HANDGUN SIGHTING METHODS
By Tom Crawford
Copyright 2007 By The Author
In the context of defensive pistol shooting, three methods of aiming are possible with any weapon
equipped with notch and post sighting equipment. Each method has its place in certain situations, and the
shooter should be aware of each of them, as well as in what context each is most appropriately used. These
three methods are listed and discussed below, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each, as
well as an indication of the best general range applications.

POINT FIRING (0-10 feet)

“Point firing” or “point shooting” refers to aiming the defensive firearm without actually resorting to the
use of the weapon’s sighting apparatus. Rather, the weapon is brought to some consistent body position
and fired, while the shooter’s eyes are still focused on the target. Point firing is most successful when the
firearm is brought close to eye level, and in the case of handguns, the shooting arm is almost fully extended
and raised such that the gun intrudes into the cone of the shooter’s peripheral vision from below. The main
advantage to point firing techniques is that they are faster for some shooters to use than true aimed fire
using sights. Further, they do not require the shooter to take his visual focus off the threat to align sights,
which runs counter to survival instinct. Some minimally trained shooters find this difficult to do under stress.

Alternative point firing systems have been developed in which the shooter vaguely appreciates the
distinctive silhouette of his properly aligned firearm from the rear superimposed on the target, such as in
the Cirillo Silhouette Point Fire Method developed by famed NYPD Stakeout Squad member, multiple
gunfight survivor, and firearms instructor Jim Cirillo. While this system seems to work well enough, it does
pre-suppose that the shooter will always be using the same or similar weapon from day to day. In the case
of some armed professionals, especially those who work outside the country, this may not be a valid
assumption.

There is also a point firing technique for extreme close-quarters situations in which the weapon, most
often a pistol, is pulled in close to the body at a standard reference point such as the pectoral muscle and
fired from this position. This offers the advantage of a strong weapon retention platform, allowing minimal
opportunity for an adversary to disarm the shooter or prevent the deployment of the firearm. Such
techniques do typically result in shots impacting the target lower than with an eye-level technique, but at the
extreme close quarters in which such methods are used, not seriously so.

Point firing is emphatically not “hip shooting”. Shooting from the hip as seen in movies and as
demonstrated by exhibition shooters almost never works in the real world, and can result in clean misses at
impossibly close ranges that could be dangerous to innocent bystanders. This is due to the unpredictable
angle assumed by the flexible wrist joint when hip shooting techniques are employed in an emergency by
most shooters.

Point firing techniques are at their best from contact range out to about ten feet, when extreme
precision of shot placement is not critical, and where speed is deemed more important. However, those
extensively trained in the use of sights for every shot, such as competitive and advanced tactical shooters
often find that adapting to these so-called “quick” techniques can actually result in slower times from
reaction to first hit for them when test measurements are made.


FLASH SIGHT PICTURE (10 feet – 10 yards)

The “flash sight picture” is best thought of as a “semi-aimed” method of sighting the defensive firearm,
and is in fact how most handgun shots in the tactical setting are actually taken by those properly trained
and practiced. Most handgun encounters clearly fall within the ranges at which this technique is most useful,
and the method offers a great compromise between speed and precision in most, but not all situations. Elite
shooters who must use weapons under severe time constraints will most often resort to the flash sight
picture rather than selecting a true point firing method as previously described.

When using the flash sight picture, the shooter quickly brings the weapon fully to eye level as in any
form of aimed fire. However, just prior to trigger press to release the shot, the operator then takes quick
notice of his sights, with primary emphasis on the front sight, to insure that the sights are roughly aligned
and superimposed on the area of anatomical interest prior to breaking the shot. In practice, this process is
as quick as thought and adds no realistic time delay to the first decisive hit on target. It does however do
much to insure that the all-important first hit will in fact be on target, which is why professionals rely on it.
When used within its range limitations, the precision afforded by properly acquired flash sight picture is near
surgical.

If there is any disadvantage to the use of the flash sight picture at all, it is that it requires the operator
to have the mental discipline to divert his attention momentarily from the threat to perform a quick check of
his sights before firing. Despite whining from novices to the contrary, this is no more rigorous than
demanding that a parachutist have the presence of mind to pull his ripcord while plummeting to earth, or
that a diver control his rate of ascent while attempting to reach the surface of the water from below. Each is
simply a matter of training and practice. Finally, it is important not to confuse the flash sight picture with
more formal methods of sighting, which will be discussed next. To do so would be to give away one of the
technique’s chief advantages, acceptable precision coupled with speed.

