All is right in the world when the front sight is in focus.

All is right in the world when the front sight is in focus.

I thought you might enjoy this excerpt from my latest book, The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition:

Unless you have supernatural vision, you’re going to notice a bit of a dilemma when you go to shoot your first target. Your eyes can only truly focus on one thing, at one distance, at a one time. In handgun shooting, there are objects at three different distances that you need to worry about:

When you line up to shoot, there’s a chance that all three of these may appear to be in focus to you. That’s because the human brain is an awesome thing. It’s processing all three and switching back and forth to create the appearance of simultaneous focus. Or something may look blurry. Different people see differently.

However, as a shooter, you’ll need to learn to focus on just one of these objects, and that will be the front sight. It’s OK if the target is a bit blurry – your brain figures it out and you can see it well enough.

Same with the rear sights. They are an aid to getting on target. It’s the front sight that’s most important. This gets tricky when you’re dealing with moving targets or high-stress situations. Your brain naturally wants to zero in on the target. But if you’re not focused on the front sight, you’ll miss.

So when you dry-fire practice (also discussed in The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition) focus on that front sight. Like finding natural point of aim, it’s a habit you want to build so you don’t have to think about it.

One more thought on that front sight. Like a golf or baseball swing, you want to follow through. Following through on your shot simply means keeping your eyes on the front sight until after the shot has left the gun. If your front sight stays on target before, during and after the shot, it’s impossible to miss the target. So for each successful shot, you’re really seeing two pictures – one before and another after.

The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition is available in print and Kindle format at Amazon:

The Rookie's Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition

The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition

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