Back To The Basics: Sight Alignment and Sight Picture

In previous posts I have talked about The Eight Principles of Pistol Marksmanship and covered Stance and Grip.  In todays post I will talk about Sight Alignment (#3) and Sight Picture (4)

First off for today on Sight alignment we use a weaver stance and grip and aim at our target as close to possible of our natural point of aim.

With the red Horizontal line as our alignment line align the blade or post of the front sight in-between  the dovetail of the rear sight.  Again this is easier done with a target at your eye level as pictured below.

In the above picture these shots were taken at 10 yards with a Taurus 24/7 .45 cal.  The 10 ring or gut was at eye level with me at my firing position and the head shots were above me by about 2 feet.  The hits in the 10 ring are pretty consistent for double taps, with one dropped from the 10 ring.  Only 2 rounds made it to the 20 ring the others were offset to the left and down.  This is consistent with bad sight alignment.

Next is sight picture

First we will attempt to see if you are cross dominant or firing side dominant.  Take your firing hand and make an OK signal with the thumb and index finger and put it to the tip of your nose with both eyes open now focus on something in the distance and bring your ok sign out so that the subject of your staring is in the circle.  Now close one eye.  If the object jumps out of the circle that is your dominate eye.  If it doesn't jump that is your weak eye.

Now if it is your right eye and you are right handed or left eye and and are left handed there is no problem.  However if you are right handed and Left eye dominate or left handed and right eye dominate Just ease the weapon to that side when aiming.

We need to look at the sights and keep both eyes open.  If we close the non firing eye we lose about 90 degrees of vision.  That 90 degrees could hold somebody that needs our attention.

If we look at the above picture.  The Front sight blade/post should be crisp, The clear oval is the target This should appear out of focus and might have a fuzzy halo around it.  The two parts of the dove tail should have the same appearance that the target has.  Out of focus and a has Halo around them.  During periods of instruction I can never stress Front Sight enough.  If you stare it down you will hit your target.

AR-15 Series Weapons Bolt Gas Rings: To stagger or not to stagger

A Friend of mine John Fabriele on Google+ posted this over the weekend.  I had noticed the gas rings on it were not staggered and mentioned this on the post.  Then a Thomas stocker said that they do not have to be staggered.  So with some free time I decided to put it to a test.  Also John had mentioned about oiling the gas rings, and I wanted to see how this would work as well, and also I had surmised that the CLP might cause a carbon build up in that area with the impinged gases.

The first weapon I used was a Bushmaster XM-15 with M-855 A-2 Ammo

With the initial 30 rd Magazine before Firing I put the opening of the gas rings together, carefully placed it in the weapon and fired.  I had no problems.  I took the weapon apart and carefully took the bolt out of the carrier and the openings were now staggered.

I repeated the procedure again aligning the openings, another 30 rounds no problem.  Again the rings were staggered when I took it apart.

I repeated the procedure for a third time.  This time I had 3 failures to extract, then the weapon fired fine.

My next three magazines I had the rings staggered and no problems except for a dud with a dented primer.

The Next three magazines were with CLP on the gas rings.  No problems shooting, and once finished I field stripped the weapon and no evident problems could be seen,  However I did notice that there was not very much CLP evident on rings.

I attempted this again with a Bushmaster Carbon and M-855 A-2 Ammo

I fired the same amount of mags as I did with the XM-15

With aligning the openings I only had 1 Failure to extract on the second magazine.  The rest fired flawlessly.  No problems what so ever.  Each time after firing a magazine the openings were staggered.

Fired 3 mags with rings staggered no problems

Fired 3 mags with CLP on the rings and same as the XM-15 no build up and I found very little evidence of the oil.

I would surmise here that if I was giving advice to someone I would recommend staggering the rings.    3 Rounds out of 90 on the first weapon, and 1 out of 90 on the second, and basically the weapon staggered them any ways.  I also need to add here I put the opening to the top of the bolt.

Back To The Basics: Grip

Pictured above is an example of a good grip when utilizing the Isosceles Stance.

1.  With the firing hand make a "U" shape and place it around the pistol grip of the weapon.

2.  The weapon is aligned with the firing arm so recoil is transferred right down the arm to the shoulder.

3.  The non firing hand is placed in front of the firing hand on the non-firing side of the grip and wraps around over the firing hand.

