The Drill proceeds as follows:

• Stand in front of a plain wall, preferably white or another light neutral color.
• Present the pistol so that you’re in your natural stance with the muzzle of the gun approximately 2 inches from the wall
• Focus on the front sight as you dry fire

Since there is nothing else to focus on, you’re pretty much forced to focus on the front sight and sight alignment.

This should create the important subconscious link between the trigger pull and a crystal clear sight picture.

I’m not sure this is a replacement for dry fire with visualization, but it is probably a complement for it.

In the realm of iron sights on a handgun everything from ghost ring sights to shotgun beads has been tried. The interesting thing is that all the top competitive shooters always return to using partridge sights.

There is a lot of debate as to the dimensions of the sights, but the basics remain the same. Dave Sevigny recommends a set of sights that are basic black partridge sights. Brian Enos recommends a .115 front and .135 rear setup.

Most recommendation for sight dimensions are based on the analysis done by the Olympic Rapid Fire Pistol coach A.A. Yur’ Yev in his book Competitive Shooting, which recommends a perceived one-half of the front sight width on each side of the blade at a minimum and a full front sight width on each side of the blade at a maximum, when placed in the rear sight notch.

Yur’Yev also reported that the most winning rear sight in the various Olympic pistol shooting events, by 2 to 1, had a U shaped notch, not a square bottomed notch.

The Russians also found that a front sight that was the same or slightly wider than the apparent width of the bullseye gave the best accuracy with the least eye fatigue, however they found this recommendation to be impractical on a pistol, given the wide bullseye in Olympic Rapid Fire.

I believe that these recommendations are built around two main reasons. The first one has to do with accuracy and the second one has to do with the calling of shots at speed with less than perfect sight alignment.

The accuracy argument is based on the ability to get a good alignment between the front and rear sights. If there is a small gap on either side of the front sight, the conscious mind spends a lot of time aligning the sights and creates a lot of movement in the hold. With a larger gap on either side of the front sight, at some point the conscious mind has to accept the alignment and allow the brain to proceed. At this point I believe the subconscious mind takes over and performs the final alignment. Taking the conscious mind out of the equation, allows for a more precise alignment and a more accurate shot.

This also switches the conscious mind from the trying mode into the observing mode as covered in the calling the shot post.

In the case of IPSC or similar shooting disciplines, success comes from the ability to call the shot at speed, which comes down to the readability of sights that may not be perfectly aligned. As covered in the second calling the shot post, the degree of misalignment may be acceptable for the shot being attempted.

Some of the newer sighting systems make it easy to see when the sights are perfectly aligned, but do not provide sufficient feedback as to the level of mis-alignment when a shot is triggered without perfect alignment.

This information is critical and is what makes partridge sights so good.

Calling the shot with a perfect sight picture is indeed an important skill, however at speed, a perfect sight picture is rarely possible or necessary. Movement also complicates the process of getting a perfect sight picture.

In IPSC, given the size of the A zone, the range of sight pictures that would yield an acceptable shot (A zone hit) on the target is relatively large. The important thing to remember is that you only need to hit the A zone, not the actual A .

The question of the acceptable sight picture for a given target then comes up and becomes a critical part of calling the shot.

If you break a shot on the edge of the A zone with perfect alignment, will it be an A zone hit? What about if you break a shot with a centered sight picture and the front sight all the way to the left in the rear sight notch? What about the same mis-alignment at 10 yards and 20 yards? How about 50 yards?

The answers to the questions above are critical to developing the skills of calling shots at speed.

In order to learn the skills it is critical to experiment with slow fire using intentional mis-alignment, to learn the implications of breaking a shot with an imperfect sight picture at various distances. This will help develop the skill of calling the shot. As the skills improve, increase the speed and eventually it will become second nature.

The important thing to remember is that it is critical to know where a shot actually went, even if it didn’t go where you wanted it to go.

Everything we need to know can be learned by reading the sights at the instant that the shot breaks. We need to make sure we call every shot in practice, so that it becomes second nature to know exactly where every shot went, even if we didn’t see a perfect sight picture.

Included below is a posting by Ron Avery on the Brian Enos forum that goes beyond treating focus points as discrete entities.

Where to focus is a constant source of learning and enlightenment as we try to focus speed and precision. Brian Enos talks about 5 levels of focus in his excellent book. I have done experiments over the years with different types of focus and what I came to learn was that there is an infinite number of focal points that one can go to between the target and the front sight. I call this the “focal continuum” To say that we only focus on the target or on the front sight is a misnomer. The reality is that, when we are shooting well, we see the relationship between target and sight well enough to make certain of the hits.

