If you wanna go fast like Ricky Bobby, you gotta use the flash sight picture. This is a key element of learning how to run a pistol both quickly and accurately. Support our channel, buy ammo from Lucky Gunner!
I had to learn this info the hard and expensive way , and now its on the internet for free , its not fair ! . Gun owners watching your very informative videos should definitely buy ammo from you , for it is more than a fair trade . Thanks again !
Another outstanding video, Chris! I'm 70 years old and still practice, train, and carry regularly, I could see the flash sight picture at 0.13 seconds but I admit, my old brain couldn't work fast enough to process the 0.04 second picture. BTW, I still have a book by Col. Jeff Cooper, written in the late 70s or early 80s, that uses the term "flash sight picture" and describes it just the way you did. Thanks for what you do and Semper Fi, TreeTop
Thanks, much appreciated! If you're interested, here's an old video of Jeff Cooper talking about the flash sight picture: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Dui0uXu121Y.html
Chris, thanks for that link! I really enjoyed watching "the Master" again. Keep up your great work here on the Lucky Gunner channel. I order new defensive ammo every February and shoot up my year old stock, so I'll be ordering from you next week. Semper Fi, TreeTop
Another great video. So concise, articulate and accurate. Great visuals when needed. Dry firing and laser dry firing at home can perhaps help a shooter get more comfortable with flash sighting and rapid firing. Again, great job!!
Great video! It wasn't until after the last sight picture that I realized since I was watching at 1.5 speed, I had even less time. I still could have told you about where that round would hit. Definitely gave me some added confidence for my next range trip.
Lucky Gunner Ammo is rapidly becoming my favorite RU-vid firearm channel. The content is outstanding. Chris is an articulate and effective host. I would love to support this channel by purchasing my ammo through LGA. Unfortunately, LGA consistently charges 22-30% more than my current supplier, based on the eight factory loadings which I most frequently purchase. Although I truly am motivated to support this channel, respectfully, I am not willing to do so at that price. If that difference was more like 10%, LGA would have a new loyal customer in me.
+Aodhán Adalbern Thanks for the feedback. Sorry we couldn't offer a price that's more in line with what you're looking for. Out of curiosity, what loads were you shopping for?
Thank you for reading and responding to my feedback. The loads are listed below, along with corresponding UPC numbers: 1) 380 ACP - Speer Lawman - 076683536082 2) 380 ACP - Speer Gold Dot - 076683536068 3) 7.62X39 - Brown Bear FMJ - 8605003807407 4) 7.62x39 - Hornady SST - 090255380781 5) 9x18 - Brown Bear FMJ - 64607094860374 6) 32 ACP - Fiocchi FMJ - 762344001494 7) 8x57 - PPU Match - 8605003804215 8) 22 LR - CCI Stinger - 076683000507 Thank you again for your time and for these outstanding videos.
Another great video. Like the new presentation style, and I thought the exercise at the end was very engaging and helpful. Thanks for continuing to put out great content! You've earned my business.
It was cutting edge stuff back when the shooting paradigm was one-handed bullseye shooting. Chris covers it in the "Don't Get Cocky: Why All Defensive Revolvers Should Be Double Action Only" video.
Northern Ninety7 - makes me wonder how bad gunfighting tactics were back in the 1800s. I watch westerns (yes, I know these are only Hollywood movies, not real life) and I never see two handed pistol shooting. Doesn’t look like the colt navy and army pistols were designed with two handed shooting in mind. I guess single action revolvers aren’t necessarily requiring two hands but still...
As always, very interesting and presented with clarity! You provide a fantastic, no drama, place to learn here and I appreciate all your work. Oh, my 64 y.o. eyes got all those sight pics - except I was only 1/2 right on the last one.
Seems the challenge for speed is getting the pistol into that position quickly. Saw a video by Massad Ayoob that mentioned pyramid sites. Seems like a good idea for quick aiming.
Consider tracking your front sight during recoil and recovery. This will allow you to more quickly determine sight alignment. I use a target (black square with two black parallel lines) that helps me concentrate on vertical tracking of the front sight. That way you don't lose the front sight and have to reacquire it upon recovery.
