Circling front sight and DF wiggle.

[johnbu]

 

The past few DF and LF  sessions (month worth?) I've been working harder on watching the sights.  Especially on the draw, the front post does all manor of circles while my old guy eyes try to focus on them. Also happens more on wide transitions.   I think that's "bad" as I tend to alternate snatching the shot off trying to catch the target center and standing there like a dummy waiting for them to settle.  Is there anything drill wise to help with it? Or just more repetitions?

Also, when fairly rapidly dry firing DA at the white wall, the front post does wiggle side to side. Essentially, the front post moves to near touching to touching the back notch in the gap and not maintaining "equal light"  .  Not sure how still the sights need to be, obviously perfection is dead still ... 

 

 

[vinceislander]

I draw with my eyes closed. When fully extended, open my eyes and evaluate sight alignment. Make any sight alignment adjustments while extended, ingrain that in my head and "feel" what proper alignment is. Then rinse and repeat.

Once I am consistent with my draw and "acceptable" sight picture, I incorporate target transitions. I have multiple scaled down IDPA targets on my wall
and use them for dry fire practice. I don't practice more than 30 minutes a day and still feel like I'm making great progress.

With all that said...There is a YouTube video where Rob Leatham talks about aiming being useless. It's all about trigger pull. Wise words from TGO.

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[Jake Di Vita]

"Why aiming is useless" is such a click baity title. That being said, I completely agree with his overall premise which is the most important thing to do in order to hit the target is pull the trigger without allowing the gun to move. Aiming isn't useless...it just doesn't matter if you can't keep the gun still.

42 minutes ago, vinceislander said:

 It's all about trigger pull. 

I don't think this is accurate. It's entirely possible to pull the trigger "wrong" and still not let the gun move off target leading to a well placed shot. With the type of shooting we do where time is at a premium, having perfect trigger control on every shot isn't realistic. Instead I think the goal should be to be able to aggressively pull the trigger less than perfectly and force the gun to stay steady through it. For me this was done by improving my grip (especially force applied), focusing on intently driving the gun to a specific spot on the target throughout the act of the shot, and a ton of repetitions. 

A lot of people have the bad habit of dry firing somewhat lazily. If you have a dog, hold a piece of steak in front of him, move it around, and marvel at the intense laser like singular focus he has on that piece of beef. That's really the focus you should bring to every rep of dryfire. Be totally immersed, squeeze the gun like it owes you money, and keep the damn thing still while you smash the trigger.

Experiment with different things in your grip and stance and see if there's anything else you can do that steadies everything up a bit.

Edited November 24, 2016 by Jake Di Vita

[johnbu]

Quote

 

 

[johnbu]

Firefox on a kindle is pissing me off on how it locks up when quoting.!

" Be totally immersed, squeeze the gun like it owes you money, and keep the damn thing still while you smash the trigger"

 

Will shift focus to more grip.

 

[MemphisMechanic]

Regarding your issue with the front sight doing weird things when you transition...

Are you shooting both eyes open as your phrasing seems to suggest?

If so, experiment with a piece of scotch tape or a smear of chap stick rubbed on the weak eye's lens to see if it's an eye dominance issue.

[johnbu]

 

 

Yes, both eyes ooen.  I shoot frequently with cheater tape. It's possible eye dominance, but I'm thinking eye focus speed is different eye to eye. Being old...sux.

[Nimitz]

On 11/23/2016 at 9:00 PM, Jake Di Vita said:

 Aiming isn't useless...it just doesn't matter if you can't keep the gun still.

 

This says it all ..........

The vast majority of shooters don't grip the gun anywhere near hard enough. If your hands don't hurt after a typical 1/2- 1 hr dry fire session, you're probably not gripping the gun hard enough

[johnbu]

My hands don't hurt, but the forearms do burn with tendonitis.   with that said, you're undoubtedly correct... I should grip harder!

[CZinZA]

I have now trained myself to grip the gun really hard in dry fire. But I just can't seem to transfer that to my live fire. No matter how much I tell myself to grip it like it owes me money, when the buzzer goes it all goes out the window.
It's a problem that's been dogging me for months now and I wish I could sort it out

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[Jake Di Vita]

16 minutes ago, CZinZA said:

I have now trained myself to grip the gun really hard in dry fire. But I just can't seem to transfer that to my live fire. No matter how much I tell myself to grip it like it owes me money, when the buzzer goes it all goes out the window.
It's a problem that's been dogging me for months now and I wish I could sort it out

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It takes more than a couple months to permanently change your technique if the change is substantial. Make sure you make a conscious concerted effort on every rep of live fire practice to squeeze the gun properly. Conscious competence comes before subconscious competence. Once you're sure you're holding the gun right for all dry fire and live fire practice, do that for a straight year. Then after a full year of burning the right habits in re-evaluate how well the skill has transferred to matches.

Edited November 27, 2016 by Jake Di Vita

[CZinZA]

Thanks. At least (hopefully) there's not something wrong with me. It just takes time....
I'll keep working on it

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[johnbu]

Good advice, Jake.  i tend to think change should be fast, effective, permanent and easy. But  it's really slow, eventually  effective, only probably permanent and harder than heck to accomplish.

[g.willikers]

Over gripping the gun until it hurts may not be the best approach, especially as one gets older.

There's no fun in pain.

Instead of doing that, try using other parts of the body to aid with the grip.

Pushing the gun forward toward the target with chest muscles, along with shoulders and upper arms can help assist the hands and wrists.

Old hands hurt enough without aggravating them.

[Jake Di Vita]

Well gripping the gun very hard is I think very clearly the best approach, so much so that it I don't think it's really up for debate anymore. People say grip the gun until it hurts because most of the time if I tell someone just to squeeze hard they won't put nearly enough into it. Squeeze the gun til it hurts is another way of saying squeeze harder than you think is necessary. If for some reason (age, injury, etc) you cannot grip the gun hard, then you obviously have to do what you're capable of. When you're talking about using all of the body to manage recoil, I completely agree and I recommend similar methods to everyone whether they possess the capability to squeeze the gun hard or not. The problem is you could set 95% of your body up perfectly for recoil management, but if your hands are too loose to transfer the stability of your body into the gun you won't really reap much of the reward of good body position.