ol' Huff
Sharpshooter
- Mar 8, 2012
- 567
- 28
This is about marksmanship, not gear. This is for the Hitemlongaway gang, not for the Kickadoor tribe.
The front post on a carbine length gas system is much closer to your eye. That makes it harder to shoot with precision at distance. Lets talk about why.
A lot (and I mean a lot) of shooters will shy away from shooting irons. The biggest reason given is old eyes. The reality is that most folks just don't know how. Vision issues can be overcome. Some are harder to overcome than others, but we are Americans, the most technologically and medically advanced race the face of the planet has ever seen. Vision issues can be overcome.
The more you get into precision shooting, particularly with a sling which connects you to the rifle and makes you a single "system" more than other styles, the more critical the fundamentals become. Chief among those are the 6 Steps to firing a shot. I know a lot of minds out there want it to be more complex than it actually is. They want to believe that there are more advanced concepts that a mind needs to be exposed to that bring greater precision into focus, but its just not the case. There is a cloud of dogma out there but in the end it boils down to the 6 Steps.
A couple things to remembers. If you are focusing on something far away, something closer to your eye is difficult to see. So, if you are focusing on a target 300 yards out your front post will be more out of focus than it would be if you were focuing on something 50 yards out. If you are focusing on something nearer to your eye then something farther away becomes harder to see. This last bit is the trouble with carbine lengths.
Contrary to popular belief, the eye wants to focus on something about the same distance away from your face as a 20" AR post. If you find someone who really does have vision trouble or "old eyes" and hand them a newspaper, they will hold it out at arm's length. They do this because the easiest plane to focus on with aging eyes is further away (the natural, relaxed plane of focus is actually infinite because your eyes are set parallel to each other in their sockets unless you have an extreme astigmatism, a lazy eye, etc. all of which can be corrected). That arm's length distance is about the distance of the post on a 20" AR. Its a good distance and targets look good, albeit a little fuzzy, on top of that 8ish moa post. It looks like 'Merica.
A carbine length moves that in considerably. Realistically, its only a few inches, but in the ever expanding cone of rifle vision, its a pretty good distance. Because that post is closer to your eye, and your eyes must strain harder to refocus at that distance, the background objects (target) become even more out of focus. Think about this: if you have a camera in your hands and and take a photo focused on an object 5 feet away, the background will be vastly out of focus if it is 300 yards away. Under the same conditions should you take a photo of something 100 yards away, the 300 yard distant background will not be as out of focus (grab a camera and try it, the physics will be readily visible in the photos). So, because the carbine length is closer, the fuzzy target visible when you focus on the front post can become extremely fuzzy and extremely small. That 8moa post, once a good size for a 20"er, is now so large you can't see anything beyond it.
This is the dynamic you are dealing with. The solution is not rocket surgery, its boringly basic. You have to go back to the fundamentals. The harder the shooting becomes technically, and shooting a carbine length AR with irons is pretty technical, the more important the 6 Steps become. Indeed, that target will become frantically small and fuzzy when focus is applied to the front post. It is precisely because of this that you must steel yourself more intensely on focusing on the front post. You must be exactly certain on where the front post resides on the target which means increasing your level of focus. Your shooting position (steady holds factors), which directly relate to your ability to produce good sight alignment, become even more critical because sight alignment is more sensitive with a shorter sight radius. Your sight picture is mroe difficult to maintain because the above issues are making it harder to put the fuzzy blob on the front post. Respiratory pause is more of an issue because it can take a poorly constructed position off the target. The focus elements are more critical. Follow through is made mroe difficult as the inability to see a larger blob prevents better shot calling. Its kind of obnoxious.
A 16" AR with irons is pretty technical shooting but I can assure you of one thing, the only fix is better fundamentals. You can replace the post with a match post, which is thinner, and can refine your focus and not obscure a target as much, but until you fix that actual fundamental element of focusing on the post it won't matter. You can get a lighter trigger, which is nice, but won't fix a bad trigger squeeze. If you snatch, jump, or set and finish a trigger it won't matter how fancy the trigger is, your squeeze is rotten. A free-float tube will not help bad sight picture.
