the last few days since working some of the drills that were suggested here. Vast improvement is easy when you are starting from terrible

For the benefit of anyone reading for reference, prior to my post at least half the time I did not have the dot in view when I completed my draw. I would estimate that failure rate is now down to around 10%, sometimes less. As for the dot actually being exactly where I want it I would say 30% of the time unless I am really on a groove. Cold is maybe 10%. The difference now is that while I am not putting the dot exactly where I want it, it is typically somewhere visible and in the neighborhood which is improvement. Jedi shooting (eyes closed) is a very mixed bag. I can get 2 in a row on target and then not get another one for 10 tries in a row. Obviously I have some significant ground to cover but winter is a good time for something like this.

[shotgunone]

I am about to find out how I do with this issue also. I am going to put a Trijicon RMR on my M&P CORE. I hope that the co-witness with the iron sights will solve the find the dot problem for me.

[ToddKS]

I would be interested to hear how that works for you. This was something I thought about but could not decide. On one hand I thought the sights might solve the index issue. On the other I thought that a rear sight would block the field of view thus taking away from the advantage of the dot.

Ultimately I decided I would rather have the unobstructed field of view but would like to hear your thoughts on the co - witness.

[zhunter]

I'm about to put a Doctor Sight on a CZ Shadow first week of December. It will be my first Red Dot, so I've been reading the thread from inception with interest.

I'll be shooting Production Optics soon

[BritinUSA]

I had a slide-mounted dot years ago on an Open gun. When I switched to an XDM the biggest change was the grip angle and adapting to that so I could pick up the dot every time. I've shot twenty matches with the Prod/Optics setup and it's getting easier to pick up the dot at every match.

[shotgunone]

Just mounted up the dot sight this evening. I haven't got it zeroed, but I think it will be close. When I line up the iron sights the dot just disappears behind the front post. I tried to upload a picture but couldn't. There is a lot of window left above the iron sights. I'd say the iron sights are in the bottom 20% of the window as co-witness. Using the iron sights makes finding the dot fast.

Based on my VAST experience of OH 2 hours. this is what I have found so far. I draw and looking for the front sight as usual and then when the dot appears in the window you just put it on the target. I'm sure it's not going to be that easy in live fire. However in drawing from a holster and starting at low ready it has been about 95% finding the dot on presentation when I start by looking for the front sight. I will say that prior to mounting the sight on the gun, I played with it by holding it between my thumb and index finger on my dominate hand and looking down my arm for the dot. That didn't work for sure. It took me minutes to find the dot and was like walking a tight rope trying to keep the dot in the window.

It's still going to take lots of reps and practice to get good at using this dot sight.