Cant focus on pistol sights

GrizleyHunter

GrizleyHunter

New member
This could be a good question to all you LEOs
My eyes are not what they used to be and I have problems with getting the sights on my kimber to come in focus.
So do I learn how to point and shoot or do I take the time to find the sights as best as I can and shoot.This question is for SD not target shooting where I have much more time.
I do have Crimson Trace grips which I can use in low light but for daytime shooting my reaction time is way to slow and not on target.
Kimber 45ACP Ultra Carry 11
Night Sights
Crimson Trace Grips
 
my eyes are the same as yours ,old and tired. for my hunting revolver I put a holo site on it and love the way it works. however this makes an already big gun a huge gun. this may not be what you want for sd. it takes time to turn on and as stated makes your gun big. not good for c.c.
 
IM an active shooter, one thing i like to do which in my opinion helps me pick up the front site a lil quicker is put a touch of bright flourecent paint or maybe nail polish at the very top of the front site. Just a tiny bit across the top edge of the front site.Other than that they say that cloraxan helps. good luck
 
killer
I have done that with my trapping pistol and it did not help much.
I forgot to say that I also wear glasses,which in my opion makes it even worse.Got to move your head all around to find focus point.
 
On my carry I have tritium's with the white circles around them. For my com-
petition guns I put the orange sight paint on the front sight and just underneath
the center of the rear sight. It gives me a lot quicker target acquisition having just
two points to look for. Been dealing with the same thing for 10 years.
 
Point shooting, when done correctly can be very accurate and you can make hits at 25 yards. It is very dependant on using your natural point of aim (being able to bring a pistol or rifle up and have it pointed at the taret with out having to use your muscles to align them left or right).

But I have to stress it takes practise. I would start out close and starting from a low ready position close your eyes and bring the pistol up on target or where you think it is, you just want to bring it straigh up no side to side input. Then open you eyes and see if you are centered left to right. If not adjust your stance to center it up. Do this a few times until you can bring it up and it is centered.

After that it is a matter of looking where you want to hit and practise. For it to work you have to use your same natural body position.

Hope that helps a little.

Corey
 
PO57
I have been pointing the pistol on target then hit my laser to see how my aim was,so far I am getting better with having my poi on target closer than when I first started.
Have not tried with live fire yet, ammo cost to much.
 
I had a real problem when I got bifocals. I found that I could shoot a whole lot better when tilting my head back using the close focus part to see the front sight even though the target was a little fuzzy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Frank
 
Your eyes can't focus on all three objects (rear sight, front sight and target) at the same time. You should focus on the front sight. The rear sight and target will be out of focus.
 
For defensive shooting you do not want to futch around lineing up sights anyway. Learn to shoot instinctivly (point and shoot) Defensive shooting is usueally from arms length out to about fifteen yards.Teach youself to draw and hit what your looking at. Start with a full length mirror, star at your reflection, and focus on a point center mass on your reflection. Work up a signal for yourself to bring up your gun hand and place your fingertip at the spot your focused on. work on that till you are doing it without thinking. When you get compfortable at arms length move back at ten or fifteen feet bring your hand up into alignment with your eye, but do not worry about sight alignment just cover the target. Eventually you will want to make up some wax bullets. These are primer powered, they will not have enough recoil to work the action of your Kimber so you will have to manually cycle it. At that point hang a old blanket in your garage and start shooting paper with the wax bullets all your wanting to do is draw and fire hitting the point you are focused on with out lineing up sights. BTW with a handgun the front sight should be in sharp focus and the rear and target blured when aiming
(useing sights)After ten or fifteen yards instinctive shooting won't work That is when you need the sights.
If you are unsure about makeing wax bullets speer makes a rubber projectile that works the same way they used to sell a "kit" that had the bullets and modified cases. But to DIY it take half a dozen fired cases resize and punch out the old primers. Carefully drill the flash hole out with a 1?8th " drill bit. Push the drilled case into a block of wax or pariffin, then useing a hand primeing tool prime all the cases. Load them in a magazine, and manually cycle them through the pistol. You can gather up the wax "bullets " and melt them for reuse. Put an old blanket behind the target as a back stop. Have fun but don't shoot the cat they get real PO'd if you do. They will run fast though!!
 
