Since I was the only one at my local range, I asked the owner if I could shoot targets in a hurry and do some holster draws. He declined on the draws, but said I could bang away all I wanted… So, I got a chance to run some Bill Drills tonight at the local range.

As I mentioned a few comments back, I shot the wicked fast classifier CM06-03 and, while I think I did great for where I’m at now, it reaffirmed my need to practice shooting faster… My string times were ~5s for Draw, fire 5, reload, fire 5. One string was 5.2 and the other was 4.9. Just shy of a B class performance.

Anyway, I ran my first Bill after not having shot it in a while and noticed that I was shooting comfortable .28s splits and seeing my sights for each shot.

I sped it up and ended up getting to .25, still seeing great flash picture…

I know I’ve got to let go the “pulling of the trigger”, but at this point, I just can’t pull it any faster…

Interesting that I could see the sights pretty well though… Exactly as Enos describes: like looking through your rear sight and front sight, seeing the target.

I tend to disagree with that. As an example, I do not “remember” seeing my sights while making a 35 yard shot a steel plate yesterday, but I clearly used the sights…because I made a 35 yard shot a steel plate yesterday.

I think this is a problem with the bureaucracy of the most departments – they keep the same curriculum for the rank-and-file so that the emphasis is all on perfect sight alignment. Is this an insurance thing? Are your higher-ups actually trying to kill you? I dunno.

About splits…

When the target is close, I don’t think you need to dwell on sights, however when the target moves out, they become more important.

Witness that most excellent shooters will do a Bill Drill at 7 yards in ~2 seconds with all A’s or -0′s. Figure .8-1 second for a draw and the first shot then .2s splits.

Move that target out to 15 yards and they’re running the drill in ~3 seconds.
Figure a 1.1 second draw and first shot, and that gives you .35s splits. Remember, all A’s or -0′s.

The difference between seeing the sights and not is probably that .15s delta.

What is more important here, at least I think, is that subconsciously, you’ll know when things aren’t “right” and will try to correct.

A few comment ago I said that I shot CM06-03 on Thursday and don’t recall seeing my sights past the draw and the reloads – Perhaps I’m really seeing the sights, but don’t don’t even know it… Perhaps I don’t need to know it because it is “correct” and I don’t need to expend thoughts on thinking about it.

Conscious thought is always slower.

This is a half-truth… Yes, cops do a have a record for being bad shooters, but some of that is the dynamics of the situation. Most often the “bad guy” is the aggressor and has initiated the threat. The defender is then, behind.

The practice of tactics is important here…

As for gang members studying shooting, I think you’re referring to the FBI report – yes they practice, but they also have a non-complacent attitude and are focused on the killing, which counts for a helluva lot.

I never said that point shooting was irrelevant, just tha it’s a waste of time to teach it instead of proper sight picture. The reason point shooting is successful for people is that it really emphasizes body mechanics – which is something most shooters suck at. But a shooter that’s been taught proper isosceles stance and presentation (most competition shooters) is already going to know 99.9% of “how” to point shoot.

“My problem is that you don’t need to teach people to point shoot, because if you teach a person the proper grip, stance, and how to use the sights, then they will already have everything they need to “know” how to point shoot. When you “teach” someone point shooting, you’re effectively saying “here, let me teach you this thing that you could do just as well if you practice proper stance, sight picture, and trigger control.”

My answer for that would be that training to point shoot is very important, for a couple of reasons. The first being that it is highly likely people will shoot that way when placed under combat stress.

My police academy training was over 15 years ago, and was done in a more “traditional” manner. Weaver stance and sighted fire was emphasized. The first time I shot at a “bad guy” in a simunition scenario? I dropped my center of gravity and was in a perfect isosceles stance as I emptied my gun at the guy four yards away, never once even peeking at my sights.

When I went through the “target focused” training 5 or 6 years ago, it was like a lightbulb went off. I was thinking that I have been taught a lot of things throughout my career, but these were the skills I needed to survive a gunfight.

I makes perfect sense to me that we should train for how most people react under combat stress. We should be very comfortable shooting that way. I wouldn’t want to be thinking “I have to find that front sight” when stress has given me such tunnel vision that I can’t see something 1/8 inch wide.

So, having confidence in the technique would be helpful. After going through a lot of training (probably 10 full range days worth), I got to the point where we would fold paper plates into 1/4 size, and I could move and hit that little thing from 7 to 10 yards away. If I was missing, it wasn’t by much. The first day of class, they would use electrical tape to tape off the sights of the gun too. It was very disconcerting at first, but as you learn to trust your stance and alignment, it became a non issue.

So I would encourage you to not dismiss point shooting as irrelevant. At the very least, you should look at it as another tool to keep in your tool bag, another skill that might keep you alive someday.

I, for one, am a strong advocate of what I call “burst fire”. I’m not planning on shooting to slide lock, but I’m also not simply firing one shot or a “double tap” and then stopping to assess the situation either. My plan is to rapidly fire several shots at the target while I myself am moving, preferably to cover.

If the bad guy who needs to be shot is standing in a schoolyard full of children, then I will concentrate on marksmanship shooting, of course. I need my sights for that, and will be placing each shot as carefully as I can.

So I understand the need for sighted fire. I understand that you can perform sighted fire while shooting rapidly (not at .25 second splits though), but being able to “point shoot” is a critical skill, and is one that every serious gunfighter should be good at.

So, to get back to the original point of the post, there are many things to worry about in a close-quarter gunfight, right? I would think the priorities should lie with moving, getting the gun out and into proper alignment quickly, and then getting as many hits in on the target as quickly as possible.

If telling yourself you are getting a sight picture for your third and fourth shots within a second helps you stay accurate, then by all means, go ahead and use that technique. I think you are doing others a disservice though to tell them that they should be concentrating on that when there are much more important things for them to focus on at that point.

In fact, I don’t even diagree with the general thesis that point shooting is effective at extremely close range. In matches, there have been times where a target is so absurdly close that you could in fact index your body and whack the sucker without using my sights.

My problem is that you don’t need to teach people to point shoot, because if you teach a person the proper grip, stance, and how to use the sights, then they will already have everything they need to “know” how to point shoot. When you “teach” someone point shooting, you’re effectively saying “here, let me teach you this thing that you could do just as well if you practice proper stance, sight picture, and trigger control.”

It really is practice at deadly situations and gangs are more practiced.

The other group the CCW armed citizen has had remarkable success in drawing faster and getting a fatal hit under stress conditions. So I do think the muscle memory for CCW is the key. The probably do not acquire the sights but have practiced enough to know where they point and shoot is correct.

Heinlein once said that it is important to get the first shot fast. That it rattled the other person so you can make the second shot accurate. That made a lot of sense to me

How much shooting in low light or with compromised vision do you do?