A video on how to focus on the front sight.

[2 clicks low]

http://joellambert.com/396/focus-can-instantly-become-expert-marksman/

[olefido]

It doesn't work so easy since my eyes hit 50 but I used to just repeat to myself "front sight, front sight, front sight...." over and over and the front sight would come into focus for me.

[George Hacker]

Brilliant video. Just shared it on the NW Region Project Appleseed FB page. Hopefully it will generate some interest.

George

[navybowhunter]

Got this off Facebook last night.  Sharing with everyone I know.  I actually found my eyes coming in and out of focus....I need to dry fire practice more myself.

Not so keen on that white mark on the FSP as of yet, but it could help slam the point home for those that are staring at the target still.

Great share, GO NAVY!

R/
Chris

[navybowhunter]

One drill a Marine shooting team instructor gave me to do awhile back with my Garand, was the following:

He asked me after a COF, if I could see the muzzle flash?  Thought it was a weird question, but answered honestly "No".

He then asked me "Did you see your brass ejecting"?

Answer was "yes".  Now, I do not always see my brass ejecting, and when I do not I have shifted my focus from FSP to something else.  When I am intensely focused on the FSP with the Garand, the brass I can definitely see, and it is almost in slow motion (Like the Matrix).

I've heard two arguments on marking the FSP, this one with the "white mark", and another from "Sight Alignment, Trigger Control and the Big Lie" where he actually recommends a graphite pencil diagonal mark on the FSP.  Here is a link to that article:  http://www.jarheadtop.com/Free_Blue_Two.htm 

I've also heard arguments to contradict the previous two suggestions.

If you watch/read some Hi-Power shooting videos/books, many shooters actually "blacken" the FSP with a miners lamp doo-hicky. 

Looking for your thoughts on the marking of the FSP.

So, what do you all do?  Any Hi-Power shooters in here that actually mark the FSP?

R/
Chris

[MostlyHarmless]

So, what do you all do?  Any Hi-Power shooters in here that actually mark the FSP?

I'm really curious about this also.

As NBH says, many high power shooters blacken their FSPs- making them as dark, consistent, and featureless as possible. But I've never really understood this (and it may very well be from ignorance and inexperience). If the FSP is a black, featureless monolith of a silhouette, how do you focus your eye on it? Without something to actually look at, the human eye has a hard time focusing (in flying, we call this "empty field myopia").

The front sights on my pistols are all marked in fluorescent orange. I find it very helpful.

[FiremanBob]

Using a 6:00 hold in bullseye shooting, the blackened FSP shows up really well against the light background of the target so you can see when it exactly touches the bottom of the bull. I tried fiber-optic sights in pistol for a while. They tended to wash out in the light on a 6:00 hold, and obscured the 10-ring on a center hold; so I went back to the original black target sights. I haven't tried painting them orange.

But orange would be an interesting idea if one follows Ken Roxburgh's advice to use a wide front sight post and bury it in the center of the bull. I'll have to try that some time.

[jmdavis]

So, what do you all do?  Any Hi-Power shooters in here that actually mark the FSP?

I'm really curious about this also.

As NBH says, many high power shooters blacken their FSPs- making them as dark, consistent, and featureless as possible. But I've never really understood this (and it may very well be from ignorance and inexperience). If the FSP is a black, featureless monolith of a silhouette, how do you focus your eye on it? Without something to actually look at, the human eye has a hard time focusing (in flying, we call this "empty field myopia").

The front sights on my pistols are all marked in fluorescent orange. I find it very helpful.

You can both blacken and mark the sights. Once the sight is marked (say with paint on the tip of a pin and the mark is dry, you can then blacken your sights and use a pin (sewing pin or safety ping to scratch a line across the dot. You will then see a bright line on the blackened sight.

The goal of course is to do whatever is necessary to see the top edge of the front sight in crystal clear focus. That is the key. All of the methods are just ways to get there.

VAShooter once told me about a discussion that he had the first year that he was on the Navy Shooting Team (1967), one of the new shooters asked one of the older shooters if he remembered the first time he had really seen his front sight. Not only did the older shooter remember the time, he remembered the date, the range, the yardline, etc etc. It is that life changing for a shooter. Everyone on the team had similar experiences.