This channel is amazing. Always something interesting that few others are talking about on here. This video addressed something I've always wondered about quick sight acquisition in a realistic and functional way. Thanks for sharing amazing content.
Thanks for this! Also, I find that when I do enough presentation drills, my sights are usually mostly lined up on every draw/presentation anyway. This, way, you speed up your flash sighting, because you don’t have to search for the dot.
Just wanted to say that I appreciate your vids. Good quality information and production. You present the information clearly while trying to be the everyday shooter. Working my way thru your vids and about halfway in. You’ve got a fan. And than you’re bosses for the good ammo prices.
Great contenent, very good graphics! It really helps the explanation. I personally prefer a black rear and a bright front sight, why manufacturers keep putting three dot sights? They aren't cheap versus black rear + orange painted dot front sight so there is gonna be a reason, right?
Here is a random question but perhaps you might be able to point me in the right direction. Are there any quality sites for colorblind people? I am red green color blind and sometimes darker Shades blend in with what you're aiming at. An orange front sight wouldn't work well for me because it would disappear on any dark background. Any suggestions?
My problem isn't noticing whether it's right or not. I need to work most on what I do in the gap between sites are okay or not and whether I pull the trigger or not. Because I've got a hard time with the third factor being range and getting all of that done in a decent time frame.
How about a video on training for self defense against dangerous animals ? It would be cool to see someone go over drills for practicing shooting at a charging animal such as an angry moose or bear.
Good information. I think people spend way to much time on sight alignment at close range. Under 7 yards you really don't need them if you practice a fair amount. Your point about ammo cost is certainly a valid one, but you can cut much of that out by repeatedly practicing grip and draw techniques. If you can repeatedly get a proper grip from the draw, your sights should be aligned enough to hit your target, even with your eyes closed. A free way to practice is stand in front of the mirror and start very slow and deliberate draws, focusing on getting a proper grip. Bring your firearm to presentation level and THEN look at your sights. Do this several hundred times and gradually pick up the pace. You will get to the point where you developed enough muscle memory that the handgun goes to target with sights aligned well enough to hit where you want at 7 yards or less. The proper grip also decreases mussel flip with most firearms. The part where ammo cost comes into play is developing the rhythm to speed up your well placed shots. Do you know of any way to do that with out actually firing rounds?
Nice demo on the times/pictures. Well done. Too bad none of the ranges around me allow fast fire or drawing from a holster. But that's why I'm always out in the mountains. Well... that and an addiction to fly fishing.
Awesome video you guys rock. This is better info and presentation that a lot of classes and even some LEO training would do about the same subject, if it was even covered at all
Although you might not know the name Brian Enos, you should recognize the name of his old training buddy Rob Leatham. Mr. Enos teaches that you sometimes only need to "see what you need to see" in order to hit the target. For larger targets up close you can often get away with pointing and hosing them, but for like a head-size target at 50 yards you need a lot more concentration on sight picture and trigger control. In competition you can't run away when the target's at 50 yards.
Can you do a video on how having a good grip aids in shooting fast? I use a thumbs forward grip myself. I’ve used other methods but none worked as well as thumbs forward for accuracy and recoil control.
This video has a lot of tips about grip technique: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pj3IJQFvBqE.html I'll probably do more stuff this year dealing with some of the nuances of effective grip technique in the Start Shooting Better videos with John Johnston.
I find XS Big Dot sights really do their job for getting a flash sight picture. They make it easy to stay on target firing as fast as you can move the trigger, and allow you to pretty easily use a target focus which I think is smarter for close range work.
Zach Billings But as you move farther away from your target, that big front sight is going to cover more and more of your target, making it very difficult to get accurate longer range shots.
What happens when your flash sight picture shows the sights are significantly off target? How do you correct while still trying to shoot quickly. John M.
