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.

Since mechanics are a component of technique and technique is dependent on context, the holding the trigger to the rear for 3 seconds (as described by bullseye shooters at my local club), wasn’t going to work well in the context of IPSC. It would certainly hurt my split times

What was essentially being described by the bullseye folks was a means of execution of the third fundamental, i.e., discharging the shot without disturbing the alignment. I’m assuming that the technique described was for the benefit of new shooters who hadn’t developed the ability to call the shot.

Looking beyond mechanics, followthrough is essentially what you do during the time between the hammer drop and the time that the bullet leaves the barrel. The point is to do nothing that would disturb the alignment until the bullet has left the barrel.

The bullet leaving the barrel is indicated by the sights lifting in recoil allowing you to call the shot. Followthrough is a process of visual patience that facilitates calling the shot.

In his article Shot Call and Followthrough, David Tubb describes followthrough as simply a technical process supporting the call of the shot.

Taken by itself, though, followthrough is probably most simply defined as holding on to a shot long enough to call it accurately. It is primarily a visual confirmation process in this function. Part of the technical value (specifically, value to the technique) of calling shots is its help in developing followthrough. Good followthrough is also a certain amount physical, and that sense is maintaining the shooting position and hold through recoil.

Followthrough is improved by being aware of what you see during the firing of the shot. In retrospect, the post on Mastering Fundamental #3 is essentially talking about followthrough.

Followthrough is a visual process that holds your attention and is independent of mechanics.

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.

It was one of the first videos I watched when I started shooting a pistol and I found it extremely useful.

Unfortunately I don’t know the original source of this video and can’t provide a reference. If you know the original source, please leave me a comment and I’ll update this post.

You can also download it here as 7.37mg rm file.

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.

Based on the above, I had been diligently training to use both eyes under all circumstances. I had good success with shorter distances, but was still having issues (target ghosting etc.) at distances > 25 yards.

Listening to a conversation between Angus Hobdell and Matt Burkett changed all that and opened the topic up again.

In Episode 2 of Practical Shooting Radio, Angus mentioned that he shot with both his eyes fully open only when shooting targets at less than 10 yards. In fact he mentioned the following for different ranges.

Angus was kind enough to respond to an email I sent him regarding that interview. The following quote is extracted from his email response.

Squinting the eye also helps to focus down on the sight, the more distance involved the more necessary the strong clear sight picture no focusing back and forward. Sharp sight blurred target.

— Angus

At shorter distances, the peripheral vision provided by the other eye helped with target acquisition etc.

Bruce Gray uses one eye for all his shooting and is not convinced that having both eyes open while breaking the shot (even up close), provides significant benefit. The following is a quote from Bruce.

I’m unconvinced that actually making shots with both eyes matters that much in practical shooting. Target acquisition and most other tasks that benefit from full, binocular vision can still be performed with both eyes; the final alignment of the sights for each discrete shot can be done with one or both equally quickly in my experience.

The issue of not seeing everything in combat is a valid one on it’s face, but I’m not convinced it’s a really persuasive argument in favor of imposing a two-eyed shooting technique for many people. This is for a somewhat subtle reason that I’ll try to explain.

It’s not like we’d possibly fight with one eye closed constantly in any event, right?

On the other hand, developing the crucially important kinesthetic relationship between the hands, sights and target is best accomplished with the clearest and most precise feedback from the sights, not the target. That suggests actually shooting with the best sight picture possible.

I’ve tried it both ways, plus with both eyes closed. Big Grin

I can tell you that most everyone I have ever worked or trained with shot more accurately and more consistently when the non-dominant view was obscured to some degree. That means they also developed an enhanced capability to hit even when they don’t see the sights at all for whatever reason, by relying upon that kinesthetic index skill that comes from a lot of precisely sighted shooting and dry firing.

Having said that, please remember that highly critical aiming is otherwise relatively unimportant to accurate shot placement in practical shooting, other than to cue a higher order of trigger control skill.

