To accurately shoot a firearm, for starters, you have to know how to properly aim it.
This probably sounds pretty self-evident, but as I’ve worked with people teaching them how to shoot, I have to constantly remind myself that unless somebody has shown a new shooter what a proper “sight picture” looks like, they won’t know.
Experienced shooters take it for granted that we can pick up any firearm with “iron sights” and aim it correctly.
There are many different things that people must learn to accurately shoot a firearm, such as proper stock placement, hand placement (both non-firing hand grip and firing hand grip), cheek weld, elbow placement (firing and non-firing), support, etc… and we will get to them in the future.
First, let’s take a look at “sight picture”, which is what a person should see when looking through the sights of their firearm.
I’m borrowing some graphics & directions from the US Marine Corps publication MCRP 3-01A that you can download by clicking here, but here’s the short version of what a sight picture should look like when you are properly aiming your weapon (NOTE: this picture is for rifles, but the same information applies to handguns):
Note how the aiming point of the front sight is placed so that the area right on top of the post is where you want the bullet to go. Also note that the post is DIRECTLY centered in the middle of the circle.
For open sights, as shown in this graphic on Wikipedia, it should look like this:
The Marine manual instructs as follows:
• Center the tip of the front sight post both vertically and horizontally in the rear sight aperture.
• Imagine a horizontal line drawn through the center of the rear sight aperture. The top of the
front sight post will appear to touch this line.
• Imagine a vertical line drawn through the center of the rear sight aperture. The line will
appear to bisect the front sight post.
All of this is well and good if the target you are aiming at is close, but what about if it’s far away? Well, you aim the exact same way, centering the aiming point as best you can as follows:
Next up in this part of the series, we will talk about some of the other parts of marksmanship. Until then, stay safe!