FORMAL or “HARD” SIGHT PICTURE (>10 yards)

The “formal” or “hard” sight picture is the one most often seen in marksmanship training aids and
diagrams of sight alignment, including the one you have been provided in your notes. With notch and post
sights of any kind, the proper formal sight picture features the front sight “post” visually centered in the rear
“notch” with approximately equal amounts of light showing on either side, and the top surfaces of both front
and rear sights aligned flush with each other. This combination is then superimposed on the point of
anatomical interest that the shooter wishes to hit, normally directly, in what is known as a “dead-on hold”.
The shooter’s visual focus is placed on the front sight, not the target.

The vast majority of defense-oriented handguns come from the factory adjusted for such a dead-on
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hold, but paradoxically, many instruction manuals that come with these guns show a more or less standard
diagram that has been in use for years, showing the sights superimposed on a point several inches below
the point the shooter probably wishes to hit. This is due to the fact that in the past, most attention was
focused on the recreational and target shooting aspects of handguns, and in formal “Bullseye” pistol
shooting, consistency of the aiming point leads to higher scores. On a standard Bullseye target, the center
of the target is a round black mass surrounded by a more or less white background. Competitors found that
by adjusting sights such that they held on the lower Bullseye border, where there is a distinct line between
the black and white areas of the paper, they would achieve greater consistency, and therefore higher
scores. This aiming point exists at the six-o’clock point on an imaginary clock face, and so this point of aim
became known as a “six-o’clock hold”. While there are some target firearms and a few European military
and police pistols that actually are sighted for this “six-o’clock” aiming point, you should be aware that the
vast majority of defense pistols are actually sighted for the more straightforward “dead-on hold”.

Since most handgun owners are notoriously poor shots, this discrepancy often goes unnoticed, but for
the professional or properly trained private citizen, situations do arise where the difference between point of
aim and point of impact amounting to several inches truly do matter. For this reason, armed professionals
should verify and bear in mind any differences between point of aim and point of impact for the weapons
they use or carry every day. In some cases, a competent gunsmith can resolve these differences. In others,
merely switching ammunition will do the trick. Somewhat counter-intuitively, with regard to handguns, when
heavier bullets are used, shots normally impact the target somewhat higher, when lighter bullets are
selected, normally point of impact drops a bit. Whenever working with a new weapon, or new load, actual
point of aim versus point of impact should be verified by the shooter using the formal sight picture method.
Very small differences may, in practice, be ignored or simply noted.

The formal sight picture is best utilized in handgun encounters that fall outside of the typical ranges
seen in pistol fights. For best results, most shooters should resort to the formal sight picture in cases where
the distance to the target exceeds about ten yards, or in any case where extreme precision is needed and
time exists to utilize this necessarily slower technique. The good news here is that the more distance that
exists between you and your adversary, the more time you have to shoot, because he is suffering under the
same limitations as you, and hopefully is not as well trained or as recently practiced. Distance favors the
trained marksman, while just about anyone, even a child, can kill or injure you at very close range with a
firearm.

Legendary Old West lawman and amateur power drinker “Wild” Bill Hickok killed scores of men while
making sometimes-questionable “arrests” (he was paid by the arrest, so he liked to do a volume business).
Hickok related that it was normally his preference to call across the town street to the unfortunate target of
his attention that the man was “under arrest”, having already drawn his gun and preparing to shoot him in
advance of his verbal challenge being issued. If the man gave up, this was all well and good, but in many
cases, Hickok would receive incoming fire from the subject, which he anticipated. He was not too terribly
worried about this since he knew that most men had no chance of hitting him with a pistol across a city
street, back then a distance of about 50-60 feet. He would calmly take aim at his subject, even though
bullets were coming his way, and often fire only a single aimed shot, killing his adversary and thereby
placing him “under arrest”. While this method seemed to be effective for Hickok, townspeople complained
about the number of innocent bystanders and horses wounded or killed by his suspect’s initial gunfire, and
asked him to discontinue the practice.

In the context of marksmanship training and use of the formal sight picture, Hickok’s daily training
regimen is instructive. He favored black powder pistols well into the cartridge era, choosing as his sidearms
a pair, or “brace” of .36 caliber 1851 Navy Colts. Like many armed professionals, Hickok was obsessive
about the cleanliness and functionality of his weaponry, and liked to start each day with clean, freshly
loaded pistols. Since the only way to empty, clean and reload pistols of the type he used is to fire them,
Hickok, according to some of his writings and bystander accounts, developed a daily training program.

