AIMPOINT TRAINING - NEUTRAL PRESENTATION

We see a lot of people new to red dots (whether rifle or pistol) struggle with “finding the dot.” The challenge with this is twofold. The first and most obvious is that if you can’t see the dot, you don’t have an aiming solution. The second is a little more nuanced and many find themselves unknowingly in this position, they… “find the dot.”

The trouble with finding the dot is that it takes away considerably from the benefits of the tool. If you are actively searching for that little red glow, in many respects… it may as well be a front sight. The likelihood of you switching back to a real threat (or target) focus afterwards are pretty slim.

To avoid both of these problems, we have to build a presentation that delivers the sight (and therefore the red dot) to our eye. The good news is that this is relatively simple.

We start aiming the gun when we establish a visual relationship with the target. Think of this as a line drawn between your eye and wherever it is that you want the bullet to strike. Our next task is to interrupt that line, with the gun. What we’ve typically done with iron sights is interrupt the line enough to “pick up” the front sight and then refine the direction of point by comparing it to the rear sight.

To make the most of a red dot sight, we have to remove the need to “negotiate” with the gun to get it aligned with what we are looking at. We do this by creating a presentation that puts the pistol or rifle on a course that intersects the center of our focus without actively directing it there. While there are a lot of words being used to describe it here… it’s a very easy thing to do.

For most of us it means that we have to consider our grip if it’s a pistol and the stock position if it’s a rifle.

So now that you understand the “why,” let’s talk about the “how.”

Neutral Presentation: Pistol

The strength of a red dot sight is that it largely removes the “negotiation” requirement from the shooter. We no longer have to find the front sight and nest it in the context of the rear sight. That complex job has been reduced to simply making the red dot available somewhere along our visual plane. This is an important distinction: available versus driven. If we are “actively” driving (delivering inputs based on information from the gun) the red dot to our target, we are reducing the effectiveness of the tool.

Our first responsibility is to establish a visual relationship with the target… and keep it. Next, is to push the pistol toward the target somewhere along that line with a slight bias toward eye dominance. When the red dot appears… the aiming solution is complete, and the remainder of the firing sequence should be well underway. It really is that simple. When the red dot is superimposed on the target, the pistol needs no further input (in terms of aiming). If the decision to shoot has been made, the gun should be going off soon after the shooter “sees” the red dot.

Let’s talk about some of the nuances involved. Support side pressure is the most common culprit when a shooter is consistently “losing” the dot. A better way to describe it would be that the shooter isn’t presenting the dot to their eye. They are preserving their natural error (right-handed to the left, left-handed, the opposite) waiting for spatial input from the gun… as they would with irons.

Driving the support hand hard into the gun with a thumb forward grip will remove that natural error without having to actively think about it. It will also deliver the dot, smoothly to the eye with far less effort.

The next time you are at the range draw your pistol to a position where your hands have just met to form your grip (assuming all safety requirements are met). Stop there and take a second to look at the pistol’s attitude. It is likely displaying the error we discussed above. Now, drive your support side hand into the gun concentrating on the most forward part of its contact along the bore axis. The gun will straighten up and begin to repeat the neutral inputs your infrastructure has influenced (if it’s good).

If you push the gun out from this point, it’s much more likely that the dot will “appear” and your aiming solution will be complete. Welcome to the magic of Pistol Mounted Optics.

Neutral Presentation: RIFLE

The premise of rifle presentation is exactly the same as the pistol. What we are trying to accomplish with the rifle is less work to achieve an aiming solution. In many ways doing this with a long gun is much easier. A pistol has far more spatial problems and opportunities for error because of its short axis and our interface with it.

For the sake of brevity, we’ll start our exercise from the “low ready” position. All of our infrastructure should support the shot so make sure your fundamentals are in place and working throughout. As with the pistol, our first responsibility is to establish a visual relationship with the target, the next is to interrupt that line with the red dot.

Make sure the butt of the rifle is “anchored” to your shoulder in such a way that it acts like a hinge in the direction of that sight line you’ve established. The most common error we see is shooters pushing the rifle too far “outboard” of their bodies. Not only will this exacerbate the effects of recoil, it will necessitate head movement to the dot. Remember, we want this to be a neutral movement.

From here we simply (key word) lift (or tilt) the rifle up, directly to our eye while maintaining a downrange focus. If we do it correctly, we should see the red dot superimposed on the target as we complete our trigger press.

At first it may feel like you are not in “control” of the shot. This isn’t uncommon. What you are feeling is the absence of the work that you typically require of yourself to create an aiming solution.

When you master this…it should feel like you’ve known it forever. That’s your biology thanking you.

Author Bio

Duane “Buck” Buckner

After spending 25 years in the USCG, Duane “Buck” Buckner is now the U.S. Director of Training for Aimpoint. The Aimpoint Training Division conducts training courses for military and law enforcement agencies up to the Federal level as well as for the prepared civilian. Buck is widely known for his emphasis on brain psychology as it relates to combat and survival.

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