Aiming a handgun has a lot with where you put your focus. In the Skills and Gunhandling video below, Shaw demonstrates how to aim a handgun using three different methods. Each method has its advantages, so it’s worth it to learn about all three. The actual name of the video is 3 ways to use your sights. Most of us have been taught how to aim a pistol using the usual “accepted” way of accurately acquiring the sights by focusing on the front sight blade before putting accurate rounds downrange. As you’ll see, however, there are a couple of other ways.
This article is from October 2019.
How to Aim a Pistol
1. Hard Sight Focus.
Focus on the front sight. That’s how most of us are taught. We’ll talk about that briefly, then discuss a couple of other methods.
Chances are if you’re reading this, you know the drill. Focus hard on the front sight blade, center it in the rear notch with an equal amount of space to either, and flush across the top — then take that sight alignment, focus hard on the front sight, superimpose it over where you want to hit, and press the shot.
2. Hard target focus.
A hard target focus doesn’t really involve the sights at all. It depends on skill level and training and is very situational (range, backdrop, etc. – which really is any shooting, but it’s even more critical here). Aiming a handgun with this method involves, as the name implies, a hard focus on the desired target area. Though the sights are not directly referenced in this shooting style, body alignment and weapon position in relation to the target are important.
3. Target Focus with Soft Front Sight
This final method for how to aim a handgun is particularly effective for shooters wearing progressive (not transition) lenses, bifocals, trifocals, or the like. It does not involve a hard focus on the front sight, but rather is an alignment of soft front and soft rear sights, superimposed over the target before pressing the shot (i.e. aligning a blurry front sight instead of a blurry rear sight). This means you’re effectively using the front and rear sights much like you would a red dot sight.
I use the “hard target” focus, although I wasn’t aware it actually had a name. I just naturally transitioned to it out of necessity, after I involuntarily transitioned into needing corrective lenses.
I tried bifocals and trifocals trying to find a sweet spot that would allow a front sight focus. I just couldn’t find it. I just kinda stated focusing on the target and it worked for me. My scores actually cam back up. I’ve always be a 95-98% shooter until I started wearing glasses. Having been a lifelong “Distinguished Expert” in law enforcement and “Expert” in the military was/is a source of pride. As a SWAT guy it was a uncompromising standard, necessary to remain on the team.
Once I got my glasses my scores dropped into the 80s, which was pretty demoralizing. Promoting had already gotten me “retired” from the team, and as a firearms instructor I didn’t want to deviate from the “front sight” mantra. But there I was smack in the middle of WTF-ville
Then, during a session at the range, I just said #%^* it and stopped fighting the urge to just focus on the target. I aligned the sights but looked through them and focused on the target and viola, the stars aligned and my groups started shrinking to pre-corrected sizes and scores.
So yeah, it works, and I don’t feel like I’ve angered the combat gods. Which is good, because they can be a##^*+es sometimes.