According to him, he would arise each morning, have a drink, and walk with his weapons to the edge of
town. After relieving himself at the end of the town street, he would then fire each of his revolvers until they
were empty in a timed, aimed fire cadence, shooting only as quickly as he could get his sights accurately
aligned on target. The first revolver would be fired with his right hand, the second with his left. His targets
were playing cards he had attached to a post at a range of approximately 50 feet, and Hickok claimed that
he always used his sights to their fullest extent. He would then sit down, clean his pistols and load them with
fresh powder, caps and new balls for the coming day. By the way, Hickok carried a third, smaller pistol with
which he practiced less frequently, just in case something happened while his two main guns were empty.

Having duplicated Hickok’s training sessions with similar weaponry (minus the alcohol and outdoor
bodily functions of course) I can tell you that what he claimed is not only possible, but quite reasonable, and
serves as a challenging daily training program for a shooter concerned with precision. It should be clear to
the reader that a full-grown man standing across a town street presented absolutely no marksmanship
challenge to Hickok. Finally, to further make the point that in an armed encounter, distance is your friend,
when Hickok met his untimely demise, it was at the hands of a farm boy named Jack McCall, who shot him in
the head from behind with a .44 caliber revolver at near contact range while the lawman was playing cards.
Some reports indicate that not only was Hickok killed, but so was a French jeweler playing his hand opposite
Hickok when the bullet exited Wild Bill’s eye socket and struck him in the chest.

Although, given the distances involved in most handgun encounters, the flash sight picture is more
often used; situations do arise when the formal sight picture must be brought into play. For example, a
hostage rescue shot at 35 feet, or the need to intercept a feral animal moving across your field of vision
toward a child who needs your protection while you are still some distance from the action, or virtually any
situation that occurs at conventional carbine distance would all call for the use of the formal sight picture.

EYE SPRINTS

“Eye sprints” are not a method of aiming, but rather a bad habit that has been developed by some in
the course of their training or competitive shooting activities. Since each of us knows intellectually that for
best results in sighted fire, our attention must be directed to the front sight rather than the target, this is
where the competent shooter will place their visual focus, at least initially. However, the necessary use of
standard paper or cardboard targets on the training range, coupled with the natural human desire for
immediate feedback can often lead to a condition whereupon firing each shot, the shooter allows their visual
focus and concentration to move down to the target for confirmation of a hit (as evidenced by the
appearance of a bullet hole in the target), and then rapidly back to the sights for the next shot. In this way,
the attention of the eye “sprints” from the end of the gun to the target, and then right back to the sights in
the interval between shots.

Eye sprints waste time, and produce measurably longer shot to shot times in shooters who have
developed this bad habit. In competition, where time limits are often generous and there is no threat to the
shooter, the habit is harmless, but in the real world, the armed professional is wasting time that could be
used for movement, threat scanning, or more shooting, looking for visual feedback that he will never get.
Unlike paper or cardboard targets, real people do normally not show bullet strikes when shot, and the only
visual feedback you are likely to get that would possibly keep you from firing more is the absence of your
target in your visual field when the party in question falls down or runs away, both good outcomes. This is
easily assessed without removing your attention from your sights. You should not waste time on the range
looking for feedback that you will never receive in the real world. Eye sprints, once ingrained as a habit, are
incredibly difficult to eliminate.

To demonstrate how different actual shooting scenarios are from paper target training in this regard,
simply practice by shooting at targets covered with old tee shirts. After the first few hits on a fresh shirt,
even if you do perform eye sprints, you will not be able to assess hits on the target. You simply have to
“trust the force” while shooting, meaning that you have to know intuitively that you are hitting your target
since you have a proven weapon with which you are familiar, and you are properly applying the
fundamentals of marksmanship, especially with regard to sighting and trigger release. If properly aimed and
released shots are not having the desired effect, you may then safely assume that either your subject is not
terribly impressed with the weapon you have chosen due to drugs, alcohol or an extremely strong
constitution, or is protected by body armor, and you can then make a tactical decision on a change in
aiming point or other survival actions.

SIGHTING AIDS

In this day and age of high refinement of defensive weaponry, especially handguns, it is somewhat rare
to find a pistol equipped with simple, plain black sights. Most defensive handguns these days come supplied
with some type of sighting aid in the form of white or multi-colored dots, known as three-dot sights, painted
bars on the sights as in the Von Stavenhagen pattern seen on Sigarms pistols, or even luminous Tritium
inserts known as “night sights”. These additions to your pistol’s sights by the manufacturer, or performed as
after market options, are designed to provide a low-light approximation of proper alignment only, and they
can be a real virtue on a defensive sidearm. However, in daylight use, these additions should be ignored.
Simply “aligning the dots” as some ill-informed people have suggested almost never results in a proper
formal sight picture. Keep in mind that in situations where the formal sight picture is called for, precision is
an issue, and your attention belongs on the tops of the sights, not any dots that might have been applied to
them. In a dark alley, the luminous dots may be all you get to see, and that is the reason they were put
there, not for daylight use.

