Hi,

I am getting into service rifle type competitions in France with an AR15.
I am having trouble finding the right sight picture.

I have experience with 10m and 25m pistol shooting with match pistols, using a 6 o'clock hold with a slight white margin. That works well at that distance and focusing on the front sight is no issue.

Shooting a rifle at 220y I find myself unable to aim correctly. If I am perfectly focused on the front sight post, the target is so heavily blurred that I have trouble identifying my aiming point. Groups open up a lot. If I try a flat tire hold, my eye seems to switch focus between front sight and target or it focuses in between, making aiming possible, tighter groups (about 6" prone unsupported), but I know that I am not focusing entirely on the front sight, thus I might pick up a bad habit that will limit me later on.

I have bad eyes (near sighted, and I guess astigmatism - I see some lines or contours double) and shoot with my regular glasses that do not seem to perfectly correct my vision. It works for every day, but seems to limit me when shooting.

Can you give me feedback on how clearly you see the target at 200y when focusing on the front sight?
Also if anyone has the same vision issues as me and has a tip, that could be very helpful.

Thanks in advance!

I would stick to what you used in pistol.  Six o'clock hold worked well for me when I was using iron sights (now use an optic for SR.)  I still use six o'clock when I complete with other iron sighted guns (M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, K31,)

Eyes can't focus on two different things at two different distances (without optical help.)

I experimented a bit with my hold. I found that I can get a clearer vision of the target when I open both eyes. I still focus on the front sight but my other eye seems to make the target appear more focused.
I can now hold 6 o'clock and precisely determine my white margin and alignment with the target. I can even see more easily when the sights are not perfectly aligned.

So shooting both eyes open seems to do the trick.

If you have a regular front sight post get a NM post.  The target should blur but not too much.  Maybe a trip to eye doctor may help if you tell him what your seeing and an adjustment to glasses might fix it.

Look at the front sight, look at it, focus on it!  Get used to having a sharp image under a blurry target.  Don't shift your focus during the trigger press, as soon as you do you're already off your sight picture.

Also blacken your front sight, it should be a dull black.  A smaller rear sight aperture can also help if you have NM sights with screw in apertures.

Dry fire at a spot with your focus on your front sight, over and over and over.....

If you have a standard AR then is hard to get good scores but really need to work at it.  A NM service rifle will have the match upgrades and makes it easier but it still requires lots of practice.  Open sights is the way to learn then optics can come later when you're comfortable with irons.

Your brain will tell you: "This is the best sight picture you will see today."

That is the sight picture you should use that day.

Then hold the rifle still while you squeeze the trigger carefully.

Weak reading glasses might help, try 1.0 or 1.25.

Custom width front sight posts are available as replacements, a .050" to .055" works the best for me.

I always used a 6 o'clock hold when shooting high power tournaments. It's a repeatable hold regardless of lighting conditions.

Having a blurry bullseye is preferable to having a blurry front sight. I am far sighted, that's why weak reading glasses help me. Virtually 90% of the population lose the ability to clearly focus up close once they reach forty years of age.

USA service rifle tournaments (AR-15's) began allowing red dot sights and magnified scopes up to 4.5x only a few years ago. This rule change was made because our Armed Forces have used Aimpoint M2/M4 red dot sights for decades as well as the 4x ACOG's. If your tournaments allow RDS or scopes you are placing yourself at a severe disadvantage by not using one.

Ammunition quality is going to make or break your performance. FMJ military ball ammo is some of the least accurate available.

Coming back to this topic some time and a couple of hundred rounds later.

I could not change my front sight (or I would need to change competition category). The front sight is wider than the target. So I embraced the width and went for a center hold. I can now judge if I am centered by the front sight sticking out left end right of the target and I can better judge the height as well.
This is also independent of lighting conditions.

Six o'clock worked well for me on short distance since the depth of field is sufficient to have a relatively sharp target. At 200 yards I have too much trouble judging the white margin.

I will also try out a smaller aperture to increase depth of field.

6 MOA/1.8 Mil solid circle target, correct?

tip of the nose on the charging handle     I have astigmatism in my shooting eye, i shoot fine with irons.  not as good as i used to, but i still use the nose to CH technique was taught in basic.   focus on the front sight post

Solid circle of 400mm at 200m

That makes 16.4 inches at 219 yards. I calculated 7.2 MOA.
10 ring is 80mm = 3.15 inches = 1.44 MOA

I already go as close as I can to the rear sight without getting hit in the face by my shooting glasses. NTCH.

Standing, I found a 5* CCW cant and a flat tire hold would magnetize the post to the bull. It happened to counter muzzle disturbance via trigger, so no zero change to Sitting (do y'all do kneeling instead?).

Other than that, 6:00.

The increased depth of field should make the target clearer and post not as clear. You'll still want to switch back and forth to mimic dual focus, but try to slow the focus shift till it's inbetween, biased to the post.

How big is the target?  It will always be fuzzy.

I posted the dimensions in my latest post.

I am aware that the target will always be fuzzy, as you cannot focus on two distances at the same time. I was wondering how to optimize.

On Saturday I will try out my 1mm (roughly 0.04") aperture and see if the added depth of field makes a big difference.

That is very interesting. In air pistol competition that would be a sin to focus shift but I found myself doing it at 200m. I found it helps but I felt bad doing it believing that it is bad technique.

So you say that trying to achieve a focus compromise, for example focusing on roughly 25 yards when shooting at 200 and this having the post reasonably sharp and the target less blurry?

Focus shift IS a sin.
It bugged me when the old guys would attribute juniors' skill to "young eyes". Having worn glasses for 20 years since I was 7, I wouldn't describe them as good, but they do have an advantage in focusing speed. The mind can be tricked into seeing both planes very clearly - a "perfect" sight picture - if the depth of field is long enough. That costs eye fatigue and time-per-shot, and generally less consistency. I recall several low 190s/200 on the MR-31 target, with the outliers high or low.

I think after that realization, and with well exercised eye muscles, it seemed that I could settle to a point between the planes, with a bias to the post, but target clear enough to be better than a "blob". Vertical outliers are to be expected with a post sight, but with an intermediate focus, the outliers tightened. High 190s were more common.

Yes.

You can't have the front sight AND the target in focus at the same time. Your eyes can only focus on one plane at a time. Focus on the front sight--period.
Jon

Glasses.

Go to an optometrist, and tell him/her what length you want to have your focal point clearly on the front sight, and still see the target focused clearly.

If the target blurs out, you need a smaller rear aperture.