Posted: 12/27/2024 8:33:52 PM EDT
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A lady showed up to the range with a Glock 19 today when our group was shooting. She said she only shot a few times but did take a training class. She put a target out at 15 feet and couldn't hit it. One of my friends went over to help her and said it looked like she wasn't lining up her sights correctly. She said she wasn't using her sights, her trainer told her to cover the target with the back plate on the slide and shoot. I have been shooting for many years and never heard of this. Has anyone ever heard of this tactic? On the positive side, once my friend taught her how to line up the sights and press the trigger she started getting a few hits on the target. We have a lot of trainers in my area. There are a few really good ones and some who shouldn't be teaching. |
Karmic Justice
"What goes around comes around"
"What goes around comes around"
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Some of the worst "trainers" I have discovered were off duty or retired cops who jumped on the "license to carry" trainer gig, qualified by only being an LEO or "retired cop". It is like being a taxi driver who retired after 20-30 years becoming LEO pursuit drivers training instructors! Knowing how to shoot or driving 100s of thousands of miles does not qualify them to be instructors! Most LTC/CCW instructors are grossly unqualified to be "licensed" "Instructors" in any stretch of the word! I am a Retired Certified Firearms Instructor, certified by a major Federal Law Enforcement Agency (not a 3 letter agency!). I have been to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) a number of times as a Guest Instructor. It was not uncommon for "Guest Instructors" to advise students who hit low left to be told to aim for the right shoulder... rather than understand the student was anticipating recoil and pushing the gun low left! Every time I was detailed to FLETC I had to prove myself to staff I had a fucking clue on how to teach marksmanship! I have yet to see a LTC/CCW a "instructor" who was truly qualified for the position! |
"Let's go Brandon!"
If somebody tries to kill you... you try to kill them right back!
"You can get more done with a kind word and a gun... than with a kind word alone!" Al Capone
If somebody tries to kill you... you try to kill them right back!
"You can get more done with a kind word and a gun... than with a kind word alone!" Al Capone
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It is important to understand how good a sight picture you need at a given range. Inside of 5 yards I can just cover a target with the backplate and get A zone hits. That comes from shooting a lot of targets at various ranges for time. It is not what you tell a beginner. |
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I suspect a lot depends on the grip angle of the gun. A Glock, with its 21-22 degree angle is not a natural position. It is made so you have to bend the wrist down to mitigate recoil. Therefore the natural point of the gun is high for most people. If a person has a gun that points naturally, it is a lot easier to do point shooting without using the sites. A degree of training and practice should be involved also before relying on it. |
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Originally Posted By Mousegun: I suspect a lot depends on the grip angle of the gun. A Glock, with its 21-22 degree angle is not a natural position. It is made so you have to bend the wrist down to mitigate recoil. Therefore the natural point of the gun is high for most people. If a person has a gun that points naturally, it is a lot easier to do point shooting without using the sites. A degree of training and practice should be involved also before relying on it. I hear the Glock grip angle will cause your kids to be born naked too.  OP, that “trainer” is telling her to shoot based on an index she hasn’t developed. A newbie should be using the sights a lot more to learn where the pistol is pointing, once she gets better the sights will just more or less confirm it’s pointing where she thinks it is. |
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There is a concept some call "meat and metal" where you essentially center the gun on the target and use the back of the gun for sighting. It is designed for very close range, no more than 2-3 yards. HOWEVER If someone doesn't have a good foundational skills, this won't work well. As others have mentioned, you need to be able to aim and fire the gun correctly first by practicing proper grip, trigger control, and sight alignment. Back in the 1980s there was a pendulum shift from sighted fire to pointshooting in some of the LE training communities. Every now and then the "pointshooting vs sighted fire" argument raises to the surface. It's as old as 9mm vs .45. Vetting instructors is important. |
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As others have described, it is a valid short range aiming technique... that should not be taught to beginners. There are serious issues with initial training using shortcuts. It's much easier to learn the more complicated way of doing something and later skip steps than to learn a simple way of doing things and add complexity. Dustin Salomon has a book describing his research on the topic https://buildingshooters.com/books/ |
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