Point of Aim – Point of Impact

Simply put…Hitting what  you aim at!  Sounds easy, right?  Actually, there are several aspects of making this work, but I’m going to focus on sight picture here.  For more defensive handgun shooters the sight picture is based;

·         alignment of the front and rear sights

·         placing the front sight directly on the target

·         focusing on the front sight

·         keeping your front sight centered between the rear sights

·         keeping the top edges of the sights aligned

My instructor likes to say “Equal light on both sides, top knife edges equal”.  That pretty much sums it up. 

The front sight is centers, the top edges are even (your particular sights may very slightly in shape, but the concept is the same).  When you are looking through your sights, the rear slight will be slightly blurred, and the target will be slightly blurred.  Your focus is one the FRONT sight. 

Aligning directly over your target should give you your perfect shot. 

There are other variables, such as Arc of Movement, which is that natural wobble you get from holding the gun our from your body.  We all have it, but with practice and, it gets better.  Also, there is trigger control, anticipation, flinching…these things can throw off your shot placement slightly.

Practicing your aim in a dry fire situation can help a lot.  Following all the safety rules for dry fire, you can practice picking a point and coming up on target to get comfortable with what the sight picture looks like.

I’ve written previously on trigger control (post Trigger Control, How Can Something So Simple Be So Hard) .  You can check yourself for anticipation and flinching in a dry fire situation by resting a coin, or an empty casing, on the barrel of you gun.  Can you ease the trigger straight back, keeping your point of aim, without dropping the coin or casing?  Not quite as easy as it sounds, but it is a great skill to develop at home, in a safe dry fire situation.  Then, when you get to the range…you WILL see the difference. 

Safe Shooting!