Ah Ha Moments While Practicing Shooting on the Range

[Chimich]

This is the first post in this topic.  I'm starting this new topic since I am very interested in any stories that you would like to share regarding any 'ah ha' or 'lightbulb' moments you have had while practicing on some range.

Some history first...

Before volunteering as an IIT, a friend of mine  and I signed up for a shoot in Buckeye, AZ late last year in 2014.  Actually of couple of shoots.  We got our patches and were shooting semi-auto with rifle scope at the time.  Well, at the next shoot we signed up for, Seth qualified with a bolt action w/riflescope. Hmmm, how to beat that?  So I recently got myself a CZ455, bolt action w/iron sights!!!

And this is where I eventually had my 'ah ha' moment while practicing with the new rifle at the Ben Avery Range in Phoenix, AZ. 

We've probably by now all read the story on this forum about the old guy that qualified Rifleman even though he could not clearly see the target.  He just put the front sight on the fuzzy target....the rest is history.

Here's what happened to me...

I used to have 20/20 vision....before I was interested in shooting, so I can only fantasize about how good I could have been in my youth.  Then  some years later I needed glasses for distance, but I was still able to resolve both near and far with my new glasses (no bifocals).  More recently in the past 1-2 years, my near vision has now somehow gotten a little better (the eye doc says that's normal for some old guys...) but I still need glasses for distance.  So now when I'm behind the rifle looking down the iron sights WITH my glasses on, the front looks OK, not perfect but OK, while the target is nice and crisp.

To test accuracy on the new rifle I FIRST but a scope on it and at 25 yds was mostly able to drop 5 into one of our sighter squares.   I was happy with my new purchase!!!

Over the next 3 weeks at Ben Avery I then removed the scope and just shot with the iron sights that came on the rifle; a hooded front blade and a shallow rear v-shaped sight...mounted forward of the bolt at about mid-barrel!!!  What a disaster!!! I was getting really frustrated.  Groups?  There were no groups!!! I was all over the place.  But, every once in awhile I was getting a semblance of a group onto the sighter square, so I figured I must be doing something right every once in awhile, but what was it???

On the 3rd week at the range it was really hot that day (~106F).  While shooting a string of 5 at the sighter square, my glasses slid off my nose and dropped down enough so that I was looking at the front sight with just my eyes and no glasses....so that's what the front sight is supposed to look like!! Man was it clear and crisp.  LIGHTBULB MOMENT!!!

I had been using those same shooting glasses for soooo long that I never even realized that the front sight was actually a bit fuzzy; I had no comparison...until I saw the front sight without the glasses.

So for the past two weeks at the range I've been shooting with uncorrected safety glasses.  It's still a bit weird. It will definitely take some getting used to.  Now the front sight is crispy as all getup, but of course the target is barely visible.  Due to the contrast of black on white for the sighters I have a good 'sense' of where the target is.  The target has absolutely no definitive edges...it's just a semi-grey blob, barely visible,  sitting under my front sight. Also, since the front sight covers the square at this distance, I only barely see the target at the TOP of my breathing cycle since at the bottom of the cycle I'm fully on target and the sight covers the target.

The silver lining is that since the target is now so fuzzy, trying to focus on the target actually makes my eyes hurt...so I don't do that!

But, now about 60% of the time, I group 5 into a square.  Most times, I still don't have that same good, confident feeling shooting at a fuzzy target that I did when I was shooting at a clear, crisp target. But, this is all on a controlled range and I'm only trying to get better using irons.  And my friend Seth, well according to him his eyes are so bad that he can't even see at all a fuzzy target without correction.  So when I shoot Rifleman with a bolt action w/iron sights, unless he pulls out the bow and arrow.....

[Agrivere]

That's an awesome story! And it's so true but hard to really, truly understand. There's an old saying that Highpower shooters don't stop shooting when they can't see the target, they stop when they can no longer read it the number board. It's certainly true!

Another tip that might help is to look at the aperture you're using. Most competitive shooters use an aperture around 0.042 to 0.046" in diameter. Many common apertures are much, much larger than that. A smaller aperture may improve the clarity of the target without sacrificing the clarity of the front sight by increasing your depth of field.