Shooting Illustrated by Steve Tarani 9/27/2021
The battle rages on between point shooters and those who rely on sighted fire. Is there a true winner in that contest? What are the pros and cons of each and which parts of each, if any, are utilized by professional lead slingers who carry a gun for food?
Spanning from the late 1500s through the early 1800s, pistols were predominantly manufactured without sights. Even by the turn of the 19th Century you might have seen a front sight on a pistol such as the Colt Model 1873. However, it was later that both front and rear sight became the manufacturing standard. In essence, it can be said that at inception, there was only point shooting and that it lasted for the better part of 300 years.
Some would argue that even after the advent of sights and throughout the 1800s, using of “horse pistols” and “hip shooting,” one could extend that timeline through both world wars where point shooting can be found in U.S. Army training manuals (circa early 1900s), on up to the early 1970s when the FBI was still teaching hip shooting.
The term "point shooting" infers that, like taking your index finger and pointing it at an object across the room, you simply grasp the pistol and using only your body—not your eyes—aim and keep the gun oriented to the target throughout the firing process. You may have heard of other equivalent terms to point shooting such as “intuitive” or “instinctive” shooting which relate to this concept of pointing your index finger.
An argument that rages on to this day throughout both the defensive and competitive shooting communities is the comparison of point shooting (firing without using sights) versus shooting with the usage of sights.
The defensive shooting community claims its point-shooting roots from the days of lawmen like Wyatt Earp through the FBI’s legendary sharpshooter Jelly Bryce and distinguished sharpshooters such as British Royal Marine (and police officer) William Ewart Fairbairn, American military (and OSS) officer Rex Applegate, British soldier and firearms expert Eric Anthony Sykes, American lawman William “Bill” Henry Jordan (USMC), and others. One also cannot argue the efficacy of point shooting without mentioning the likes of 18-time world record holder Robert “Bob” Munden, Jr., who was well known in the shooting sport of Fast Draw as an ardent point shooter.
More:
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/point-shooting-vs-sighted-fire-which-is-better/I am a proponent of Instinct (Point) Shooting. But with either style you need to:
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