Caleb says he finally understands point shooting. It has to do with the sights on old guns being horrid. I only really carry two guns anymore, and that’s the Glock and the Kel-Tec. The Kel-Tec sights are pretty rudimentary, but I don’t have too much difficulty acquiring them. The Makarov, which I’ve carried on the rare occasion, has front sights that are damned near impossible to acquire quickly. I’ve pained the front sight on mine with white out just to make it visible, but it’s still tough to acquire. I don’t really have any old pistols, but if they are anything like the Mak, I can understand.
4 thoughts on “Point Shooting”
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I thought point-shooting comes from the muzzle-loading only days when the pistols didn’t even have sights.
http://www.pointshooting.com/history.htm
I have a Colt 1908 vest pocket .25. Friggin thing has a trench ground into the top of the slide with a THIN blade at the end.
Even in the best conditions it’s near impossible to get a sight picture unless you’re against a black backdrop.
Sights are useful at longer ranges, but anyone proficient with a shotgun can keep all his shots in a 4″ circle at 15 yards by point shooting.
. . . and it’s a lot faster.
I started shooting as a kid back in the 70’s, taught by my father. We used old guns with no sights to speak of. I have, and practice with, a Remington Model 51 that has a front sight that’s about 1/16th of an inch thick, and the rear sight doesn’t have much more gap than that. Trying to use that sight to get a proper picture could get you real dead, real quick.
Although we would practice for fun, there was always the understanding that if we ever had to use a gun to defend ourselves, it would be a fast, hot, hairy situation. The idea was to get so good with the gun you could tell where the bullet was going to go by pointing your finger. Ever point at something, and then look along the finger to see if you would hit it if it was a laser? Same idea. Of course, where & when I grew up, feuds involving gunfire was still relatively common.
What few people mention is that a lot of the older guns just FIT different than newer ones do. My 51 falls into the hand and just tracks along a natural line with your arm. Pointing with it really is like pointing with a finger. Or maybe it’s that it’s been in my hands so long. I used to have an old plowhandle single-action revolver that felt a lot better than the semi-auto I carry for defense today. The science of ergonomics may have improved in a lot of areas, but most guns today feel too blocky and unnatural to me.