Sight Alignment

.22 Target Shooting

Sight Alignment for Accurate Target Shooting

• Sights – The Sights are the posts, notches, beads or points on the firearm which are used to visually align the barrel with the target. There is a vast array of low and high tech sights available for firearms and the list continues to grow daily. The term ‘Iron Sights’ is used to describe the most common system with a fixed front sight and fixed or adjustable rear sight, which are made of metal blades or posts. The majority of Iron Sights for pistols will be ‘open sights’ which will have no enclosures or holes to look through.

• Front Sight – The front sight (most typically a post) is usually very close to the end of the barrel and is located on the top of the slide or on the barrel itself (Fig 1). Undeniably focus on and attention to the front sight will have the greatest effect on accuracy of the whole shooting process. This fact is so important that there is even an entire shooting school known as ‘Front Sight’, so do not underestimate the importance of this to your shooting success.

(Fig 1) Front sight.

• Rear Sight – The Rear sight is often designed as a Notch or V with which the front sight can be aligned (Fig 2). To obtain the maximum sight radius the Rear sight is placed as far back on the slide or body of the pistol as possible. The orientation of the front sight in relation to the rear sight will ensure that the pistol is correctly aligned and not pointed off on an angle.

(Fig 2) Rear sight.

• Sight Radius – This is the distance between the front and rear sight (Fig 3). The point of aim of the bore will be set by the orientation of the two sights and the human eye must detect any misalignment by looking at the relationship of both at once. A greater sight radius will allow the eye to determine much smaller changes in bore angle and therefore provide increased accuracy.

(Fig 3) Sight radius.

• Focal Plane – In physics the term focal plane is used to refer to two things – the plane on which a converging stream of light is brought into focus, or alternatively and usually less common, the plane at a given distance in which objects will be in focus (Fig 4). Unfortunately, the human eye is able to bring objects into focus in only one plane at a time. Therefore, if one aligns the pistol sights with a target and brings the target into focus, the sights will be blurry. If one brings the front sight into focus, all objects at a different length to the eye will be blurry – in this case, the target AND the rear sight.

(Fig 4) Objects closer or further away than the focal distance will not project properly.

• Sight Picture – This term is used to describe what one sees when they bring the sights up in line with the eye. A correct sight picture will have the Front Sight, Rear Sight and target in the correct orientation, while an incorrect sight picture will not. The trick is to align the sights and target together in such a way that the ‘picture’ you actually see matches the ideal ‘Sight Picture’ you will be shown later.

• Bullet Drop – All objects are subject to gravity. Objects not supported physically will begin to accelerate towards the earth regardless of their velocities in any direction. The second a bullet leaves the barrel gravity grabs at it with its grubby little gravity hands and starts to drag it towards terra firma. If the barrel were to be parallel with the plane of the ground (Fig 5) then the bullet will transcribe a downward curve. Ideally, we want to be able to determine the point at which the bullet will hit a target, so we require an initial upward angle of trajectory (Fig 6) to give the bullet a higher curve allowing us to visually pick the point of impact with proper sight alignment.

(Fig 5) Path of pullet if shot horizontally.

(Fig 6) Path of bullet with initial upward trajectory.

• Sights – As mentioned above there are a wide variety of sights one can encounter on a pistol. ‘Open’ sights are the most common, especially on firearms not custom made for accuracy competition. (Fig 7) shows various different sights and their configuration. For the purpose of this article, the popular ‘Partridge’ post sight will be used in examples. As time passes, even the ‘low tech’ Iron sights are receiving face lifts, with either high visibility colors for day time or glowing Tritium inserts for use in low light. These can be seen in (Fig 8) in which the bright or lighted elements are seen as white. These are available in a multitude of colors (high contrast are ~usually~ red, whereas the Tritium sights are ~usually~ green.)

(Fig 7) Commonly encountered sights.

(Fig 8) High visibility or Night sights.

• Aligning the sights The Front and Rear sights must be aligned vertically and horizontally to achieve an accurate shot. Furthermore, the resultant sight picture must be oriented with relation to the target correctly to ensure the point of impact (POI) is where the shooter intends it to be. Horizontal sight alignment will vary given the design of the front and rear sights, but it commonly involves positioning the post equally between the sides of the back sight. (Fig 9) shows correct and incorrect horizontal alignment. The easiest way to center the front post is to use the negative space on either side of it and try to keep these spaces the same size.

