This is fourth in a series on fundamentals for beginners,

AIMING AND SIGHT ALIGNMENT

There are different techniques to aiming and sight alignment depending on whether you are using iron sights or red dot scopes.

AIMING involves correct positioning of the sights in relation to the aiming mark on the target. Since the eye very easily centers concentric circles...with dots the aiming mark is the center of the bullseye. It is as simple as that. With iron sights, however, aiming presents three common options. Center and six o'clock holds plus sub-six area aiming. All three are valid aiming marks and the type of shooting and targets used determines which is best. For the less skilled shooters, center hold may be the best option for sustained fire since it allows the brain to accept more readily what it sees. Six o'clock and sub-six aiming are more suitable for slow fire. Sub-six is sometimes referred to as "area aiming" As in center hold it allows the brain to have a more acceptable area in which to pull the trigger. Six o'clock hold is a very precise point and trying to hold it before squeezing the trigger causes hesitation and can lead to poor trigger manipulation by novice shooters.

Make sure you are using your dominate eye for aiming. To find out which eye is dominate, extend your arms, palms forward, then bring your hands together making an opening with your thumbs at the bottom. Center an object in the opening, then close one eye, then the other. The eye that kept the object centered in the opening is your dominate eye. There has been a lot of discussion on the list about cross dominate shooters...refer to the archives for that discussion.

SIGHT ALIGNMENT is one of the most critical of the fundamentals. Minor alignment mistakes make for major variations in you point of bullet impact. For dots, alignment consists of keeping the dot in the center of the scope lens and the bullseye. Again, it is as simple as that. Unfortunately, no one can keep the dot perfectly still and centered, especially while squeezing a trigger.

Iron sights are in perfect alignment when the front sight blade is centered in the rear sight notch and the tops of both are on level plane with each other. Since the eye can only focus clearly on one object at a time, your focus must be on the front sight blade...for it is only here that you can see misalignment....the brain determines if there is equal light on either side of the front blade and the top of the blade is level with the rear notch opening. You CANNOT do this if your eye focus is on the target or the rear notch. Both of them will be seen in relation to the front sight blade, but slightly fuzzy, that's okay.

The combination of sight alignment and aiming point on the target forms what is known as the "sight picture". Maintaining the sight picture while squeezing the trigger is the secret of successful shooting. Let me write that again...for it is the holy grail of successful pistol shooting. Squeezing the trigger straight back so as to not cause any misalignment or excessive movement will result in a good shot. Everytime. Guaranteed. Unless, of course, your gun and ammo suck.

A couple of clarifications. Don't confuse movement within your aiming area with movement which causes misalignment. If you maintain perfect alignment (no wobble of the dot from center, the front blade centered and level) you can still have side to side and up and down movement of your aiming area as much as the size of the ten ring and still shoot a ten. Jim Lenardson describes it thusly: imagine a pipe with a 3½" inside diameter (the size of the ten ring at 50 yds) running perfectly straight from your muzzle to the target. AS LONG AS YOU MAINTAIN PERFECT ALIGNMENT, you can have a 3½" movement by the combination of your arm and body sway and still hit the ten ring. But with a very slight misalignment, the path of the bullet is altered and will it hit the side of the pipe before it travels 50 yds.

So you can have three kinds of movement: wobble (misalignment), arm sway and body sway. All three contribute to the point of impact of the bullet, but the wobble is the one that does the most damage toward a good shot.

Ron Steinbrecher