Where the visual focus needs to be depends on four things:

• Target size
• Range to target
• Visual ability of the shooter
• Kinesthetic ability of the shooter

Target size and range:
Big targets up to 10 yards can be shot using a soft focus. Put in a head shot and the vision must move back towards the front sight to ensure correct alignment. This takes care of items one and two.

Visual ability and training:
Younger eyes can accommodate a wider depth of field than older eyes. You will be able to see the sights and the target with reasonable clarity of each as you play with the peripheral vision field and acceptable sight picture. Older shooters will have to trade off with a compromise. I use different types of lenses to give me a picture that is acceptable for most shooting that I will be doing.

Remember, under stress, attention shifts and the brain may not be registering the same picture that the lens is producing when you are relaxed and things are going well.
Specific conditioning is needed here to ensure quality control of the imagery.

When in doubt, go with front sight focus to save your day. Sometimes it only feels slow when you focus on the front sight. The reality is that it can happen extremely fast if you train it correctly.

Kinesthetic ability:
Here I am speaking of the ability to hold the sight alignment without specifically looking at it. This is how you must do it if you do not look at a hard front sight focus. Training here is what allows you to shoot using soft focus at extended distances. I did some demonstrations of this at 50 yards on one of the tapes just to illustrate it. I am not saying I would do it at that distance in a national or world match with winning on the line. Again, stress and its effects can change coordination and make the easy, difficult.

In the best of all worlds, kinesthetic works with visual to allow superior performance than either alone.

A final thought:
It is not what you see that is important so much as what registers on your brain at the moment the shot is fired. The eyes are the lens but the brain is the film.

It all comes down to having sufficient information to accurately place and call the shot.

It is important to note that the call is simply visual awareness. Calling the shot tells you where the bullet went at the moment the shot broke and has nothing to do with where you wanted the shot to go.

This point is key.

Calling a shot is mentally identifying the exact location or orientation of the sight picture the moment the rifle fired.

— David Tubb

As described in the post on Mastering Fundamental #3, we are talking about a different state of mind.

Brian Enos describes it effectively in the following post on his forum:

It’s your will or intention that attempts to hit the “good part” of the target, but it’s your awareness of what is actually happening (in the moment) that calls the shot. They’re totally different mental states. Often, a poorly finished or executed shot results from leaving “too much attention” on trying (will) to hit the target in a particular place. During high-speed, coordinated activity it’s usually better to become an observer rather than a “tryer.”

First, we should clearly establish what we’d like to happen (in our mind before we shoot). Then, once the activity begins, it’s usually beneficial to turn our attention to simply witnessing what is actually happening, thereby allowing our body to manifest the training it has undergone.

I’ve noticed, from beginner to Master class, not knowing how to apply their mind in this manner (keeping the will and the witnessing separate) limits many competitors. This is what’s behind – “Trying to hit the target can be the greatest hindrance to doing so.” Once the activity begins, we’re usually better off to let our personal will go (trying to hit the target) by way of directing our attention to directly witness what is actually happening. You know, watch the magic unfold. Trying or thinking of any kind impedes awareness. When one is, the other isn’t.

When you get the hang of “calling,” you’ll see it has nothing to do with aiming.

Calling a shot using a pistol equipped with optics is significantly easier, since all you need to do is remember the position of the dot or cross-hairs on the target the moment the shot broke. With iron sights the principle is still the same, however you need to read the relationship between the sight alignment and sight picture at the moment of truth.

In order to train this skill, place an IPSC target downrange with either an X or a 2″ dot taped to the target. This target is simply a reference to help with remembering the position of the sights at the moment the shot broke and is not to be used for “aiming”.

• After establishing a hold on the target, trigger the shot with your attention on the sights.
• Try and remember the exact alignment of the sights and their position on the target.
• Using a spotting scope, check the difference between where the shot actually went and where you thought it went.

With practice you will be able to call the exact position of the shot.

It may be helpful to initially shoot the drill with the gun supported on sand bags, in order to take hold out of the picture.

Saul Kirsch wrote a great book called Perfect Practice that provides a number of drills to improve IPSC shooting in general. Drills 6-10 deal with Calling the Shot and are great practice.

It is important to note that the point of impact may vary from what the sights tell you because of distance. You need to know what the sight picture needs to look like at 50 yards to score an A and what it needs to look like at 10 yards to score an A. Practice the drill at various distances to get an accurate view of the point of impact based on point of aim.

Train by accepting your hold and developing the visual awareness to remember the position of your sights when the gun fires. The eyes are the lens and the brain is the film.

