I was thinking on Tam's post.
Reflex sights on pistols.
I have tried them, but I have night zero practice and/or training with them. But I look silly when I play with one at the proverbial counter at the gun store.
Tam is probably onto what I am doing. Worrying about the front sight. I am hunting for that dot and not finding it. If you are watching me I am making little circles with the muzzle looking for it, then going "this is BS!"
Because I don't know what I am doing.
Sound like I be bringing the red dot up to my sight line while looking at the target and might be pleasantly surprised, hey, there's a dot.
For future exploration.
Dry fire is the key. I've just switched over from irons to dot on my competition gun.
ReplyDeleteGet a timer and practice draws with the dot off using iron sights with a short par time. Spend about a week and you'll start to see that the sights magically appear on or near the target. Always finish with the sights on the proper target zone in the target.
After about a week or two, depending on how it feels to you, turn the dot on. The dot will magically appear in your vision. Make sure to hold a target focus.
The problem for most people is that they can't really draw and aim an iron sighted gun quickly and they're surprised when the dot doesn't cure their problems. They blame the dot when the problem is that they couldn't draw to a sight picture in the first place.
Once you get the dot to reliably appear it feels like cheating.
I used to agree with what Sean said. Now I believe that it is actually completely counterproductive.
ReplyDeleteIf I were starting with a new shooter, completely blank sheet of paper, I'd teach them how to use a MRDS by using a gun with a dot and no irons at all.
Put the slide cover plate in front of your face and press out while looking at the target the whole time. Put the slide cover plate/hammer in front of your nose. Proprioception: It works!
I've taken the red dot gun through the competition a second time and I'm starting to see Tam's point. Because of the extensive dry fire I've done with iron sights, I'm automatically shifting my focus to the "front sight" which is exactly wrong with a dot. You want to remain target focused.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm not the "blank sheet of paper new shooter" that Tam talks of, I think that this is inevitable, but I agree with her that there's no reason to do this to a new shooter.
There were flashes of completely target focused shooting where I got to see how much better it works than looking at the dot, but they were less common than me changing focus to the dot. I'll train out of it eventually, but it would be nice not to have to.