Ideally, we aim so that we will press the trigger in a subconsciously controlled manner when the sights appear on the target, per our training. (We obviously should also train ourselves to fire using other cues.) As long as you can see the aligned sights, go for it. I and most other shooters see the sights more clearly and with more contrast with my left eye partially closed, or with a bit of tape across the lens.

I hope this helps you!

— Bruce

Matt also mentioned that he closed his non-dominant eye completely for long distance precision shots and when using a shooting positions with narrow vertical ports.

The reason for closing the non-dominant eye when shooting through narrow vertical ports is to make sure that the gun is actually shooting through the port. If you’re not careful, you can end up in a position where the fusion between the images from the two eyes leads to the appearance of the sights on the target, when in fact the gun is not even pointed through the port.

I have noticed a benefit in shooting with both eyes open at close targets and will continue to train that way. For targets that require more precision, I will obstruct the view of my non-sighting eye based on the amount of precision needed for the shot.

It’s a relief to learn that I don’t need to worry about using both eyes at distances greater than 25 yards, where I currently have significant issues.

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.

There are a number of muscles involved in creating a clear focussed image that the brain processes.

The muscles can be groups into essentially two sets:

• Muscles that control Eye Focus (Lens Focus)
• Muscles that control Eye Alignment

Increasing the speed with which your muscles can acquire and focus on objects is often measured on the clock in sports like IPSC. As covered in the fundamentals, you can only shoot accurately as fast as you can see.

The following exercises were extracted from posts made by Travis Tomasie on the Brian Enos forum:

Objective: Increasing the speed of your focal shift, strengthening of the stereopsis and fusion faculties, and improving your ability to shoot irons with both eyes open (binocular vision).

Materials needed: A piece of string approximately 6 feet in length. 4 beads (or something similar), two white and two red. [Note: A suggestion made by Pat Harrison seems to work better. Pat suggests the use of 5 beads, 3 red and 2 white. The rest of the post is based on the modification suggested by Pat.]

Construction: Attach one end of the string to a solid object (I use a wall, but make certain it’s a plain background), at a height level with your nose. Thread the 5 beads onto the string, starting with a red bead first. Alternate the colors (white, red, white, red) and place them 12 inches apart. The gap between the wall and the first bead (should be a red bead) is 12 inches.

Things to ponder before attempting this exercise: We possess a visual field of view that totals approximately 155 degrees (windage). Out of this 155 degree sweep there exists a 120 degree overlap. Objects that fall within this overlap are seen by both eyes. Because the two eyes are not located in the same place on our head, what each eye sees in the aforementioned overlap, is slightly different (parallax). This is illustrated by the formation of the “X” in this drill. Allow me to clarify what I mean by an “X”: there should appear to be two of the first red bead, two of the second bead within the first dual-bead image and two of the fourth bead. The third bead, or focal-point, is the center of the “X”.

Execution: While holding the loose end of the string to the tip of your nose (there should be 12 inches between the first red bead and your nose….string should be taut), focus (with both eyes open) on the third bead from your nose. Hold this focus until the beads form an “X”. Once you can see the “X”, shift your focus to the closest bead to your nose (first red). When the first bead comes into focus, shift back to the second red bead, and allow the “X” to form again. Continue this sequence and attempt to reduce the time it takes to form the “X”.

Additional note from Travis: In regards to frequency and duration; I’ve found good results with as little as a one minute, twice a day (LOL, I sound like an infomercial!). I like to intertwine my dry-fire practice with my eye exercises. You may have noticed that it’s difficult to sustain the activity, without suffering some minor eye-strain. It’s at this point, that I’ll switch back to target and sight acquisitions with my gun. What’s cool is how much quicker you can retract your focal point to the front-sight, then back to the target, after the muscles in your eyes have been thoroughly warmed up. In a match, that’s measured on the clock!

Unfortunately I don’t know the original source of this video and can’t provide a reference.

If you know the original source, please leave me a comment and I’ll update this post.

You can also download it here as 3.53mg mpg file.

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.