TFin04 Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 (edited) As a quick backstory, I don't do a lot of competition shooting but train a lot in defensive shooting classes. I've learned to shoot my pistol and my rifle with both eyes open. Rifle has a red dot on it. I use the XS Big Dot sights for my defensive gun, and within 10 yards or so for a fast sight picture and where hits mean bleeding, not scoring, these things kick ass. I just picked up a Glock 34 with Heine Straight Eights on them. They work great when I'm standing static shooting holes in paper. I am having trouble tracking them through recoil though. I know this style of sight is very popular in the competition world, so it's clearly me. Are most shooters closing one eye or shooting with both eyes open? I have tried both, but closing one eye really slows me down as that is not what I've trained myself to do. I've only shot this gun at an indoor range with "okay" lighting. Maybe that is part of it? I am considering buying the XS Standard sights (same concept as the big dot, only a much smaller front sight). This would allow me to keep the same platform on all of my guns, yet give me more precision than the huge golf ball of a front sight from the Big Dots. Thoughts/comments/ideas? Thanks! Edited January 16, 2009 by TFin04 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 The overwhelming majority of people shooting "practical" style matches are shooting with both eyes open. I'd be willing to bet that the indoor lighting is most of what you're fighting. I actually like practicing indoors sometimes because when I get outside it's SO easy to track the front sight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFin04 Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 The overwhelming majority of people shooting "practical" style matches are shooting with both eyes open. Good to hear, that's the way I like to shoot. I will shoot with these a bit more and see what happens. I think I will order the standard sized XS sights and well and give them a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 The overwhelming majority of people shooting "practical" style matches are shooting with both eyes open.I'd be willing to bet that the indoor lighting is most of what you're fighting. I actually like practicing indoors sometimes because when I get outside it's SO easy to track the front sight! I'd be willing to bet it's the other way around. Most folks havent mastered the art of shooting with both eyes open. Especially with iron sights. You might just need to give it more time to get used to the new sights, but I'd say if you have the XS sights on your other gun & are comfortable with them stick with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkeeler Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 As far as shooting with one eye open. I shoot with both eyes open at any distance. But I have been reading some of the best do the following pasted from IPSC Global Village forum: ......First, for me there is no half focus on sight or target, either you focus on one or the other one.For me the focus must be on the target, otherwise as you mention it will be hard to call your shots. Now it comes, Do I shoot both eyes open, or one eye closed. The first answer would be: " your call, it's a shooter preference", knowing than when you reach a certain distance, most of the shooters will close 1 eye. Now, what I personnly do: in between 0 to 15 meters, I shoot both eyes open. Over 15 meters, I close one eye. If I have a tight shot with a PT under 15 meters, I will also close one eye. Hope this helps -------------------- Eric Grauffel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 The overwhelming majority of people shooting "practical" style matches are shooting with both eyes open.I'd be willing to bet that the indoor lighting is most of what you're fighting. I actually like practicing indoors sometimes because when I get outside it's SO easy to track the front sight! I'd be willing to bet it's the other way around. Most folks havent mastered the art of shooting with both eyes open. Especially with iron sights. You might just need to give it more time to get used to the new sights, but I'd say if you have the XS sights on your other gun & are comfortable with them stick with that. You really think most IPSC/USPSA/IDPA shooters are closing an eye? It's not exactly the same, but in our new agent's firearms training there are probably no more than 2-4 per class of 40-50 that wind up still shooting with one eye after a couple of sessions and most of those are cross-eye dominant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Well, you can't say that Eric Grauffel doesn't know how to shoot though I have to admit I was surprised to hear he uses a target focus instead of a sight focus. Wow, food for thought. And after all those years I spent learning to use the sights.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cheely Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 The bad lighting indoors, combined with a dark backstop that the sights will disappear into, does not bode well for learning to track the sight during recoil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Tom, I wouldn't completely throw out the XS big dot concept were I you. Actually, something I've been experimenting with lately is running an XS big dot - and I mean the BIG big dot - up front with a Novak half ghost ring in back. This allows me to use the "ball in cup" approach of the stock Glock sight setup, but with a much larger ball and cup. The front sight has been painted with the contents of a 99 cent bottle of Halloween orange nail polish since I find that much more visible than the white big dot. The first time I shot this setup (on a Glock 17) I took the gun to the range, sighted it in, then shot the IDPA classifier and posted a Master score; this was actually the first time I ever shot Master with a Glock 17, though I've done it numerous times in the past with a Glock 34. For the first time I ever fired these sights, I was pleased, to say the least. Of course, tomorrow is my first match running these sights. We shall see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Here's what a half ghost ring looks like, BTW: http://www.novaksights.com/images/sights/g...CK-GHOST-PB.