There’s a lot to be said for the KISS principle. Keeping it simple when you’re under pressure minimizes extraneous factors and frees you up to preform smoother, better and faster. Golfers — most of the best ones, anyway — have swing thoughts. Robert collared Kay Miculek at the NSSF Fantasy Camp this morning. She revealed that her “sight thought” is to see her front sight as a little chomping Pac Man, gobbling up ghosts as she moves from target to target. Do you have a sight thought? What is it?

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20 COMMENTS

  1. I can’t see my front sight when shooting, so the only time I think about it is when I notice holster wear on it.

  2. It’s a mantra during pistol shooting-
    “Front sight, front sight, front sight”.
    I don’t even know where the rear sight is.
    During a 3 gun match, the front sight somehow fell off my Les Baer on a pistol only plate stage. Ended up with a horrible time trying to hit those last few plates.

  3. At the range: Front sight, front sight, front sight, trigger, trigger, trigger….

    Real deal: Oh shit, oh shit, oh f*ck, oh shit!

  5. Sight thought? Stock rear sight on my Remington R1 really bites my hand when charging.

    Boy it would be a simple thing to take a file and gently ease those corners over. A little sanding and polish, quick cold blue to make it blend in. But I am not inclined to just jump in and redneck engineer that fix without thinking about it first.

    I can’t afford new sights right now, but I would guess if I screw something up, it’s only a rear sight that can be replaced. Plus what’s to screw up?

    Is this a stupid thing to do? Anyone face similar issues and done something similar?

    • Wow. Not an expert, here, but what you describe can’t change the sight picture, so in that regard it should be fine. OTOH, I think you should test and consider the possibility of one handed charging, ie jamming the slide against your jeans and shoving down. With the edges sharp, seems like it would work better than with them smoothed. IOW, you might be better off learning another technique for 2-handed, rather than giving up one-handed. Your choice.

      • Thanks for that. Mind, I can charge the thing, I am really talking about working on the tap-rack-bang drill which I would like to get a lot better at and this is what the sight really is a problem for.

        I can change the sights out when budget allows, just not going to be doing that any time soon here.

        So the thought here is more of a medium term fix.

        Not being a real gunsmith I’d like to not Bubba this up, but it does seem to be a pretty straightforward thing.

      • That’s a very good suggestion.

        Lot’s of people practice religiously in moving and shooting, and I commend them for it, but far too few practice how they would continue to fight if they were wounded and only had the use of one arm, either strong or week side. Everyone should practice one-handed shooting with both their strong and weak side hands, mag changes, working the action, and using both their EDC and their BUG.

        I really like how well my Crossbreed Kydex IWB works for catching the rear sight on my Glock to charge it. Changing mags still needs some work, but that’s what practice is for, and that’s something your can do in your living room. I have gotten good at center of mass hits with both my G21 EDC and my PF9 BUG using only one hand.

    • This is why I can’t shoot a shotgun for shit. I can’t get over not focusing on the sight. I finally gave up and just focused on where the bird will be and timing it. It works ok, but just ok.

  8. Modern golfers may go through elaborate visitations but Bobby Jones didn’t play that way. He looked at where he wanted to put the ball, pulled the aporope club and hit it there. That’s why he could play a three hour round at the US Open. He played a mere six rounds of golf between the 1929 and the start of the 1930 season when he won all four national championships. He saw golf as a simple game.

    Like golf, shooting is a simple activity. Eyes on target through the sights and squeeze the trigger.

    • Well said.

      Too many shooters (myself included at one point) reach a point where they overthink things. We can get so hung up on stance, grips, trigger, sight picture that we forget it is an instinctive thing. Practice is critical, but it should be geared toward (at the risk of sounding Zen here) being one with the gun.

      My wife always marvels that I can pick up pretty much any functional handgun, and within a couple of rounds be putting rounds in a small group on target. I just tell her it’s a matter of making a connection with that gun and then shooting within its limitations. It really doesn’t take too long to figure them out.

  9. Kinda like the first responder above, my sight thought is “why can’t I find one I can see worth a darn at the range.” Oh that’s right. You’re too frickin old, that’s why. 😉

  10. When I shot trap I never looked at the bead. I followed the target with my eye and kept the gun in position as I moved it.

  12. According to Hank Hill, Nolan Ryan thought of his arm as a rocket launcher, and the catcher’s mitt as Saddam Hussein. So something like that I guess.

  13. I file the front sights off of all my handguns. They were causing lacerations to the palm of my hand when I threw them. I have watched many old cowboy westerns, you never reload, if your 27 shot six shooter runs dry your supposed to throw it

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