Current Location: Home : Firearms : Juuhoukata Chap. 4-4
Sight alignment is nothing more that making sure the front and rear sights
are in line. The most common thing I hear on the range from a novice shooter
is "I think my sights are messed up". 99.9% of the time, it's
not the sights that messed up, but the shooter. Every weapon comes from
the factory sighted in, and rarely does this change. If you really truly
think your sights are off, have it checked by a gunsmith. If they are off,
he can adjust them so that they're dead on again.
On any practical handgun, the front sight is a simple blade sticking up
from the end of the barrel. The rear sight is a U-shaped assembly at the
rear of the gun. They may be fixed or adjustable; may be simple blades
or smoothed, contured "Millet"-type sights. They may have dots
painted onto them, or inserts of glowing tritium gas. Their use and function
is the same - to show you where the bullet will go.
Before we look at sight alignment, let's talk about your "dominant
eye". One would think that the dominant eye would be located on the
same side of the body as the dominant hand, but this isn't always the case.
You'll want to use your dominant eye to aim with, as it will give you clearest
picture when you've got the other closed, and is the easiest to wink. (Ideally,
you should aim and shoot with both eyes open; so you don't get "tunnel
vision" and end up ignoring what's going on around you. This isn't
easy to do, so you'll probably start out shooting with one eye closed.)
There's an easy way to tell which eye is dominant.
Hold your hands out in front of you, overlapped so there's a small hole
formed between them (or, cut a hole in a piece of paper and use it). Look
through the hole with both eyes open at a distant object. Now slowly bring
your hands (or the paper) close to your face while keeping that distant
object focused and centered in the hole, until they touch your face. You'll
find that the hole is centered over one of your eyes- this is your dominant
eye. Repeat the exercise a few times to verify this. Some people will find
that they choose their left and right eyes equally; in which case neither
is dominant. Aim with the strong side eye. Some find that they're "cross-eye
dominant"; in which the weak side eye is dominant. This isn't much
of a concern in handgun shooting, although it can affect rifle and shotgun
shooting.