{"id":1739,"date":"2014-07-24T15:37:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T19:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2014-07-24T17:49:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T21:49:39","slug":"point-shooting-shortcut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/point-shooting-shortcut\/","title":{"rendered":"Point Shooting is not a Shortcut"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking for a new way to a start virtual bar fight, hop onto any shooting-related discussion forum and declare your opinion of\u00a0point shooting. In the realm of self-defense handgun technique, few topics have the power to get the keyboard commandos riled up like this one.<\/p>

There are several different shooting techniques that are often considered to be some form of point shooting; index shooting, target focus shooting, instinctive shooting, etc. The debate essentially comes down to whether it\u2019s better to train the \u201ctraditional\u201d way by maintaining a sharp focus on the front sight, or to focus on the target and rely on a more intuitive method for pointing the handgun.<\/p>

Fortunately for you, I\u2019m not taking a side in this fight. At least not today… mostly. Instead, I\u2019d like to focus on an obnoxious little side-effect of this debate that I believe most experts on either<\/em> side would have a problem with: the myth that point shooting is a substitute for practice or decent gear.<\/p>

Not only is this idea false, it leads to a number of erroneous approaches to training, equipment selection, and self-defense mindset. Oftentimes, the roots of this way of thinking lie in the misconception that in a “real world” self-defense encounter, you can’t or won’t be able to use your sights. It’s true that some reports have suggested\u00a0a large percentage\u00a0of gunfight survivors\u00a0can’t\u00a0recall having looked\u00a0at their sights during the encounter. Unfortunately, rather than viewing\u00a0these reports as descriptive<\/em>, a lot of people take them\u00a0as prescriptive <\/em>– a manual for how to survive a gunfight. So they neglect any serious training or don’t bother upgrading the sights on their carry gun\u00a0and use\u00a0these anecdotes as justification.<\/p>

\"Ameriglo<\/a>
The Ameriglo Pro i-dot night sights feature a bright orange ring around the tritium insert in the front sight for excellent visibility in a variety of light conditions. Sights like this weren’t around when point shooting was first popularized.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The “nobody uses their sights” myth is easy enough to counter. Probably the most well-known example\u00a0to the contrary\u00a0comes from\u00a0the late Jim Cirillo<\/a> of the NYPD who could distinctly recall seeing every groove and imperfection in the front sight of his revolver as he shot three armed robbers in the first of more than 17 gun fights he was involved in over the course of his career. If that tired old story isn’t enough evidence, then consider the research of Dave Spaulding<\/a>, who has interviewed nearly 200 gun fight surivors including police officers, military members, and armed citizens. Being a firearms trainer himself, Spaulding of course asked whether they remembered using their sights. It turns out that individuals whose handguns were equipped with highly visible sights often\u00a0did<\/em> recall using them during the fight. So it turns out that sights that are easier to see at the range are also easier to see in a gun fight. Go figure.<\/p>

But still the myth is repeated over and over; “you won’t use your sights in a gunfight”. This is a great example of confirmation bias — when you lean toward believing something because it confirms what you already think or practice. Consider the guy who just bought a tiny polymer pocket .380 for self defense<\/a> only to discover that he can\u2019t see the itty-bitty black sights and the recoil\u00a0is\u00a0too uncomfortable, so he never practices with it. When he reads that \u201cmost people don\u2019t use their sights in the real world\u201d, he\u2019s thinking \u201cGreat! I can\u2019t see my sights anyway. Forget practicing, I\u2019ll just use \u2018point shooting\u2019 to get the job done.\u201d Spaulding has\u00a0another great observation<\/a> on this line of thinking: “When statements are made such as, ‘I\u2019m not going to be able to use the sights anyway, why spend training time using them?’ It is almost as if we are expecting to be caught unaware and allowing luck to be the deciding factor.”<\/p>

<\/p>

\"High<\/a>
High visibility sights are especially helpful when the light is inconsistent between the sights and target. But at near-contact distance like this, using the sights is probably unnecessary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

But even most modern-day advocates of point shooting don’t advocate relying on luck.\u00a0There\u2019s a big difference between an experienced handgun shooter using a\u00a0point shooting technique and an amateur who blindly fires down range because\u00a0he’s too apathetic\u00a0or stubborn to learn to use the sights properly at speed. There are expert musicians who use sheet music and equally great ones who only play by ear. Both of them had to work incredibly hard to hone their craft. You can make a case for either approach to learning music,\u00a0but no one would take me seriously if I started banging on a piano keyboard\u00a0and said “sheet music is for chumps” because I’m “playing by ear”. The end result isn’t music, it’s just annoying.<\/p>

Some instructors will teach a form of intuitive or point shooting to beginners as a basic survival tool for extra-close point blank encounters. But I don’t know of any respected firearms trainer who would suggest that point shooting is a shortcut for practice. In fact,\u00a0many of the names often associated with some form of point shooting have actually advocated\u00a0for sighted fire under certain\u00a0circumstances including Rex Applegate and Rob Pincus. As has been pointed out many times by others<\/a>, the concept\u00a0that handgun sights should never<\/em> be used is an antiquated idea from the days when all handgun sights were nearly impossible to see even under ideal lighting conditions.<\/p>

So before you decide to completely dismiss the possibility of using your sights in self defense,\u00a0get a real understanding of the different schools of thought out there. Learn what point shooting advocates are actually teaching and take a look at the opposing viewpoints. If “point shooting” is just an excuse for not getting in more trigger time or to help you feel better about the sub-par pistol you carry, it’s not really point shooting. It’s laziness.<\/p> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking for a new way to a start virtual bar fight, hop onto any shooting-related discussion forum and … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21,161,17,108],"class_list":["post-1739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-toolbox","tag-handguns","tag-point-shooting","tag-self-defense","tag-technique"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoint Shooting - It's Not a Shortcut to Avoid Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While some claim point shooting, or shooting without sights, is the way to train for a gun-fight, others use it as an excuse to ignore training altogether.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/point-shooting-shortcut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Point Shooting - 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