How fast do you know you hit the target?

[benos]

Shooting is all about hitting the target, right? For IPSC shooters, hitting the target quickly is what matters most.

But what about how you know you hit the target? Do you know when you walk downrange and look at the target? When the RO's scoring the target with you?

When you know you hit the target may be more important than actually hitting the target because it happens first. Or in other words, knowing you hit (or didn't hit) the target should happen before the bullet gets to the target.

Even when you're just "pointing and blasting" at 7 yard targets, you will know you hit the target faster if you are looking right at the sights the moment the shot fires. If you don't know you hit the A-box until you see the bullet hole appear in it - this is slower than looking right at the sights when the shot fires because when you look at the sights you are looking at a small, specific place when the shot breaks. If instead you are looking in the area of the A-box, you have to "find" the bullet hole somewhere in a relatively large area, which is slower, visually, compared to looking at the sights.

For IPSC shooters, the faster you know you hit each target, the faster you will transition to the next target. Nothing is faster than certainty.

Now with that in mind, let's think about a different approach to the whole process of learning to shoot. In the beginning, the emphasis on hitting the target may actually lengthen the learning curve.

Say you are a beginner, and you've learned enough to sight in your pistol with a "dead-on" zero. (The center of a 5-shot group is at the top of your front sight at 25 yards, for example.) Now, forget about hitting the target.

Shooting slow-fire at 25 yards, of course you'll aim at a target, but as soon as you've established your aim and hold, forget about hitting the target and instead focus all of your attention right on the front sight with the question in mind - where will this shot hit the target? Hold that focus and question until the shot breaks.

Practice like that for weeks, months, and years, until you have no doubt its effectiveness on any target at any distance.

The key information that you must train yourself to look for is the relationship of the sight alignment to the target. And as has been discussed quite a bit, this is called "calling the shot."

Calling the shot is the single most important activity you will continue to do, over and over and over, if you want to be a successful shooter. Because it's the fastest way to know you hit the target.

be

[glockster96]

God I love this forum. Just as I am struggling with visual patience and learning to call shots, Brian posts a nearly magical insight to my quandary. Thank you Brian, Flex, and Steve A., and everyone else whose posts I have read on this subject, and on this board in general. Your expertise and willingness to share is greatly appreciated.

[AikiDale]

This is perfect timing coach!

Due to various circumstances the only real shooting I've done in almost 2 years is shooting my mouth off here on the forums. I started back with a local match yesterday. For the last couple of weeks I've been dryfiring using the caps of several soda bottles as targets in order to pick a spot rather than a target to blast at. This forced me to focus on the sight picture. It must have been a good strategy, I only dropped 7 points in the match and those were the ones I did not know where they went. No Deltas, no Mikes.

[Chris Keen]

Brian, you have proved my signature is wrong ...... Knowing IS enough. Or at least a good place to start.

[XRe]

What can I say about that, except.... Perfect

[Sean Gaines]

Well said, give us more.

[BSeevers]

Calling the shot is everything and its everything to get there at a M level

[Ron Ankeny]

Nothing is faster than certainty.

That seems to apply to about everything after the beep...maybe even before the beep...heck maybe even before we step into the box.

[zhunter]

Great post Brian

[Rocket35]

Awesome stuff as usual Brian! Thank you again for your insight!

[MichiganShootist]

Excellent insight Brian.

I have been struggling with "over sighting" my pistol due to developing cataracts.... I need to trust those hundreds of thousands of rounds I've fired....and get my focus back to the sight picture at the break.

Thanks.

[benos]

Nothing is faster than certainty.

That seems to apply to about everything after the beep...maybe even before the beep...heck maybe even before we step into the box.

Ron,

After submitting the post, I wanted to add the word "decisiveness" to that sentence, but decided to leave it - it's more fun that way because it lets you intuit the meaning a bit more. Which I knew you would.

be

[JThompson]

I felt like this was written for me after the problems I've been having... this seems to cover it very well.

[BrazilianShooter]

As usual a great post from be.

Direct to the point of aim

[Sam]

Ah! Ghost Dog on knowing! To me this is the meat and potatoes of this forum.

Brian, I think you must be mentally very "dialed in" to folks here on the forum to make such an awesome post right out of the blue. Thank you.

In the winter months, I switch to working on accuracy. Alas, my winter costume isn't conducive to speed work and my range is covered in either snow or mud, so I don't run-n-gun much. It's cool to stand in one spot and shoot at small targets or distant targets, and just work on reading the sights.

For a long time I didn't understand how true the statement is, that "you must know". I heard it, I read it, and I generally believed that it was a subjective truth. But I didn't understand it at all. I thought that it probably worked for other people but not as much for me because my style was different or something. I thought that looking at the sights had to be slower than simply taking a soft sight picture and pressing the trigger.

The fact is that I just hadn't fully accepted what Brian has been saying all along as the objective truth.