Now all of that said, your eyes have to actually be able to focus on that front sight. If they can't you are going to have a hard time. For 200 and 300 in highpower, I can use a center hold and do fine. But at 600, I can't everything starts to blur together (sight and target). That is why it is important for some of us to have glasses that let our eyes focus at a relaxed point that allows focus on the front sight while still providing a good enough target to shoot. In otherwords our glasses bring our focus in to the hyperfocal distance (2x sight distance) or about 42 inches for an AR. This is also why it is easier for some older shooters to focus on the M1 sight (longer sight radius).

Also one should realize that your hold is dependent on conditions. Sometimes a center hold might work great, if so use it. Sometimes you may need a 6'oclock or sub six (line of white hold), sometimes you might need a frame hold. But the thing that controls that sight picture is your ability to bring that front sight into clear focus. Period!

You may find, that you can't focus on the sight for long periods. That's ok. When you get the clear focus and the sight picture is correct, break the shot. Take the 10. If you don't have focus or proper sight picture start over, don't force it. Take as long as it takes to get those things but then break the shot.



Mike

[Agrivere]

I watched this video, and spent a fair amount of time over this past weekend thinking about this question.  First understand that I'm not a High Master, and I haven't won any national championships, so take this for what it's worth.

I hear "focus on the front sight" all the time.  I hear it from champion shooters in Highpower, USPSA, 3 Gun Nation, and many other places.  It is, I think, a good way for these folks to try to explain what they do, but I don't think it's what they are actually doing.

I'll quote David Tubb as an example.  From his book "Highpower Rifle".

In all circumstances and all events, your visual focus should be on the front sight.

Later in his book, though, when talking about shooting in the standing position, he says this.

When I'm shooting my best, I'm being aggressive and shooting the instant the sight touches center.

Earlier last year I took a class from Ben Stoeger, current 3 time USPSA Production National Champion.  If you asked him what he focuses on, he would tell you he focuses on the front sight.  If you ask him what he SEES when he shoots, he would tell you that he sees what he needs to see.  In other words, as soon as he sees an "Alpha", he breaks the shot.  Same as David Tubb.  As soon as David Tubb SEES a 10, he breaks the shot.  In fact virtually every top shooter I've ever talked with will say more or less the same thing.  As soon as they see the sight picture they are looking for, they break the shot.  They don't ever "fuss the shot", they shoot it as soon as they see it, and they have confidence in what they are seeing.

After thinking about this quite a lot, I question whether these top shooters are really "focusing on the front sight" like they say they are, or whether that's simply an easy way to try to describe what they are actually doing to others.  I believe, despite what they say, that most top shooters are actually focusing on seeing a sight picture that matches what they want to see.

In other words, from experience all top shooters know what a 10 looks like (or an X, or an Alpha, or whatever).  They have a library in their mind of what 10's look like, and they are in actuality FOCUSING on seeing a sight picture that matches what they want to see.  In simple terms, they are focused on seeing a 10.

The front sight clearly must be IN FOCUS, but I'm not actually sure that it is THE FOCUS.  Maybe I'm crazy, but for me at least, increasing my focus on the front sight has not really helped my shooting.  What HAS helped is focusing on seeing 10's and X's, then breaking the shot.  Unless I miss a wind call (that still happens), I will know the instant the shot breaks if it's a 10 or an X.  Because it looked like one when the shot broke.  I definitely SEE the front sight in clear visual focus, but it's not what I'm FOCUSING on.  Not sure this is making sense, or if I'm completely nuts, but that's what I'm thinking.

As a final note, if you aren't sure if you are doing what you need to do and seeing what you need to see and focusing where you need to focus as all of this relates to the sights, ask yourself a simple question.  Can you call your shots, and are your calls correct?  It's my opinion that if you can call your shots, and your calls are correct, then what you're seeing and focusing on is correct.  If not, then you're not "seeing what you need to see".

[navybowhunter]

Thanks Agrivere!

I think that a combo of JMDavis' remarks and yours are on point.  An example of this is my FSP focus, if I do it for too long (AKA "fuss"), scores reflect. 

I've not been to the range yet, to try the "pencil mark" on the FSP.  Dry firing at home, my focus does jump after a few seconds.  That is what I am trying to work on.