Great question. I don't know if I have a great answer, but it's a problem I've thought about a lot. Even if we see a bad sight picture, if we're shooting faster than or close to the physical human reaction time (somewhere in the .12-.25 second range), we can't always physically do something about it before the next shot breaks. The exception is the first shot out of the holster... usually you can make a correction before committing to pressing the trigger. If you see a bad sight picture on the follow-through after recoil, that's harder to correct. The way this plays out for me (and this is just thinking out loud and might be completely wrong) is that if I'm shooting a string of 4-6 rounds quicker than about .30 second splits (on an 8-inch target at 7 yards), my first shot has to be dead on and I have to have a rock solid grip. If either of those things are sub-par, I'm going to have misses and I won't be able to do anything about it for a shot or two and then I'll slow down or stop and make a correction. At .30 and slower, I can actually make some tiny corrections while maintaining pace most of the time. But ideally, I shouldn't have to. So what I'm working on most right now is consistency in my drawstroke and consistency in my grip. If they are the exact same every time, I can blast away. Consistent drawstroke means when I present the gun, it's naturally aligned in the same place every time with the sights already lined up, so those little corrections aren't necessary. Dry practice helps with this a ton.
Lucky Gunner Ammo Well thought out. I agree with the dry fire practice helping a lot. I really like TRex Arms' drill where the target has three different-sized circles on it. Two small ones with a 1 inside. Two slightly larger with a 2 inside. And a much larger one in the center with a 4 inside. You shoot each circle the number of times inside the circle, from five yards. Working for speed requires good sight picture, for sure. And with a timer, you can see your split times of course, so you can see exactly how much time it took for you to get that sight picture. I always shoot it in the same order: 2, 1, 1, 2, and 4 last.
Red dot is a bit different in terms of flash sight picture. I'm hesitant to comment further because my personal experience is extremely limited, but it's my understanding that you want to mount the red dot in a way that allows you to co-witness with the iron sights.
Wow, Chris, this is a TERRIFIC video: coherent, lucid, extremely fact-based, with exceptionally fine integration of germane graphics and pertinent, concise narrative, and on a compelling topic. I also loved the old (1960’s?) FBI Quantico point-shooting range photograph and ESPECIALLY your droll humor regarding the misguided youth. BRAVO! Beyond merited plaudits, however, I have a question. For those of us who have been shooting sidearms for decades, generally attempting to achieve an excellent “target sight” picture, how can we train to achieve “flash sight” results? My concern is that, with many tens of thousands (perhaps more) rounds fired, I/we have ingrained eye-hand-finger levels of acceptability. I appreciate the applicability of your earlier and excellent videos, for example the “5x5” drill, but would you suggest anything further. Again, THANK YOU for this additional outstanding video! Incidentally, do you ever teach firearms classes?
Thanks for the kind words, Roy. In order to start trusting the flash sight picture, you might try adding time pressure to your practice. When you have a limited time window to get the shot off, you'll start to learn to trust a less than perfect sight picture. An efficient and consistent drawstroke is really important, too. The sights should naturally be mostly aligned when you get the gun up to eye level, so if that's not already the case, I'd say practice the draw stroke (both dry and live fire). Do it slowly at first... consistency is more important than speed while you build the muscle memory necessary to have the gun "land" in the right spot every time. Then, as you take the slack out of the trigger, you clean up the sight picture as much as necessary and break the shot as soon as you see something acceptable. Try doing everything at a slow/moderate speed *except* press the trigger as soon as you see a good enough sight picture. Then add the time pressure and build speed. If you still have trouble "trusting" the flash sight picture, get some masking tape and cover up your sights completely so you can't see them at all. From a low ready, bring the gun to eye level and fire at an 8-inch circle at 5 yards at few times. You'll probably hit it most of the time. That can help train your brain to trust your trigger press and your body's natural alignment to the target.
@Lucky Gunner Ammo: Thank you very much, Chris, these are excellent recommendations and I’ll try them all. In thinking about them, during the last hour or so, I’m sure you’re right concerning the “masking tape” drill, which already makes me somewhat more confident regarding a “flash sight” versus a “target sight” picture. Off to the range tomorrow morning and, again, I really appreciate your advice and your videos.
Jason Henley some indoor ranges have action shooting leagues for entry level shooters. They are fun and excellent training for flash sight acquisition and recoil management
