Front Sight Focus vs. Target Focus - What is Best for Irons?

The short answer is: you need both but the best shooters are 99% target focused

TLDR: Front sight focus for beginners &/or precision shooting, target focus for advanced shooters & speed.

I've always been determined to be as accurate as possible. My journey in the world of marksmanship began with a Gamo Cadet Delta BB gun sniping little green army men, which years later evolved into a Remington 700P shooting groups at 200 yards. While neither of these is an incredible feat, the process was a meditation on taking time for precision. There was no clock -- only brief moments when the wind quieted enough to break the trigger.

Sooner or later I purchased my first pistol, a CZ-52. I have always loved steel-framed handguns & the 52 exhaled huge breaths of flame with each shot. I didn't take lessons but learned to focus one eye on the front sight, allowing the target & rear sights to appear soft. I shot better than my friends so it seemed I was doing things right. Literally a decade would pass before I really cared to be proficient with a handgun...

Then after going thru six different pistols in search of an elixir, I was somewhat embarrassed to fall in love with The Greatest American Firearms Cliché™: a 1911 chambered in .45ACP. This pistol fit my hand perfectly & felt "correct" on the range. I sold the other pistols & began spending serious time with Ramiro to become a better competitor. Every drill increased my abilities & proficiency with the 1911. I had become addicted to battling the clock & my USPSA scores were gradually improving over the course of a year.

...But no matter how hard I pushed in the stages, my time was either too slow or my groups became too wide to get even close to the shooters I admired. My speed on foot was a big advantage -- I could obviously outrun pretty much everyone at the match. My reloads were clean & my plans were solid. Why couldn't I keep up??

Then at one match, my friend Kellar Autumn, an M Class shooter for whom I have great respect, dropped the most important piece of advice I've ever gotten as a handgun enthusiast:

1. Pick a 1" spot on the target

2. Focus on the target, not the front sight

3. Shoot with both eyes open

4. The handgun sights will appear as a hologram over the target

5. You CAN get proper sight alignment & sight picture with "soft" irons

6. Press the trigger the instant all three objects (rear, front, target) are aligned

7. Dry fire practice the hell out of your index

I took this advice to heart & at the very next match, with only a handful of hours practicing dry fire, I boldly transitioned from years of front sight focused shooting (with one eye closed) to target focused shooting (with both eyes open). Although I didn't come even reasonably close to the top ten in the match, I had the best stage of my career (at that time) where, as an unclassified Single Stack Major competitor, I beat two A Class Minor shooters. Now every time I pull the trigger my visual focus is on the target with the only possible exception being precise shots at or past 25 yards.

What I learned is that I was wasting too much time transitioning focus back & forth from the targets to my front sight. In my opinion, it is impossible to develop true speed on multiple targets without adopting the engagement philosophy of target focused pistol shooting. While this takes effort & demands breaking a deeply-entrenched habit, the switch marks a shooter's graduation into the next stage of evolution.

The reason that front sight focus is still a vital tool is because it greatly reduces the learning curve for the new shooter. When someone picks up a pistol for the first time, there are around 15 fundamental skills that have to be precisely coordinated to safely hit the intended target. Experienced shooters can take it for granted, but learning proper sight picture/alignment begins with "equal height, equal light". This is substantially easier to understand & implement when a single eye is focused on the front sight. While it might be arguable that the front sight is easier to pick up on the draw as opposed to a holographic image on target, I would confidently state that precision comes with time invested in practicing the index.

Are you ready to make the switch? Schedule an in-person training session to learn the four confirmation types for iron sights & become faster than you think is possible.