I'm consistently shooting 2.5 MOA.  I know it needs to be better, as that is a lot of 9's at 600  That is also not taking into account wind calls, of which I do not get a lot of practice with at my 100 yard home range.

I'm going to practice in both dry and live fire "taking the 10", and will see what happens.

I will attribute a lot of my current group sizing to the FSP focus topic.  Position is solid, of course can use some tweaking I am sure.  Also awaiting the Cordura coat and 1907 sling vice web.  Looking forward to the VA Hi-Power clinic in March!

R/
Chris

[jmdavis]

Tubb's standing is a different animal. He uses the approach method and starts out with his body twisted beyond NPOA. When he comes into the target he begins his trigger pressure and the goal is to release before the sight reaches center. If you watch his Modern Match Rifle (aka T-2000) video he goes into more detail there.

But the key to shooting on the approach is ALWAYS to shoot on the way in, not the way out. If you get to the center of the target and then break the shot you are risking a wide 9 or even an 8. If you reach center you are better off starting over.

Then again, we are talking 200 yards, not 600 or 1000.

I spoke with Troy Bassham (Lanny's son and multiple national smallbore and military CISM champion) about shot process last year. Part of what we talked about was trying to make Lanny's method work for normal people. Troy pointed out that he could never use the method that his father used because if he moved his head to make a wind check just before the shot he made a bad shot or increased his chances of a bad shot. The message from Troy was that you have to take the advice and master it for YOU!

Learn the rules, master the rules, and then figure out what rules are important to YOU! Some will be non-negotiable. Some will be good to follow, and some may prove irrelevant. But I will bet that you will not find front sight focus one of the irrelevant ones, paticularly at 600 yards.

[Agrivere]

I agree with you totally on David Tubb's offhand shooting method.  I tried very hard to incorporate his ideas into my shooting, and for me they simply don't work.  Ultimately I attribute this to the fact that his body type and mine are very different.  Same goes for Brandon Green (who shoots offhand fairly similarly to David Tubb).  I've read what he's written about offhand, and spoken to him personally about it, and his method just doesn't work for me.  What worked better for me is closer to what Carl Bernosky does, which is more of a "hold" method than an "approach" method.

The fact remains that essentially regardless of shooting discipline, champion shooters almost always say they focus on the front sight, but when you dig into more detail, you find that almost without exception they are breaking the shot the moment they "see what they need to see".  That's certainly not incompatible with a front sight focus, but I don't think it's exactly the same as a front sight focus either.  Perhaps it's merely a question of semantics, I dunno.

I do know that while I SEE the front sight in crystal clear focus, I am not FOCUSING my eye (or my mind or anything else for that matter) on the front sight in nearly the same way as this video describes.  My FOCUS (visual and mental) is on seeing an X.  To do that requires the front sight to be in clear visual focus, and then to break the shot when I see the sights aligned with the target.  Perhaps this is irrelevant, but I do use a MISO sight in my Service Rifle, so it's not at all hard for both the target and the front sight to be in clear visual focus, even at 600 yards.

Actually another interesting thing to come out of Ben Stoeger's class was when we were shooting some IPSC silhouettes at 25 yards.  As Ben was watching me shoot he said "good job, now just do that 9 more times".  Apparently he can see 9mm bullet holes at 25 yards.  I most certainly cannot.  I sometimes wonder if guys like him are champions at least in part because they can simply SEE better than most of us.

Maybe it is perhaps simply a question of semantics, but what I think of when I think of "focusing on the front sight", and what I see and hear when I talk to champion shooters isn't quite the same thing.  I know what I do that works best is close to, but not exactly the same as, "focusing on the front sight".  As I have said, for me it feels more like "focusing on seeing an X" than "focusing on the front sight".  That distinction is subtle, but it works for me.  What I do isn't precisely the same as what Appleseed teaches, but it's certainly not entirely different either.

Then again, I'm not a High Master yet, so perhaps I'll see things differently as my skills improve (no pun intended).

[ItsanSKS]

When we teach step 4, Focus, it is broken into two parts for a reason.  You must achieve a proper focus on the front sight, so that it is in sharp contrast with everything else; you then focus your mind on achieving and maintaining your chosen sight picture, only breaking the shot when the sight picture is correct.