Many years ago when I was involved in my first officer-involved shooting, I recall speaking with the outside investigator about telling her that the shooting was like snapshots. I remember seeing him yelling at his wife, I remember seeing him start to stab his wife and the next thing I remember was him falling from my shots. To this day I still don't remember drawing my weapon, firing, or hearing the shots. I just remember everything seemed to slow down. I thought I was screwed after speaking with the agent but afterward, she explained to me that my mind was operating on autopilot and that my body was reacting to my training.
It’s been said for quite awhile, you will execute as you have trained. The wisdom inferred was to train well, not sloppy. While that is still true, we now understand much more about the hand, eyes, brain dynamics that occur and could not have been well included in training. Maybe now it should be said, what we are training for will be a shitstorm, train thusly. When he was approaching 80 years old, Wyatt Earp granted a rare interview to a young writer who asked him, in all your gunfights, you were never even grazed by a bullet, is there a secret to that success? To which he replied, take your time….quickly. I’m pretty sure we can interpret that to mean make sure the first shot is not a miss. Reducing the time needed for that first shot should always be one of the priorities of training. Which brings me to the reason for missing. It is almost never a vision/sight picture problem. It is trigger control. Dry fire is by far the best trigger control improvement one can do. A fun and somewhat useful exercise in the bino-vision: cut 1/4” wide strips of white tape and apply down the sides of your slide. When focused down range you will see two ghost images of the stripes, converging toward each other. That’s if the slide is centered in front of your nose. It is amazingly accurate at distance but mostly it’s useful for gaining correct draw presentation, after all, that’s what will reduce that first shot time. After awhile the two ghost images happen easily without the white stripes. But again, trigger control is why we miss. This guy says it best: ua-cam.com/video/li0rGtXh23I/v-deo.html
Found your vids by accident scrolling through UA-cam and your study connected with something I’ve encountered on the range last few days just getting some training in and wherever your eye goes your sights will go. Train repeatedly and consistently and even from my experience just on the range moving and being timed it’s about focus on the target if you’re putting that training on the range with that firearm. It doesn’t matter grip angle, sights, or texture if you don’t put in the effort to learn that platform like it’s second nature. If you can have a conversation with a good friend and thoroughly clean your gun like removing build up carbon and copper throughout the whole gun and maintain a conversation without even asking your friend to stop on the conversation briefly to figure something out then you know your gun thoroughly. It’s a good exercise to attempt.
Seems shooters need to practice using their peripheral vision while keeping focused on the target. If you stay focused and raise the weapon into your line of sight, you'll be able to see it line up without taking your eyes off the target.
Good, and interesting info. I think this type of shooting is in the category of unconscious competence. You get to a point with your skill level that you don't need sights...up to a point. Example: I can shoot to about 30' pretty accurately, at speed, with no sight acquisition, using mostly muscle memory...and so can A LOT of other people. IPSC and IDPA are great skill building sports. Honestly, I have never understood the front sight focus only, any way. Guns have two sights for a reason. They are meant to be lined up, when the necessity for better accuracy is required to make the shot.
I completely agree with you here, it's just hand eye coordination and if you shoot enough you know what you have to do with your hands to put the bullet where it needs to go. I'd say like 25' I can hit an 8x8 target without aiming at all like 90% of the time. Keeping both sights in your peripheral vision while focusing on the target would be my preferred method.
Excellent work. I think the info on Tier Three is some of the best available for defense topics and gunfighting. It is nice to see some subjects covered in video form to add to the text and still photos on the site. Quality,well researched information concisely presented.
I love the info, and it reinforces a lot of other training I've received, and watched, and practice, etc. But good God, 90% of the shooting and training in the video is so horrible... I'm cringing so hard it's hard to even pay attention to the monolog. This SWAT team's training is absolutely horrendous.
This title is bold to say such a thing when it attempts to identify a habit, yet not within its own discretion of "Efficient Targeting" but instead to dissuade the use of sights? Even though this article is made in the public area where there are so much fear mongering within the culture of 'Tactical Defensive' shooting, if you seen any clean, almost instant and successful take down of an assailant in the first moment it takes a kid to flip a bottle. You are as fast as you are with sights whether you offset your weapon, all you do by disvaluing sights is losing your confirmation of "Am I not going to accidentally kill the innocents running around this fucker?". Get proper technique? You don't need science to teach you how to dribble a ball to become good at it
Many years ago when I was involved in my first officer-involved shooting, I recall speaking with the outside investigator about telling her that the shooting was like snapshots. I remember seeing him yelling at his wife, I remember seeing him start to stab his wife and the next thing I remember was him falling from my shots. To this day I still don't remember drawing my weapon, firing, or hearing the shots. I just remember everything seemed to slow down. I thought I was screwed after speaking with the agent but afterward, she explained to me that my mind was operating on autopilot and that my body was reacting to my training.
