In the world of firearms there are many fads, and technological do-dads that are one day the latest and greatest and within a few months to a year they are tossed to the backburner. One technological advancement in the world of pistol shooting that for sure is here to stay is that of the pistol mounted optic. Pistol dots first saw emergence in the 1970’s and were originally created by Swedish optics company, Aimpoint. These early red dot optics were gargantuan contraptions truly intended for rifle usage but were retrofitted by shooters to be compatible for mounting on pistols. These red dot optics began to see emergence in the world of IPSC competition shooting with scope like red dot optics being attached via picatinny rail segments added to revolvers and 1911’s. The emergence of the micro red dot truly intended and designed for pistol application was seen around 2005. In 2009, a long-term industry leader and standard in micro pistol red dots, Trijicon released the RMR (Ruggedized Miniature Reflex). Since then, it’s been off to the races in pistol optic popularity. Every year companies such as Aimpoint, Trijicon, Holosun, Primary Arms, and Vortex to name a few, push the envelope of optical technology to provide the end user with a better and all around more durable optical sight that can withstand the abuse of even the most high-volume shooters. Well, I know you didn’t come here for the history lesson, so let’s jump into the tips that I have learned over the past 2-3 years that have helped me find my dot more consistently on my draw stroke.
The Average Struggle of the New Pistol Dot Shooter
A new pistol dot shooter is usually pretty easy to spot. They all bring the gun out of the holster and then at the end of presentation will fish and crane the gun around left, right, up, and down frantically searching for the dot so that they may begin shooting. This is a clear indication to me as an instructor that the shooter hasn’t grasp how a red dot sight is intended to be used. With an optic the idea is for the shooter to remain target focused. Ideally one will identify an aiming point on their intended target and focus solely on that and deliver the gun to the dominant eye. As long as you create a consistent grip, consistent stance/posture, and smooth efficient path of bringing the gun to the eye you should begin finding the dot faster and faster with a little regular practice.
Establish Repeatable and Consistent Touch Points
A large part of getting better/faster at shooting is establishing a set of reproducible touch points that are neural indicators to your body that you have done the job correctly. If you think of it, it’s the same thing any athlete that has a reproducible and consistent performance does. Steph Curry lands 3-point shots without thought because he has developed a system of how he sets his feet, hands, arms, and the touch of the ball leaving the fingertips. Through thousands of reps, he has created a neural muscular pathway that creates consistency which leads to the desired end result of sinking the shot. This is the same thing that you as the shooter will have to discover and create for yourself, but I will walk you through the procedure that works for me.
Touch Point #1
My first touch point is getting the web of my shooting hand consistently high under the pistol back strap with zero clear space while the pistol is holstered. Grip by far is of paramount important and if you don’t consistently land that touch point then how you interact with the gun will be different every time, making it more difficult to find your dot at end presentation.
Touch Point #2/#3/#4
From the time my hand is properly gripped on the gun my objective is quickly clear the gun from the holster in an upward motion and rotate the muzzle of the gun to face the target in my high compressed position at chest level where I begin touch points 2, 3, and 4. I have these points listed together because for me they happen simultaneously.
Touch point #2 is gun at chest level just offline of the center of my rib cage. In this position I noticed during practice that the inside of my wrist always briefly contacts or brushes across the outside of my right pectoral muscle. At the same time, I’m establishing touch point #3.
Touch point #3 is the support hand meeting the gun at chest level near the body. The webspace between thumb and index finger of my support hand makes contact with the bottom of the trigger guard with palm facing myself. It is at this point my trigger finger lands balanced centrally on the trigger.
Touch point #4 is the final phase of building the master grip. All I now need to do at this point is scissor my support hand around the trigger guard which will result in the end position of both thumbs pointing toward the target and the lesser fingers of the support hand locked down and gripped over the lesser fingers of the dominant hand that are engaged on the gun’s grip. My final touch point is feeling the grip closed with thumbs forward toward target.
During the process of scissoring the support hand closed over the dominant hand the gun is being glided forward and up in a straight line to the dominant eye line of sight. The trigger is also being prepped to the wall in preparation to break the shot as soon as my optic dot comes in view over the intended target zone.
This is the process that works for me, but feel free to give it a try and if it works for you too that’s amazing. If it doesn’t all work for you, keep the parts that make sense and contribute to your own consistency in picking up the dot and then add your own elements that make your process of drawing consistent and repeatable where you see the dot every time.
Too Many Things in Motion at One Time
Ideally in the draw stroke the only two things that should be in motion are the hands and the gun. I have spent a lot of time video analyzing my own earlier novice mistakes with my draw stroke and the draw strokes of many students. What we all had in common was that we all had too much crap in motion all at the same time. Our hands were moving to interact/ move the gun, our posture changing during the presentation from a comfortable up-right stance to a cat like curled upper back with shoulders to ears and craned neck position. That’s a lot going on, not to mention your eyes are rapidly trying to move and make micro adjustments to account for all this variability we were inducing in the draw. Remember that less is more! The goal is simply to move the gun from holster to the dominant eye line of sight as efficiently as possible. A drill that I began doing in dry fire practice at home that has helped me greatly is what I call the “Tape Drill”. To practice this, you will need your clear and empty gun, a mirror, a roll of painters or masking tape, and your belt/holster set up of choice. Start directly in front of the mirror and with a strip of tape completely cover your eyes on the mirror. Back up from the mirror 3-5 yards and stand with a well-balanced and comfortable stance, making sure your eyes are still covered by the tape. At this point, the tape is your focal point for aiming and focus. Imagine you are superman and were preparing to shoot laser beams from your eyes straight through the tape. Draw the gun and present smoothly to the dominant eye. When you see your dot land on the tape press your dry fire shot. At no point during the draw stroke should you see your eyes above or below the tape. If you do, this indicates you are moving or changing your posture/stance, and this will lead to inconsistency. The more reps you do, you should begin to notice a reduction in the time it takes to acquire the dot in the optical window.
A Lil’ Pinky Pressure Goes a Long Way
Another common thing I run into with people not being able to find their optic dot has to do with grip angle. Grip angle refers to the angle of a gun’s grip in relation to the bore axis. This impacts how comfortable the gun is to hold and where the bore axis naturally points when the gun is brought up to fire. My gun of choice, the Glock, has a 22-degree grip angle compared to the 18-degree grip angle of guns like the 1911 and the Sig p365. The 18-degree angle in the hand allows the shooter to more naturally aim and point the gun on target with the bore axis flat and parallel in relation to the ground. Not the case with the higher grip angle of the Glock as its natural point of aim will have the bore axis slightly elevated from parallel to the ground. When shooting with higher grip angle optic mounted guns similar to the Glock, shooters may find they still struggle to find the dot. Chances are the dot is high in the optic window at the 12 o’clock position. The only thing needed to compensate for this is adding slightly more support hand pinky pressure on the grip to drop the dot from 12 to 6 o’clock position and into the shooters field of view.
I hope these tips and tricks that I have learned over my optic shooting journey prove useful and add value to your own training. The intent for you is to utilize these tips to create processes and procedures specific to your body mechanics that will generate repeatability and increased speed of dot acquisition with practice. See you on the range, cheers!
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