In summary, Calling the Shot is about knowing where the shot went, not where you wanted it to go.

Update (May 23, 2007): I’ve added part two of this post.

Update (May 30, 2007): I’ve added a post on followthrough that would be of interest in this context.

It’s important to understand the difference between Sight Alignment and Sight Picture since it is critical to understanding the post below.

The greatest obstacle in shooting a pistol accurately offhand is produced by the movement of the gun in the hand (wobble) combined with the movement of the wobble on the target (hold). These all too observable visual inputs distract us from what is important, the aforementioned third fundamental of shooting – releasing the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold.

This can help: imagine your pistol is in a machine-rest even though you are holding it offhand. Now imagine the target is moving (in the same pattern/manner as your hold). Now, ask yourself – what can you do?

Knowing this, it’s best to begin by shooting from a bench rest, or other supported position. Bag your pistol so that it’s rock solid. Aim into the backstop and then direct ALL your attention to building the pressure on the trigger until the gun fires. After you become comfortable with the feeling of firing the gun with all your attention on the trigger while simply watching the sights lift in recoil, place a target at 25 yards and repeat the above procedure with the following addition: Use this “order” to fire the shot:

1. Align your sights in the center of the target.
2. Shift all your attention to your previous feeling of your finger building pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks.

During #2, you are still looking at the sights; however, you are looking in a detached manner. Which means: Your concern is not in trying to shoot a particular spot; you are simply looking with the intention of remembering where the sights were aligned at the moment the shot fires.

Only after you’ve mastered “bench rest calling,” begin shooting offhand. Again, begin by shooting into the backstop with no intention of hitting anything in particular. This will allow you to focus all your attention on what is important – “releasing” the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold. Relax your attention into the gun, look at the sights without staring, and then shift all your attention to the previously mastered feeling of your finger on the trigger; with great determination and purpose, increase pressure on the trigger until the gun fires – “FEEL” the shot off. At the moment the gun lifts, recall the sight alignment, again, this is what you must see and remember. After mastering this, when you put a target behind your sights, you simply recall the “sight picture” – (sight alignment plus their relationship to the target).

Now to shoot a “good shot” (one that actually goes where you intended it), you must combine the feeling of releasing a perfect shot with the feeling of “willing the gun still” as you build pressure on the trigger. Eventually, with training, this becomes ONE FEELING.

The following text is extracted from a post on Calling the Shot, but it applies here

Once reading the sights is firmly ingrained, practice to preserve this most important of all fundamental while increasing your shooting speed by projecting your attention into your sights as you shoot. When you master this, everything else will vanish – even “you.”

Since Brian tends to choose his words very carefully, the choice of the words “into your sights” as opposed to “onto your sights” is an interesting one. Brian’s response in another post provides the subtle difference.

I am suggesting a different meaning when I said into vs onto. Into implies a “deeper” level of attention in which the “self” (the self in this case meaning – “someone” seeing “something”) dissolves, and only awareness remains.

This Zen approach to shooting reminded me of the following Quote:

When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

— Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

The removal of self from the equation removes or should remove ego from the equation. The removal of ego leads to the removal of conscious impulse to “control” what is happening.

First, we should clearly establish what we’d like to happen (in our mind before we shoot). Then, once the activity begins, it’s usually beneficial to turn our attention to simply witnessing what is actually happening, thereby allowing our body to manifest the training it has undergone.

Trying or thinking of any kind impedes awareness. When one is, the other isn’t.

The post is talking about 2 distinct states of mind that need to be developed and you should only be in 1 state at a given time. Being an “observer” as opposed to a “tryer” during the execution of a high speed activity is more conducive to success. Wow!

This is essentially the process where the brain takes the distinct images from each eye and combines them into an image that is more than the sum of the parts since it is a 3D image which allows the perception of depth.

There is much debate on shooting with one eye vs. shooting with both eyes open. The existence of stereo vision makes shooting with both eyes open for many people (including me) very difficult.

The proponents of shooting with both eyes open cite various benefits for doing so. Taking the “tactical” reasons out of the equation, there are still a number of reasons presented, some of which are summarized below.

Stereo vision is needed for depth perception, which becomes important when shooting moving targets, especially 360 swingers that need to be rotated. With only one eye open, it becomes hard to figure out whether the paddle is coming towards you or moving away.

Eye fatigue is often sighted as a reason with the claim being that vision deteriorate faster when only one eye is open.

Another reason raised relates to not going against our natural tendency. We tend to do everything with two eyes open, so trying to shoot with only one eye open would not be natural. Even though it’s not strictly about vision the quote below seems to make some sense in this context.