4.  Wrist and hand are kept straight so that recoil comes straight down the arm to the shoulders.

With both hands on the weapon this gives a very stable weapons platform and plays into the natural way our bodies move and operate.

The basics of The grip with the isosceles stance grip can be used with the weaver stance, 

In addition while grasping the weapon you will grasp your hands and pull away from them causing an Isometric response.  Personally I find this uncomfortable and not very stable.  I find that I have tendency to start shaking while doing this.

In conclusion as an experienced shooter again for comfort and stability I would recommend the isosceles stance and Grip.

Back to the basics: Stance

This is the inaugural part of a multi part post.  I think it is imperative as shooters, Marksmen, and others that we go back to the basics and fine tune our selves, get rid of bad habits and tweak our Good habits so they become stronger.  In this I review the 8 Fundamentals of pistol marksmanship, and a couple of additionals that I think every shooter should observe.

If you are a novice instead of calling your right and left sides I will refer to them as Firing or Non-firing sides so that If you are Left Handed (Mutant) I don't have to explain everything as right handed or left handed

For Todays post I will start off with Stance.  If we think it about stance it is the basics of the weapon platform.  The A-10 a Weapons Platform, a M-1 Abrams Tank a weapons platform, a battle ship a weapons platform, YOU a weapons platform.  A weapons platform must be stable and have the ability to take recoil.  I have seen a few different stances in my life time but what is most prevalent to me is The Weaver Stance, The Isosceles Stance, and a combination of the Two Stance.

The first stance I will cover is the Weaver Stance.

Basically in the above picture the shooter stands so that his non-firing side is facing the target, The firing arm is locked and his non firing arm is bent at the elbowBoth hands grip the pistol and both hands pull against each other.

When I first started shooting I used this stance.  Reasons being that this stance was what I had grown up seeing on TV.

The PROs of this stance is that it offers a smaller silhouette to an intruder in your house, it offers camouflage in dark and low light conditions.

The CONs to this stance are Movement is hindered.  We walk with our hips turned towards our direction of movement, with this stance you have to adjust your body to move and stop.  (Coming in and out of your firing stance)  There is a tendency when shooting since the firing arm is taking the recoil to twist into that direction and thus your hits are to the side of the firing arm.  If you are wearing Body armor, on most types that I have used the plate does not protect the sides, so thus you are defeating your Body armor with out a shot being fired.  When in this stance our area of engagement is from about 10degrees towards the extreme of our non firing side to about 3:00 of our firing side.

Personally I do not like the Weaver Stance, I find it un-natural, uncomfortable, and does not make sense to me as a whole.

The next stance that I will cover is the Isosceles stance.

Basically in the above pictures The pistol is gripped with both hands, Chest and body are facing the target, Both arms locked, Shooter is bent forward at the waist, Knees bent slightly, the firing foot is about 6 inches behind non firing foot, legs spread about shoulder width apart.

The pros for this position is that it basically mirrors our natural body position. We can walk and stop easily from this position.  Recoil of the weapon comes straight back down the arms, to the sides of the back (Lats) to the buttocks and down the legs to the ground. If wearing body armor the armor is facing the target/ adversary.  The body van swing 90+ degrees left and 90+ degrees right of front.

This stance is adjustable for the best natural point of aim and recoil absorption stance using the following techniques:  Get in stance, Aim at target, Close eyes swing pistol left and right about 10 degrees each way and stop when you think you are on target where you were aiming before.  When you open your eyes and you are off target adjust your firing foot back or forward to adjust the sights back on target.  (Do not worry if you are low or high of target with this) try to memorize you feet and body position.  Next put your arms on someone else's shoulders.  Try to push them just by adjusting where your firing foot is.  Onec you can move them you are good.

The CONs of this stance is that it offers a larger target to your intruder or adversary.

Personally I use the Isosceles stance.  I think it makes me a better weapons platform.


I have seen people also accomplish this by using an Isosceles type stance on the lower body and shooting weaver with the upper.  Again this tries to counter unstably with stability and from what I have seen doesn't.