Try some of the large 'ball and V' sights. The company Ashley Outdoors, or is it now named XO Outdoors, makes a set of high-visibility self-d sights for 1911's. The front sight is a very large round white bead (like 3/16" diameter) with a tritium insert. The rear sight is a very open shallow V, much like the rear rifle sight on African express elephant guns. You just set the ball in the bottom apex of the V. The sights look kind of weird but work pretty well. The front sight looks like a golf ball bobbing up and down in recoil, hard to miss.
 
I always look over the top of the sights when Im shooting a pistol.I dont know why I just always have.
Maybe try that a couple times and see if you cant do any better.That way you can see where your hitting automatically. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Quote:
Your eyes can't focus on all three points (rear sight, front sight and target) at the same time. You should focus on the front sight. The rear sight and target will be out of focus.



That's it right there. It's impossible to focus on the front sight and back sight and the POI at the same time it doesn't matter how good or bad you eyesight is. If you focus on the "FRONT" sight that is the most important thing. With the front sight in sharp focus the rear sight and 'X' ring will be slightly out of focus. That is life and you and everyone else will have to live with that. The most important thing is the front sight. line it up as best you can with the back sight and the POI as you can. See how that works for you.
 
Quote:
Quote:
Your eyes can't focus on all three points (rear sight, front sight and target) at the same time. You should focus on the front sight. The rear sight and target will be out of focus.



That's it right there. It's impossible to focus on the front sight and back sight and the POI at the same time it doesn't matter how good or bad you eyesight is. If you focus on the "FRONT" sight that is the most important thing. With the front sight in sharp focus the rear sight and 'X' ring will be slightly out of focus. That is life and you and everyone else will have to live with that. The most important thing is the front sight. line it up as best you can with the back sight and the POI as you can. See how that works for you.


There ya go.
I was trying to say that but all I could think to come up with is looking over the sights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
But yeah thats good advice. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Another thing you can try is the Dr.Dot electronic "dot" sight.

Trijicon sell these things. They mount in the place of the
rear sight (on a base). The battery life is thousands of
hours.

You can get an 8min dot (8" @ 100 yds, 4" @ 50 yds, 2" @ 25yds).

If your regular eyeglasses do not permit you to see your
pistol sights very well, likely having a dot sight will
very much improve your hitting.

Be sure to practice the fundamentals of shooting and gun
safety, too.

Karl in Phoenix
 
Holy Cow
I guess I am not the only blind four eyes having this problem!
Thanks for all the help,everything that you fellas said will sure help.I am going to save this thread so I can also refresh my memory.
Thanks a ton
GRIZ
 
I've been a firearms instructor for over 33 years, and I know how you are "supposed" to focus on the front sight. But, as age catches up with you, that doesn't always work, even with glasses. I even had my optomerist make me a special lens for my right eye, to focus at front sight distance. However, I can't wear those glasses all the time. Thru trial and error, I've found that "lining up" the rear sight, front sight, and target works well for quick, self-defense type shooting. You don't focus on any of the three, just line them up. You won't shoot your shots all in one hole, but the system works for me. I've tried the XS Ashley Express, sights on one of my .45's, and the "big dot" works well too. Fire a few rounds using my method, and see if it works for you.
 
I shoot with both eyes open, took awhile to master but I have better results.I have bright yellow dots on the rear and florecent orange front. It is natural for the body to follow your eyes look one way and start walking you will go towards where you are looking. That goes for your finger pointing to what your eyes are focusing on.Focus on a mans torso point your finger at the torso you will see your hand and finger but it is under your eye level but pointing where your focus is. Hand eye cordination. Make the weapon your finger. Practice with a less to no recoil weapon and work up. With old eyes like mine and I shoot a 45, you can loose the sights from recoil for a follow up.
This is a what I have done to practice hand eye cordination using both hands. Put a 3lb coffee can(maybe 5 gal bucket) open end toward you mounted at chest level, stand back 3/4 arms length, fingers pointing straight. Wear gloves, focus on the upper torso area and put your hand in the can and hold it there for several seconds, work up to as fast as you can. Then when that is mastered,put a weapon in your hand and do it with that. Go to a pop can and put your finger in it, work up to sticking the gun barrel in it.
Sounds crazy but you will be comfortable with point and shoot and hit where you need to.
 
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