Tried Something

[LR1955]

Guys:

I did a small practice yesterday with a Grendel Match Rifle (aperture sights) and wanted to try out something that many would find blasphemous. I have been reading about visual motor performance and the 'Quiet Eye' that a Sport Psychologist, Joan Vickers, has spent a considerable amount of time researching with athletes involved in sports that require precise pointing. This includes marksmen. Basically, she has found that the better athletes in these sports focus their eyes on a specific part of a target for longer during the action (of shooting for example) than lesser athletes.

Vickers hooked up a device to the athletes that showed very precisely where their gaze was focused when they fired, shot a basket, hit a golf ball etc. There were some differences between sports but the better marksman were able to hold a gaze on a specific point of the target for longer during and after the shot was fired. She is not sure if they were looking at their front sight or not because this device only saw where the gaze was focused on the target. It would have been better if she had affixed a device to the rifle to show its movement as well.

So, I decided to focus on the center of the target instead of trying to focus on a circular front sight in relation to the target for my practice both off hand and seated at 200 yards. Here is what I found.

My scores were better, consistency was better, my rifle didn't move as much, and I felt very confident I could repeat good shots. Some of this is a placebo effect, some because I haven't seriously practiced for a good six weeks and my performance off hand is generally better after a long lay off. However, I did shoot more consistently and my calls were pretty good for a long lay off.

Why? I think part of the reason is that when you look at the middle of the target instead of a moving front sight, your eyes stay fixed on one spot and that directs your body to point at that one spot without a lot of conscious effort. I believe the reduction in movement of the rifle was due to better balance because in order to gaze for a few seconds at a precise point a long distance away, the head will naturally orient itself to maintain excellent balance. Better balance normally means less movement of the rifle.

I then used the same technique with a dot sight on a carbine at 100 using a controlled pair followed by three shots kneeling per string. When the dot hit that point I was looking, the shot was fired. Again, much faster, more consistency, and smoother transition between positions probably due to balance.

Is this some sort of cure all? I doubt it and I am not sure how well it will work with a post sight. However some logic is involved as well as pretty significant research. If you don't know where the middle of a target is, you will be confused as to where the rifle needs to be pointed. And if your eyes are busy watching a front sight moving all over the place, you aren't focusing your attention on the center of a target.

So, I will see how repeatable this technique is. Do realize that aperture sights allow you to adjust light and they can be adjusted so that both the target and the front aperture can appear to be very clear to the eye at the same time. Not like a optic with an adjustable focus but better than a service rifle sight.

LR55

[Clod Stomper]

I like this. I just looked through an aperture sight at a random object about 40 yards away. When focused on the target, I can still see the front sight pretty clearly. Conversely, (I know from years of shooting) when focused on the front sight, the target is nothing but a blur. At any significant distance, that's an encumbrance. But I've heard instructors say "see the fuzz, shoot the fuzz". To me, that's not precise enough.

Strangely, I noticed for the first time that, like I said above, I could focus on the target through the aperture, and also see the front post well enough to aim precisely. However, when I raised my eye above the rear aperture and stayed focused on the target, the front sight blurred to an unusable extent. Don't know how that works, but that rear aperture allows my eye to focus on the target and almost have the front post focused at the same time.

I haven't yet looked across standard open sights to see if the same holds true, but I'm guessing it won't. What sort of sight were you using? I know you said the front sight was circular, but was it a rear aperture or barrel mounted rear sight?

Thanks,

Will

[thinder]

When I shot small bore in college, we had double aperture sights. That was how those sights worked. You looked at the center of the bull and the sights just lined up on their own. And most times you knew as the trigger broke whether or not your shot was good.

[mtn_shooter]

That is how I have always shot. A mildly blurry front sight in the center of a clear target makes more sense to me than a very clear front sight in the middle of a blurry target. The latter is especially worse when the target has poor contrast with its background (hunting).

I line up my sights loosely on the target, focus on the front sight briefly to ensure its centered in the aperture, and from then on I focus on the target. By and large, your eyes automatically align the aperture and front sight.

[SBBW]

LR, Have you had the chance to try this with a scoped/magnified optic, specifically the portion of focusing more on a spot on the target? The concept sounds valid from what little I know about really good golfers and the fact that they focus on a certain spot on the ball and driving the club through it.
I have noticed, now that you have brought my attention to it, that when I shoot a sighting shot on the target, and then use that hole for my actually group "target" my groups seem to be smaller than when I try to shoot for the center of the target. Thanks for your help as always.

[LR1955]

LR, Have you had the chance to try this with a scoped/magnified optic, specifically the portion of focusing more on a spot on the target? The concept sounds valid from what little I know about really good golfers and the fact that they focus on a certain spot on the ball and driving the club through it.
I have noticed, now that you have brought my attention to it, that when I shoot a sighting shot on the target, and then use that hole for my actually group "target" my groups seem to be smaller than when I try to shoot for the center of the target. Thanks for your help as always.

SBBW:

Yes, I have tried it. It is pretty much a statement of the obvious. Obviously your cross hair / dot will cover up that point where you want to look so you will end up looking at the cross hair or dot anyway. Front sight the same if using irons with a post front sight.

However, I firmly believe that the statement "always focus on your front sight / cross hair" isn't a good way to describe what to focus on either.

I need to take a look at some research but for now I would bet that what happens is that you are looking at the center of the target until your cross hair or post block that picture. However, the picture is till burned into the brain for a short period and they will put the cross hair on the spot they still 'see' and shoot.

Yesterday I was shooting using a Nightforce 2.5 - 10 X with a FC-2 reticle. The reticle uses a 1.5 minute dot @ 10X. I was shooting at some 3" Shoot N C targets at 200 yards. The dot totally obscured the Shoot N C targets.

It was not difficult at all to shoot into these small targets even though the dot completely covered them when in the aiming process. I suspect that what I was doing was burning the image into my mind for a short period of time -- maybe a second or two -- and that was enough for me to get confident shots with the optic.

I think this may be true because if I held too long -- past two seconds or so -- I had to start my approach all over again. This means something went on in my mind that said "it isn't right anymore so start over." What triggered this was most likely that the picture in my memory of where the target was, faded too much for me to trust a good shot.

Sounds kind of weird but you know what it is like to have an image 'burned' into your retina? Same type of thing I think happens.

The pity of this is that for years guys follow guidelines such as 'stay focused on the front sight' yet what the better guys do in reality is more than likely to focus on the center of the target and then shift focus to a sight that obscures that center but only for long enough to take a shot.

Focusing on a cross hair or front sight is probably important but it may not be as important as people once thought.

LR1955

[SBBW]

LR,
That makes perfect sense to me. That in it self is a little scary. Thanks for the follow up. Good to be back here and thanks again.

[Anschutz]

I shoot smallbore and air rifle here at West Point. Once you get the basics down you can easily focus on a point on the target but to get consistent shots you must set up the same way every time. This goes shot to shot, down to the placement of the finger on the trigger.
As for the burning of an image you are exactly correct. Especially in a stable position like prone if you hold for over two seconds the brain keeps that image and while it may look like a centershot the shot may be a low value ten or high value nine (really close to scoring rings). What I do in all positions is set up for my Natural Point of Aim(NPA) on the target close my eyes breathe, relax, take up the slack in the trigger, open my eyes, then I do a selection if I'm settled on the target I continue to squeeze and if not I release pressure reset my NPA, check it and start over. If you guys need me to write up some newb articles I can. All of the basics are the same just you HP guys have to do it a little faster.