Sight Alignment

[thatguy]

Hello Shooters,

I have a very nice lady that has taken two lessons from me over the last month. She is new to shooting and has a great attitude but tends to AIM low. I am not talking about anticipating recoil but just shoots low. Her groups are consistent but just low even with several different handguns. She claims to see the sights and they look even to her. I have a few more tricks to try but want to see if anyone had any suggestions, like a website or you tube videos?

Thanks and Be Safe,

Brian Mobley

training builds confidence, which leads to good judgement....

[fulano]

She needs to do something different (on purpose). I had a similar issue with one of my family members who I was training.

Try having her to shoot without aiming. Point shooting but from the proper aiming stance and hold on the gun. You'll see a much different pattern. You should see a very wide grouping but it should be balanced with high, low, left right, and a few in the center. By looking at the target she will see where she is putting each round and adjust.

It will give her confidence.

[MoJo]

Does she have an astigmatism?

[fulano]

Try training her with a smaller caliber. Preferably a 22 such as a Ruger 22/45 or a Walther P22. Training will be cheaper too.

[TxD]

Hello Shooters,

I have a very nice lady that has taken two lessons from me over the last month. She is new to shooting and has a great attitude but tends to AIM low. I am not talking about anticipating recoil but just shoots low. Her groups are consistent but just low even with several different handguns. She claims to see the sights and they look even to her. I have a few more tricks to try but want to see if anyone had any suggestions, like a website or you tube videos?

Thanks and Be Safe,

Brian Mobley

training builds confidence, which leads to good judgement....

Brian, I have seen this happen in several cases.
I think the problem is induced by the detailed instructions on sight alignment that we all tend to put on new shooters.

When we teach looking for the same amount of "space" on each side of the front blade and align the top, we cause the student to look at the back of the front sight.

The human mind with input from the eye naturally wants to center everything.
We do this when sighting a pistol by "casually" seeing equal amounts of light on each side of the front blade. We do not need to look for this in a conscious manner.

Seeing the top of the of the blade in alignment is more difficult because we do not receive this auto input from light transmission. We therefore must focus on the top of the front sight in a very conscious manner.

Simply stated, ask your student to focus on the top of the front sight only and tell you what movement was seen after the shot fired, which is another subject called follow through.

Hope this helps.

[tanker1983]

Also. Ensure she is bringing the gun to eye level, not eyes to gun level. Consistant low shooting, even with the correct sight picture can be caused by this.

[TLynnHughes]

Hello Shooters,

I have a very nice lady that has taken two lessons from me over the last month. She is new to shooting and has a great attitude but tends to AIM low. I am not talking about anticipating recoil but just shoots low. Her groups are consistent but just low even with several different handguns. She claims to see the sights and they look even to her. I have a few more tricks to try but want to see if anyone had any suggestions, like a website or you tube videos?

Thanks and Be Safe,

Brian Mobley

training builds confidence, which leads to good judgement....

Could it be something other than a sight alignment/sight picture problem?

T.

[threoh8]

Try using large paper cutouts for the front and rear sights, and have her place them on the target to show her interpretation of sight alignment. Make sure she understands what part of the target the front sight lines up on.

[WildBill]

Try using large paper cutouts for the front and rear sights, and have her place them on the target to show her interpretation of sight alignment. Make sure she understands what part of the target the front sight lines up on.

I think this is a very good practice. It really helped me when I was teaching a student who had no experience aiming or shooting a gun.

[Vecco]

Also. Ensure she is bringing the gun to eye level, not eyes to gun level. Consistant low shooting, even with the correct sight picture can be caused by this.

This would be my guess, I see it often.

[thatguy]

Update on my shooter, she has come back twice and now is shooting much better. We practiced with her just point shooting a little higher then getting used to were the sights where aimed. We also revisited sight alignment in class using the cut outs on my board.

She could not be happier! She can put them in the 10 ring on demand at 3 to 5 yards. I love my job![img][/img]

Thanks to everyone for the input.

Brian Mobley
The Arms Room