If by nature you do things quickly, or slowly, you’re going to swing the golf club basically the same way. forcing yourself to an opposite extreme is rarely going to work because its too contrary to your basic instincts or impulses– especially when your under competitive pressure.

— Jack Nicklaus

Given all the benefits cited, I thought it would be a good idea to at least attempt to teach myself to use both eyes while shooting. I wanted to do it the “natural” way, i.e., no tape on the glasses or turning my head to odd angles etc.

The main issue I ran into was related to stereo vision and how the brain combined the images from both eyes.

The framing test is a good illustration of the issue I ran into.

The image below (obtained from a thread the Glock Talk) shows the double images produced because of parallax.

Sometimes the two targets had a big overlap between them and appeared as a blob.

If there is a strong dominance in one eye, that eye will take over and produce a better defined image and the image from the non-dominant eye will appear very faint and can be easily ignored. You can confirm this by squinting (not completely closing) one of your eyes and trying the above test.

In my case, my dominance is not strong, hence I see an image very close to the one above.

Now I know that I need to shoot the target on the right since it’s the one being picked up with my right eye and I need to use the sights on the left since they are the ones being picked up with my right eye.

This was not an acceptable solution since if nothing else it is a big safety issue. I don’t want any ambiguity in what I’m shooting at. Another issue comes up in target arrays with multiple overlapping targets. Essentially it’s a mess.

In order for this to work at all for me, I needed to see only one target downrange, not a real target and a ghost target.

I didn’t really care that I saw two sets of sights, since my body index made it very easy for my brain to pick up the correct set of sights as the gun came into view. In order to teach myself that, I used the exercises described on pages 170 & 171 of Practical Shooting – Beyond Fundamentals by Brian Enos.

Now if I look for it, I can still see the image of the sights seen by my left eye appear to the right of the set that I’m using, but if I don’t explicitly look for them, they don’t distract me at all and aren’t there for all practical purposes.

When thinking about the ghost target problem I realized the following. When I focused on the target, I saw only one target. As I moved my focus back to the front sight, the target would get blurry as expected and the ghost target would separate from the real target and move to the left. The interesting thing was that there was a slight lag between the time I had the front sight in clear focus (with the target blurry) and the time when the ghost target appeared.

This time interval was extremely short, but it was there.

This indicated that the brain was making a decision at some point after I had my clear focus on the front sight to show me both images. Before the two images appeared, the single image was aligned with the sights and my right eye.

If I could stop the brain from proceeding with the creation of the ghost image, my problem would be solved. Incidentally the only reason I am calling it a ghost target is that it’s not the one I want to shoot at. It’s simply the image from my left eye and nothing more. It has no special significance

Since I already knew what I wanted to see, and I could visualize it, I consciously tried to slow down the creation of the second image of the target. It took a while, but it started to work. Eventually the second image disappeared completely.

Initially this process seemed to be linked to distance from the target, e.g., I could do it with a target at 10 yards, but a 20 yard target was problematic. After working on it for a bit, distance is no longer an issue. I suspect distance was initially a factor since I was attempting to use depth of field of solve the problem, instead of convincing my brain to image correctly.

Now I see two sets of sights (with one set really easy to ignore) and one target regardless of where I focus. If I switch my focus to the target, I have full depth perception.

When I switch focus back to the front sight, the target stays put. Finally

All in all this process took me 4 months with a ton of dry practice. I suspect I would be able to do it a lot faster now since I know what I need to do.

I have not noticed any impact on any other activities.

I’m not yet sure if there are any significant advantages to shooting with both eyes open, however I can confidently say that I’ve noticed no disadvantages for me in the context of IPSC competition and intend to continue shooting this way.

Incidentally eye dominance didn’t seem to matter. I am cross dominant and haven’t had any issues after training myself through visualization.

Update (April 22, 2007): Please refer to the post on eye alignment and eye focus for further an attempt at an explanation for how I managed to stop the brain from creating the ghost image of the target.

Update (April 23, 2007): I’ve added a post describing the training method I used to learn how to shoot with both eyes open.

Update (May 10, 2007): Added the image of the pistol sights above to clarify the post.

Sight Alignment should really be a function of your body index.

Sight Picture refers to the relationship between the Sight Alignment and the target.

Sight Alignment is significantly more important since any errors in sight alignment have a multiplicative effect on the target, i.e., a little error in the sight alignment will translate into a significantly bigger error on the target.

If the sight picture is not perfect, but the sight alignment is, any error will manifest itself linearly on the target.