It’s been said for quite awhile, you will execute as you have trained. The wisdom inferred was to train well, not sloppy. While that is still true, we now understand much more about the hand, eyes, brain dynamics that occur and could not have been well included in training. Maybe now it should be said, what we are training for will be a shitstorm, train thusly.
When he was approaching 80 years old, Wyatt Earp granted a rare interview to a young writer who asked him, in all your gunfights, you were never even grazed by a bullet, is there a secret to that success? To which he replied, take your time….quickly. I’m pretty sure we can interpret that to mean make sure the first shot is not a miss. Reducing the time needed for that first shot should always be one of the priorities of training.
Which brings me to the reason for missing. It is almost never a vision/sight picture problem. It is trigger control. Dry fire is by far the best trigger control improvement one can do.
A fun and somewhat useful exercise in the bino-vision: cut 1/4” wide strips of white tape and apply down the sides of your slide. When focused down range you will see two ghost images of the stripes, converging toward each other.
That’s if the slide is centered in front of your nose. It is amazingly accurate at distance but mostly it’s useful for gaining correct draw presentation, after all, that’s what will reduce that first shot time. After awhile the two ghost images happen easily without the white stripes.
But again, trigger control is why we miss.
This guy says it best:
ua-cam.com/video/li0rGtXh23I/v-deo.html
Found your vids by accident scrolling through UA-cam and your study connected with something I’ve encountered on the range last few days just getting some training in and wherever your eye goes your sights will go. Train repeatedly and consistently and even from my experience just on the range moving and being timed it’s about focus on the target if you’re putting that training on the range with that firearm. It doesn’t matter grip angle, sights, or texture if you don’t put in the effort to learn that platform like it’s second nature. If you can have a conversation with a good friend and thoroughly clean your gun like removing build up carbon and copper throughout the whole gun and maintain a conversation without even asking your friend to stop on the conversation briefly to figure something out then you know your gun thoroughly. It’s a good exercise to attempt.
The first time I ever did force on force training (and every time since), afterwards I realized I never looked at my sights at all.
Well done brother, well done.
Tony Parrish.....Cochise County AZ
You have excellent data. Really enjoy your presentations!
Seems shooters need to practice using their peripheral vision while keeping focused on the target.
If you stay focused and raise the weapon into your line of sight, you'll be able to see it line up without taking your eyes off the target.
This sound like a drill we did with M-16’s. “Quick Kill” - hitting a pop up target at 25 meters. It was a point and shoot without aiming.
Great channel, ou should be way bigger, keep posting. You will get there
Good, and interesting info. I think this type of shooting is in the category of unconscious competence. You get to a point with your skill level that you don't need sights...up to a point. Example: I can shoot to about 30' pretty accurately, at speed, with no sight acquisition, using mostly muscle memory...and so can A LOT of other people. IPSC and IDPA are great skill building sports. Honestly, I have never understood the front sight focus only, any way. Guns have two sights for a reason. They are meant to be lined up, when the necessity for better accuracy is required to make the shot.
I completely agree with you here, it's just hand eye coordination and if you shoot enough you know what you have to do with your hands to put the bullet where it needs to go. I'd say like 25' I can hit an 8x8 target without aiming at all like 90% of the time.
Keeping both sights in your peripheral vision while focusing on the target would be my preferred method.
Excellent work. I think the info on Tier Three is some of the best available for defense topics and gunfighting. It is nice to see some subjects covered in video form to add to the text and still photos on the site. Quality,well researched information concisely presented.
Thank you for the kind words!
Thank you 😊
If Paul Howe says front sight focus can get it done then that’s good enough for me
Paul Howe is a smart guy and a good trainer. But he can still be mistaken.
Front sight Focus is dependent on the distances your shooting you don't need a front sight 7 ft away a lot of times people who shoots first wins
Fast forward to 1:55 to get past the throat-clearing blah blah.
With so many teir 1 operators to learn from its a odd move stating you are teir 3.
Ok?
I love the info, and it reinforces a lot of other training I've received, and watched, and practice, etc. But good God, 90% of the shooting and training in the video is so horrible... I'm cringing so hard it's hard to even pay attention to the monolog. This SWAT team's training is absolutely horrendous.
Well thats a Marine SRT team. Not a lot of great training, and almost no actual calls handled.
This title is bold to say such a thing when it attempts to identify a habit, yet not within its own discretion of "Efficient Targeting" but instead to dissuade the use of sights? Even though this article is made in the public area where there are so much fear mongering within the culture of 'Tactical Defensive' shooting, if you seen any clean, almost instant and successful take down of an assailant in the first moment it takes a kid to flip a bottle. You are as fast as you are with sights whether you offset your weapon, all you do by disvaluing sights is losing your confirmation of "Am I not going to accidentally kill the innocents running around this fucker?". Get proper technique? You don't need science to teach you how to dribble a ball to become good at it