Point Shooting

I was listening to Episode 165, "Point Shooting Part 2" of the Handgun World Show podcast.

Bob Mayne was interviewing Roger Phillips of Suarez International. I had listened to the first part and had practically forgotten about it, until I heard Part 2. It really caught my interest and reminded me of my past attempts at point shooting. I had read an article in Guns & Ammo Handguns Annual several years ago about point shooting, and what it takes to become proficient at it. I was sidelined by some other shooting concerns, so I went back to focusing on sights.


There were somethings that really stuck with me from Roger Phillips comments (in no particular order):

1. In low light, shooters have slow reaction times with night sights and really slow reaction times with lasers, compared to point shooting (I had always thought that those devices would improve your reaction time in low light).
2. An average shooting engagement is three shots in three seconds - per shooter (So you might be the one aiming if you're the first once shooting).
3. In low light, Roger said aim at your initial flash for follow up shots (In past attempts, I had trouble aiming follow up shots).
4. Roger Phillips paraphrased Jim Cirillo as saying that you should put the "meat" of  the back of your slide over the target (Past attempts, I had focused more on having the front of the gun on target, which seems to make more sense, but then the back of the slide would be in the way).
5. Having the competition origins of the Modern Technique reiterated.
6. Having the aging-eye problem reiterated (It is difficult for me to determine which dot of three is the front sight when I acquire my sights).
7. Avowed Modern Technique experts revert to point shooting when practice force-on-force with airsoft guns (When Roger was working with one expert, the expert complained that Roger was not giving him enough time to acquire his sights).

So, I tried just pointing one of my guns at various targets around a room. When I checked my sights, they did not line up with the targets. But when I shifted my head to see where the gun was pointing, it was pointing no more than 3" from the center of the target at 15'.

I think I might be buying Roger Phillip's book, Point Shooting Progressions.