Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

[Andrew Blubaugh]

The topic of Point Shooting vs Sighted Aimed Shooting has been debated for years. I am curious where the shooters on this site stand. I'd also like to hear your thoughts on why you subscribe to a particular set of shooting principles. My question concerns handgun only.

I have been instructed on both but never subscribed to Point Shooting. I have attended a few courses that based their class off of point shooting or a mix of point shooting and sighted aimed shooting. In all of these classes the point shooting principles were different and the way the instructor corrected students differed. Point Shooting as I have witnessed it has little consistency.

The idea of teaching both sets of principles has never made much sense to me either. In these instances the instruction was to use point shooting at distances 20 feet and less and then use sighted aimed shooting for distances beyond 20 feet. Most people don't train enough let alone enough time to train on two methods and then have the ability to put those methods or principles into action under stress.

My belief is this... Point shooting or Instinctive shooting is a byproduct of properly performed sighted aimed shooting. So I do not teach or put into practice the principles directly associated with Point Shooting. I teach and practice solid motor programs using my sights. There are times I will evaluate my shooting or a students shooting by shooting drills in fast times under strict time constraints. This evaluation along with using FATS simulators, simunition or airsoft in force on force scenarios have validated what I am practicing and teaching.

Lastly, if anyone considers themselves a "subject matter expert" on the topic of point shooting please feel free to pm me if you do not wish to post your comments here.

 

[Lowlight]

Re: Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

I think you have to balance both, in most conditions sighted well aimed shooting is going to rule the day.

But you have to consider the high priority / low priority shots as well as shooting at Night under NVGs where point shooting comes in handy.

I would rather the principals of well aimed, sighted shooter rule, but I think you need to consider a 75/25 approach.

 

[lw8]

Re: Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

Train to use the sights. As you increase speed and your skills grown you will rely less on the sights at 3 yards and in.

Functionally, you can gauge your abilities by the hits on paper and the speed at which you are shooting.

Don't forget to icorperate movement...square ranges are static, real gunfights are dyanmic. When you start bringing in movement, lots of point shooters fall apart.

The target will tell you if what you are doing is working.

 

[Tac22]

Re: Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

Disregaurd that one votefor point shooting i meant the vote for sighted lol... 0-6-6. I am in no way an expert but i try to base my tactics and methods on what i see the best doing. Todd jarrett always uses his sights.. Can't argue with 9 time champ..

 

[CoryT]

Re: Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

The real issue is to define the terms. Much of what "Point Shooters" do could really be considered "Sighted Fire". If you bring the gun up to eye level and just use the slide or silhoutte of the gun, your "sights" are just bigger, the front and rear of the gun. This works just fine at moderate distances for less than a precision shot.

Try this. At 5 yards, use a perfect sight picture and press off one perfectly centered shot on your standard pratical target. Get that alignment again, right on the bullet hole and keeping the rear sight in position, move the front sight to the left and as soon as it gets out of the notch, stop and press. Do the same to the right, then raise the front till the bottom of the sight is even with the top of the rear and once more with the top edge at the bottom of the notch.

If your trigger control is good, you'll have a cross pattern, about 8" in diameter. So, how much of a "sight picture" do you need at a nominal pistol fight distance? Now, tape over the sights and at speed, make your normal presentaton and just look at the front/rear/top of the slide when you shoot. Works just fine.

To me, "point shooting" is where you have NO visual referance to the gun, well below eye level and not in the visual cone. One can get pretty good at it, if you have exceptional eye-hand coordination and plenty of time to practice. For the vast majority of us, it is no faster than using the sights, or some sort of eye-level alignment, so excepting contact distance where you cannot extend the gun, I don't have much use for it.

Given any kind of choice, I use the sights. If I see them, I KNOW where the gun is aligned. If you think you don't have time to use the sights, you sure don't have time to miss.

 

[McCrazy]

Re: Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

The principle of an ” acceptable sight picture” is what they have taught me on a couple different courses. This allows a shooter to take several factors into consideration to decide when to take that shot with a high chance of success.

1. Skill of the shooter (be honest with yourself)
2. Distance to target
3. Weapon system you are using (pistol/rifle/shotgun)
4. Nature of the target (is it behind cover, running laterally, or about to be stabbing you)

May seem like a lot to process but you are probably doing it anyways. Answering these questions will let you know if you have time to aim, how refined your sight picture needs to be, and if you and your weapon system are up to the task of taking that shot.

In the end there is no correct answer for sights or not 100% of the time. I would recommend practicing 99% of the time by taking shots using your sights. Then if you are ever faced with a situation where you don't have the time to take a sighted shot you will have the fundamentals and skills to make that shot quickly and accurately using your reflexes.

 

[Sniper1*]

Re: Point Shooting/Sighted Aimed Shooting poll

We call it sight indexing! It is not necessarily getting a perfect sight picture, it is using the "visual cone" that CoryT referred to.

At CQB distances we have timed first shot on target numerous times, from the holster and from low-ready. Each time there is not enough of a difference in time to not use some type of visual reference, but, there is a huge difference in hit percentage to validate using a visual reference all of the time. With the exception of actual CONTACT DISTANCE.

We have done this with handgun and patrol rifle. Even using the RDS has it's disadvantages at CQB distances. I have found that so many guys have to find the dot before they will pull the trigger when all they had to do was index and shoot!

Split seconds can save lives!