Vertical alignment requires positioning the height of the front sight correctly – most often by setting the top of front and rear sights at the same height. (Fig 10) shows both correct and incorrect vertical alignment. While the general rules just mentioned will likely work for your sights, if you have a different design you may have to do a little research to determine exactly what sight picture you should expect for proper alignment. (Fig 11) demonstrates the results of correct and incorrect alignment configurations on Partridge sights. Keep in mind that the further away a target is, and the smaller the sight radius of your pistol, the greater the deviation of the POI with improper alignment. An important thing to note for your pistol is whether the POI is set to the top of the front sight, or above (sometimes known as 6-o'clock hold). This can change from one pistol type to the other so it is best to ensure you check the manual and determine if you need to cover, or sit under what you wish to hit. (Fig 12) indicates how different pistols may require different points of aim (POA) to hit the same target.

(Fig 9) Horizontal alignment

(Fig 10) Vertical alignment.

(Fig 11) Effect of alignment on Point of Impact.

(Fig 12) variance on POA and POI for different pistol designs.

• Accuracy – The smaller the front post and space around the posts, the more accuracy the sights will be capable of. This comes into play due to the size of area the shooter must draw information from. ‘Target’ sights for pistols have finer front blades and smaller notches for alignment (Fig 13). This allows the shooter to focus on a smaller total area to align the front sight properly and therefore reduces the front sight divergence. As we move to combat sights (Fig 14), the area of focus (and the margin for error) becomes larger, which is seen again to an even greater extent if one needs to use the high visibility supplemental sights (Fig 15). Therefore, the larger the spacing between the sight components, the more margin for error and the less accurate each shot will be. Consider this if accuracy is your goal when looking to purchase sights for your firearm.

(Fig 13) Area of focus to align 'target' sights with small front post and minimal spacing for high accuracy.

(Fig 14) Area of focus to align 'combat' sights with larger front post and spacing.

(Fig 15) Area of focus to align 'supplemental' sights with large distances between high visibility components.

• Focus – The human eye has a flexible lens which sits just inside the black opening (Iris). Small muscles on the side of this lens stretch it to create different contours which will bring objects either near or far into sharp focus. While this is amazing it does come with one disadvantage: objects at any distance other than that which we have in focus will be blurry regardless if they are closer or further than the focal plane. It is unlikely you will have experienced this disadvantage if you have not been involved in the shooting sports before as the eye is a master of changing focus very quickly so we hardly notice… that is about to change. When we bring a pistol up and prepare to shoot at a target we have 3 planes which include important visual information for us to consider. There is the plane with the rear sights, the plane with the front sights and further along there is the target itself. As discussed above, all three must align to keep us from missing the target entirely and having to blame the wind.

Of these three only ONE may be in focus and clear at any given time and ANYONE without training will always pick the target. It’s not your fault, so don’t feel too bad. When you sneakily throw a snowball you look at the back of your wife’s head, not your fingers, so you are accustomed to focusing on the target and nothing else. Shooting is a different story. Here, the alignment of the bore is far more important than anything and the best indication of that is the Front sight. Of all the pages you will read here, the one thing that will have the greatest effect on your shooting accuracy is your focus on the front sight (the second will be your trigger pull). If you focus on the target, the front sight will be blurry and it could be nearly impossible to tell if it was out by up to 1/8 of an inch at arms length – a difference down range of nearly 14 inches @ 15 yds! (Fig 16) and (Fig 17) show what the front site should look like graphically and realistically.

(Fig 16) Correct sight picture - front sight is sharp and clear, rear sight is out of focal distance and is blurry

(Fig 17) Correct sight picture with front sight in focus and rear sights blurry. Anyone else hear the DOOM II music in their head when they see this pic?

• Missing Target – When you shoot focus on the front sight and concentrate on keeping it still and on target throughout the shot. If something goes wrong chances are it is one of two things – your front sight focus or your trigger. Always relax after a bad shot, take a few breaths and bring your mental state back to the front sight. Forget the last mistake as only one shot ever matters, the one you are about to take.