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFin04 Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Here's what a half ghost ring looks like, BTW:http://www.novaksights.com/images/sights/g...CK-GHOST-PB.jpg Thanks for the input. I don't want to mix and match my sights, my main priority was to maintain familiarity across all my guns. My big dot works great on my defensive gun. I think I'm going to go with the XS Standard dot to scale it down a bit, but keep the same idea as the big dot. Should allow for a little more precise shooting but still be a platform I am familiar with. Good luck at your match! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherpa Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Well, you can't say that Eric Grauffel doesn't know how to shoot though I have to admit I was surprised to hear he uses a target focus instead of a sight focus. Wow, food for thought. And after all those years I spent learning to use the sights.... ...or is it because Eric G. shoots open (with red dot sights), hence focusing on the target? Pardon the ignorance but I've only shot w/ iron sights & not yet open/modified w/ red-dots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkeeler Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Well, you can't say that Eric Grauffel doesn't know how to shoot though I have to admit I was surprised to hear he uses a target focus instead of a sight focus. Wow, food for thought. And after all those years I spent learning to use the sights.... ...or is it because Eric G. shoots open (with red dot sights), hence focusing on the target? Pardon the ignorance but I've only shot w/ iron sights & not yet open/modified w/ red-dots. EG shoots w/a target focus when shooting iron sights. He uses a fiber optic sight and uses target focus. Look here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkatz44 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 The overwhelming majority of people shooting "practical" style matches are shooting with both eyes open.I'd be willing to bet that the indoor lighting is most of what you're fighting. I actually like practicing indoors sometimes because when I get outside it's SO easy to track the front sight! I'd be willing to bet it's the other way around. Most folks havent mastered the art of shooting with both eyes open. Especially with iron sights. You might just need to give it more time to get used to the new sights, but I'd say if you have the XS sights on your other gun & are comfortable with them stick with that. Im a junior uspsa production shooter. i ve been shooting matches now for about 4 months and i shoot with both eyes open Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BayouSlide Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Tom,I wouldn't completely throw out the XS big dot concept were I you. Actually, something I've been experimenting with lately is running an XS big dot - and I mean the BIG big dot - up front with a Novak half ghost ring in back. This allows me to use the "ball in cup" approach of the stock Glock sight setup, but with a much larger ball and cup. The front sight has been painted with the contents of a 99 cent bottle of Halloween orange nail polish since I find that much more visible than the white big dot. The first time I shot this setup (on a Glock 17) I took the gun to the range, sighted it in, then shot the IDPA classifier and posted a Master score; this was actually the first time I ever shot Master with a Glock 17, though I've done it numerous times in the past with a Glock 34. For the first time I ever fired these sights, I was pleased, to say the least. Of course, tomorrow is my first match running these sights. We shall see. So, Duane, my curiosity has been piqued...how did they work out? Curtis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 So, Duane, my curiosity has been piqued...how did they work out? The sights worked great. My shooting was not up to the equipment; I came in, like 5th or 6th. I did have my one shining moment though. At the end of one stage, from around the right side of a wall, we had a classic setup: Pepper Popper activates a drop turner to the right, with a static target to the left. The fast way to run this, of course, is to hit the PP, engage the static before the DT appears, then engage the DT before it disappears. Only two people on my squad - and we had about 12-14 guys - tried to run it the fast way. The first was a USPSA Master - halfway to Grand Master, actually. He dropped a down-3 on the static and a down-1 on the DT. When it was my turn I hit the PP twice to get it to fall faster, then wound up with down-1 on the static, down-0 on the DT. So I can't say the big dot/half ghost ring was really holding me back - when I did my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curmudgeon Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 TFin04 just a thought, I was using Heinie sights because an Insights instructor recomended them. The thin front blade wider notch in the rear is faster to pickup with older eyes. But the Heinie sights are rather dark even with tritium insert. Then I found the Warren Tacticals (from this forum) it still has the thin front sight (same hieght and width as the Heinie in fact you can swap the fronts) but it has a white out line around the tritium insert. I found my times were better and I was picking the sight up on the way to the target faster. http://www.dawsonprecision.com/ProductDeta...08E0-1212763251 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will227457 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 both eyes open....indoor lighting sucks and I have to do most of my training indoors.....however when I go outside I can easily track the front sight.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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