Where to Aim, and the Sight Picture - Pistol
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Area Aim - the Concept
A few cold, hard facts:
- In the ISSF standing position for pistol, no human can hold the pistol perfectly motionless
- In the ISSF standing position for pistol, no human can align the sights perfectly
- Under competition conditions, few pistols can group all that much better than the size of the X-ring (many pistol/ammunition combinations can group better than this in a machine rest, but not in the human hand...)
- The harder you try to fire a 'perfect' shot, the greater your chances of flinching, snatching, forgetting about trigger control and follow through, or some other deadly sin.
- Worse, trying to aim at a 'point' on the target will definitely take your concentration off the front sight (and on to the target). This is a bad thing.
The GOOD NEWS is that these are not critical factors!
- The 10-ring on the precision target is 50 mm and any shot in or touching the 10-ring is scored as a '10' (For the Rapid Fire target this goes up, to 100 mm)
- Less than machine-like steadiness can still result in a '10' or a '9'
- Minor misalignment of the sights can still result in a '10' or a '9'
- Any pistol/ammunition combination capable of shooting groups around the size of the X-ring is capable of shooting '10s' all day long
- Get all the shots in the '9' ring and chances are that you will have a score of 550+ for a 60-shot match - not so bad, eh?
The REALLY GOOD NEWS is:
- ANYWHERE in or touching the 10-ring scores as a '10': ANYWHERE in or touching the 9-ring scores as a '9'
- You do not have to fire 'perfect' shots to get a good score.
- You do not have to put pressure on yourself to fire 'perfect' shots
- With reduced pressure your performance will improve.
- If you follow the correct procedures for stance, grip, breathing, sighting, trigger control, and follow through, the 'good' shots will follow - to allow these procedures to become 'routine' (no matter if you call it subconscious, autonomous, or whatever) all it takes is practice.
Back to the concept of Area Aim Simply, accepting that if the sights are aligned SOMEWHERE in the appropriate part of the target is all you need - with sufficient practice (of the correct techniques) and reasonable fitness the amount of wobble within the area of aim will decrease, and your ability and scores will reflect this.
Advantages of Area Aim
- Once you accept that aiming at a particular point on the target is not the best approach, and that aiming at an area of the target will free you brain and hand/eye coordination to do what they do best, you are well on the way to firing 'good' shots.
- Concentrating on A/ the front sight, and B/ the alignment of the front sight in the rear-sight notch is far more important to the placement of the shot on the target than any fine-tuning of precisiely where the shot is aimed on the target.
- Minor sight alignment errors will be magnified about 100:1 for 25m and about 159:1 for 50m, whereas
- minor errors in alignment of the sights on the target will only be what they are (1:1)
Center Hold (Center Aim)
Aiming at the center area of the black aiming mark has its place, and is the usual and recommended aiming procedure for events and stages fired on the ISSF 25m Rapid Fire Pistol target (i.e. the Rapid Fire Pistol event and the Rapid Fire Stage of Womens/Juniors Pistol or Centre Fire Pistol)
Sub-6 Hold (Sub-6 Aim)
Aiming into the white area below the black aiming mark will at first seem counter-intuitive. However, almost all the world's top pistol shooters use this technique for Precision events and Stages; and with good reason.
Advantages of Aiming Sub-6
- The sights (particularly the front sight) will stand out better against the white area of the target.
- There is no distracting 'aiming point' on the target - if you are (really) focussing on and at the front sight you will not be able to distinguish the scoring rings on a paper target.