Subjective truth: Your truth, My truth, what is generally believed it be true.

Objective truth: What IS.

[uscbigdawg]

Brian,

Awesome post. On reading the title, my first response was at the time of breaking the shot. You read the sights, not wait for impact on the target, as you stated. Part of me is pondering if "knowing" you hit the target happens before or during the pull of the trigger though. I say this only because as you're reading your sights, you have processed when to break the shots by their alignment. It is then that you have decided to execute the shot, because where the gun is at IS going to yield a hit.

The only reason I say that this isn't the case is due to finite adjustments during the trigger pull and ignition. So, still working on that in the brain.

I love these moments with my BE family and one of the reasons why I love your book and J. Michael Plaxco's. The thinking of the shooting is as important (if not moreso) than the actual execution.

Rich

[Flexmoney]

Rich,

I think you might be tying in calling the shot with taking/making the shot. One is an observation, one is an action.

[uscbigdawg]

I agree. The point of definitive action (breaking the shot) would be (or maybe should be) when we know when we hit the target.

Rich

[Flexmoney]

You lost me there. There is a LOT going on after breaking the shot. (Unless we are getting our terms mixed up.)

I know that many...see enough to know where the sights were when the body/mind decided to pull the trigger. There is, however, a lot of lag and lock time after that. The mind says OK...there it is...and it races off to the next thing. But, it failed to see the front sight or dot lift in recoil (at the minimum). Then, we go to score and have the mystery miss. (Must be a double, I know I saw the sights. )

I know that I have observed misses in the making. I know, because I have made up shots (tough steel) with 0.17 splits. That is faster than my reaction time...so, I knew as it was happening. My body was still working the action, while I observed.

[el pres]

The mind says OK...there it is...and it races off to the next thing.

+1

I am in this sort of area in my shootinmg right now. I see them but the intense follow through comes and goes.

I found myself making up shots on steel in splits when the original shot still knicked it but I saw my sights were off.

Someone may say, why did you shoot that twice, I dont know, I saw the sights off (total reflex,awsome). But then the next

day I'm practicing 25yd head shots and am not sure where the shot went .I know the sights were there but something got

lost in my attention. I am thinking something like, if I'm really trying it does not work (staring)..

If I go and shoot a berm, in about two mags or so I'm tuned back in, but its not there on call just subconciouse at times..

Although, some of the best groups I ever shot freehand have been staring at the ft sight kind of glazed over not seeing the

target at all, just the sights foating in space...

Edited January 10, 2008 by DIRTY CHAMBER

[adiksaputok]

thanks BE :bow:

[Sam]

And then there is the wonderful misconception of calling the shot, but not realizing that you wanked the trigger real bad just before the sight lifted. I think this comes from paying enough attention to the sights, and not quite enough to trigger control. You don't have to have a perfect sight picture to hit an 8" plate at 50 yards. Anywhere near the center of the plate will do. If the last thing you saw was the sights in the exact center of the plate, and yet you missed the plate, you missed because the last thing you saw was the sights in the center of the plate.

(which is not, in fact, where they were when the shot broke)

[JThompson]

And then there is the wonderful misconception of calling the shot, but not realizing that you wanked the trigger real bad just before the sight lifted. I think this comes from paying enough attention to the sights, and not quite enough to trigger control. You don't have to have a perfect sight picture to hit an 8" plate at 50 yards. Anywhere near the center of the plate will do. If the last thing you saw was the sights in the exact center of the plate, and yet you missed the plate, you missed because the last thing you saw was the sights in the center of the plate.

(which is not, in fact, where they were when the shot broke)

Unless the sights are off... You would be surprised how far off some peoples sights are.

Edited January 10, 2008 by JThompson

[benos]

It's helpful to keep anything you do to "make the shot," and, "the call" in two distinctly different categories.

"Making the shot" includes: Finding the target, getting the sights on the target, aiming, holding the sights aligned until the shot breaks, jerking the trigger, not jerking the trigger, blinking, etc.

"The Call" is: The "snapshot" you see at the instant the front sight lifts. It tells you everything you need to know, instantly.

The Call tells you if and where you hit the target, or if you missed the target. Which is the vital info required for the next action to be decisive.

For IPSC shooters, the sights are usually in motion when the shot breaks. So with practice, eventually you must learn to "Read to Call." (You can't read if your eyes aren't moving.)

For harder shots, I'd "stop the gun." That phrase really helped me when preparing to visualize a course of fire. Before beginning to visualize a stage, I'd decide which targets, if any, were "stopped shots." For those shots, the important thing was to feel and see everything stop moving before shooting.

I also had a "pause shot" category, for tougher shots than "stopped shots." It would be visualized and felt as a "stopped shot," with a very slight additional "pause" before the shot broke.

be

[Chris Keen]

Great stuff Brian! Thanks