• Orienting the Sight – Now that we have talked about keeping the front sight in focus we are facing the reality that our targets will be blurry. At 25 yards they will be VERY blurry and if you are aiming at anything smaller than a 5 inch circle, it may be mostly obscured by that little front sight at the end of your pistol. So, given that we are learning to aim at blurry little targets, how do we tackle the challenge of not seeing them well – or at all? The trick is to obtain the correct sight picture then orient the sights based upon high contrast visual clues on the target – especially if the intended POI is hidden. Let’s look at a few common targets.

(Fig 18) A Silhouette, typical circle and a great - but frustrating - target for practicing sight alignment and trigger pull.

As you can imagine from looking at the targets, there is a skill in aligning the sights to a POA. This is especially so when they become blurry, as one needs to try and break them down to high contrast elements from which orientation points can be obtained. One useful trick on plain or low detail targets (a white pie plate for example) is to mentally quarter the shape, and aim for the center point. (Fig 19) shows the imagined lines breaking up the shape and providing a POA for you to orient to. Overall one needs to identify the target, determine the intended POI and then orient the sight picture with the target using visual or imagined clues to achieve the corresponding POA.

(Fig 19) This shows some of the imaginary lines, based upon high contrast or geometric

points on the target, that one could use to create a point of aim. This will make it easier to

orient the sights in relation to the target when the target is no longer clear.

Now comes the bad news. The following pictures, (Fig 20) and (Fig 21), will show you how much detail can be lost when the target is no longer in focus. This should help one to see why they will need to break the target down by easily identifiable points to maintain the same POA shot after shot.

(Fig 20) A Silhouette target as it should appear. The target is blurry and out of focus so one is unable to use fine details to align to.

(Fig 22) Different types of Red Dot sights.

(Fig 23) Red Dot sight. The red dot provides one single thing to align rather than both a front and rear sight.

• Lasers – Lasers on pistols will project a constant beam of light onto the subject. The use of laser sights when shooting is very limited. Some lasers are built into flashlights while others are built into the grip of the firearm or even the recoil rod itself and all have some type of on/off or pressure switch. The advantages of a laser sight are: 1. Intimidation of an aggressor – people tend to re-consider their actions when they have a glowing, dot on them. 2. Being able to shoot without indexing the sights. They are disallowed in most or all competition so their usefulness is limited mostly to defensive purposes. They do have some useful applications in training. They can quickly add value is in point shooting (low retention shooting), trigger pull training and in safely drawing your pistol from a holster.

(Fig 23) Example of what a Laser sight looks like.

• Both Eyes Open –Should you shoot with one eye closed or both eyes open? There are shooters in both camps on this, that claim that either methodology will work. Keeping one eye closed can make it easier on the brain to concentrate on the sights without other distracting information, however, there are advantages to keeping both eyes open. The first is that both optic nerves are receiving light, so there is no reflexive widening of the Iris in the open eye – which leads to loss of clarity. (Keeping both eyes open is important enough that many long distance competition shooters will place scotch tape on their shooting glasses across their ‘off-side’ eye. This provides light to that eye, but does not provide a competing image for the brain to sort out.)

The second advantage of having both eyes open is that for either competition or defense, it provides much more information on the environment and further targets. For this reason I would suggest starting your shooting career by learning to shoot with both eyes open, or even trying to adjust your current learned style to work on opening that closed eye if you can. I currently shoot with my secondary eye 1/2 to 2/3 open. I probably look like a blinking idiot, but it does get me half way there. Red Dot sights are specifically designed to take advantage of the ‘Binden’ (both eyes open) concept, and should always be used with both of your Bright Eyes open (Bushy Tail is optional).

SUMMARY or WHAT DID WE LEARN?

• Front sight, Front sight, Front sight. People repeat this as a mantra for good reason. The front sight must be in focus every time you shoot. Learn it, Live it.

• You must align the sights – Vertically, Horizontally AND orient them to the target.

• Break the target down into simple shapes which are easy to dissect or quarter it, then use those imaginary lines to provide POA.

• Keep both eyes open.

PAGES: .22 LONG RIFLE STORY - PISTOL TERMS & SAFETY -HOLDING THE PISTOL -SIGHT ALIGNMENT -TRIGGER PULL -VARIOUS SPEEDS -EXOTIC .22'S - MY .22 COLLECTION