Armed professionals tend to avoid “gimmicky” sight solutions that serve to reduce the overall
functionality of their weapons, or those that are so unique that they require specialized training to use that
runs counter to techniques used with standard firearms. Examples of such best-avoided “enhancements”
include the thoroughly ridiculous “express sight” or “big dot” sights some users add to their pistols at great
expense, making them incapable of a formal sight picture at any range at all. While this might be of value on
a backup pistol to be used only at “bad-breath” range, such modifications should not be made to general
duty pistols. Further, while large, readily acquired sights are a plus in many circumstances, some
after market sights are so freakishly large that they interfere with proper presentation of the weapon from
the holster.

Finally, some heavily marketed standard sight types appear to be sold merely because they “look cool”
on one’s pistol. One particular set of sights of this type I am aware of is specified on certain pistols sold to
the U.S. Government for hostage rescue use. While these sights are functional, and quite rakish in
appearance when installed on the firearm, they make it impossible to utilize several standard malfunction
clearance drills with the pistol. No matter what their other advantages, a true professional would not have
selected them for use on a duty pistol.

Frequently, the question of the “laser sight” or pointing device comes up for use on the defense
handgun. There are good reasons that an individual might choose to install such a device on the fighting
pistol, but these aids should be chosen and used with caution. First, you should be aware that there are a
number of very cheaply made laser units on the market that will not stand up to hard use, nor will they
maintain a preset zero on handgun that has even moderate recoil. Some are insufficiently powerful to be
seen in daylight, and of course, anything electronic can run out of battery power at the worst possible
moment if not checked regularly and batteries changed. Poorly designed or manufactured laser sights that
replace internal parts of your pistol can actually impair its function as well.

Good laser sights are not cheap, but the well-made ones may offer some real advantages to those
individuals who cannot see their front sights any longer without corrective lenses, and for those who must
take shots from behind cover positions that do not allow for placement of the head directly behind the pistol.
The better laser units on the market are quite sturdy these days and can often be seen in daylight, and will
hold an adequate zero point. However, an addiction to your laser sight’s red dot projected on the target
does divert your attention away from learning to look for your front sight in flash sight or formal sight picture-
appropriate scenarios, and provides the new shooter with a much longer learning curve developing sighted
fire skills. One should be able to at least find their front sight quickly in an emergency even when a laser
unit is installed, if for no other reason than instances of device failure, and so shooters should not become
laser dependent if it can be avoided.

These units seem best for two classes of shooters, those who are true experts who have already
learned to use their sights and recognize the laser as a secondary technique, and those interested only in
the close range use of their pistols in the point fire mode who do not intend to learn sighted fire at all. If you
decide to invest in one, just make sure that your “laser sight” does not become a “lazy sight”, and continue
to devote some training time to sighted fire.

SUMMARY

There are three methods of aiming weapons equipped with notch and post sights, and each has its
place in your battery of competencies. First, point firing, the aiming of a weapon without resorting to the use
of its sighting equipment at all, may be an effective technique in extreme close quarters situations where
speed of the first hit, or the need to retain the weapon close to the body outweighs the need for absolute
precision afforded by sighted fire. Second, the flash sight picture, merely achieving a rapid confirmation that
the front and rear sights are grossly aligned and superimposed on the target just prior to trigger press, is
the most generally useful technique in pistol encounters, yielding a good compromise between speed and
precision. The flash sight picture can also be utilized with open-sighted rifles and sight-equipped shotguns,
at what are often thought of as “snap-shooting” ranges. Finally, the formal sight picture, (on which the flash
sight picture is based) initially learned in basic marksmanship training, has its place at extended ranges, or
when extreme precision is needed.

Eye sprints should be avoided in weapons practice. Modifications to standard sights, within limitations,
may be appropriate but do not change proper sighting techniques and should not limit the role of the
general duty weapon nor impair function. Laser pointing devices may have their place as back-up sighting
equipment on the defensive pistol, but only if a high-quality unit is selected and the convenience of the
laser does not take the place of one’s ability to use the pistol’s sights if needed.
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