So, how do you fix the focus issue? You have to retrain your eyes. Its pretty easy to learn to focus your eyes on a 20" AR or a Garand, a carbine length is tougher and you have to retrain them. Brightly light a plain white wall, preferably flat or satin, glossy can cause eye strain. Dry practice against this white wall, with nothing on it, and do so at a distance that all you can see past the post is the wall. Your eye, with nothing else to focus on, will naturally then focus on the post. Five minutes 3 or 4o times a week will make a world of difference.
A Rifleman's score with a carbine length AR is not rockit surgery, but it is pretty technical shooting. Don't make it mroe than it is, just improve your fundamentals and ventilate.
The front post on a carbine length gas system is much closer to your eye. That makes it harder to shoot with precision at distance. Lets talk about why.
A lot (and I mean a lot) of shooters will shy away from shooting irons. The biggest reason given is old eyes. The reality is that most folks just don't know how. Vision issues can be overcome. Some are harder to overcome than others, but we are Americans, the most technologically and medically advanced race the face of the planet has ever seen. Vision issues can be overcome.
The more you get into precision shooting, particularly with a sling which connects you to the rifle and makes you a single "system" more than other styles, the more critical the fundamentals become. Chief among those are the 6 Steps to firing a shot. I know a lot of minds out there want it to be more complex than it actually is. They want to believe that there are more advanced concepts that a mind needs to be exposed to that bring greater precision into focus, but its just not the case. There is a cloud of dogma out there but in the end it boils down to the 6 Steps.
A couple things to remembers. If you are focusing on something far away, something closer to your eye is difficult to see. So, if you are focusing on a target 300 yards out your front post will be more out of focus than it would be if you were focuing on something 50 yards out. If you are focusing on something nearer to your eye then something farther away becomes harder to see. This last bit is the trouble with carbine lengths.
Contrary to popular belief, the eye wants to focus on something about the same distance away from your face as a 20" AR post. If you find someone who really does have vision trouble or "old eyes" and hand them a newspaper, they will hold it out at arm's length. They do this because the easiest plane to focus on with aging eyes is further away (the natural, relaxed plane of focus is actually infinite because your eyes are set parallel to each other in their sockets unless you have an extreme astigmatism, a lazy eye, etc. all of which can be corrected). That arm's length distance is about the distance of the post on a 20" AR. Its a good distance and targets look good, albeit a little fuzzy, on top of that 8ish moa post. It looks like 'Merica.
A carbine length moves that in considerably. Realistically, its only a few inches, but in the ever expanding cone of rifle vision, its a pretty good distance. Because that post is closer to your eye, and your eyes must strain harder to refocus at that distance, the background objects (target) become even more out of focus. Think about this: if you have a camera in your hands and and take a photo focused on an object 5 feet away, the background will be vastly out of focus if it is 300 yards away. Under the same conditions should you take a photo of something 100 yards away, the 300 yard distant background will not be as out of focus (grab a camera and try it, the physics will be readily visible in the photos). So, because the carbine length is closer, the fuzzy target visible when you focus on the front post can become extremely fuzzy and extremely small. That 8moa post, once a good size for a 20"er, is now so large you can't see anything beyond it.
This is the dynamic you are dealing with. The solution is not rocket surgery, its boringly basic. You have to go back to the fundamentals. The harder the shooting becomes technically, and shooting a carbine length AR with irons is pretty technical, the more important the 6 Steps become. Indeed, that target will become frantically small and fuzzy when focus is applied to the front post. It is precisely because of this that you must steel yourself more intensely on focusing on the front post. You must be exactly certain on where the front post resides on the target which means increasing your level of focus. Your shooting position (steady holds factors), which directly relate to your ability to produce good sight alignment, become even more critical because sight alignment is more sensitive with a shorter sight radius. Your sight picture is mroe difficult to maintain because the above issues are making it harder to put the fuzzy blob on the front post. Respiratory pause is more of an issue because it can take a poorly constructed position off the target. The focus elements are more critical. Follow through is made mroe difficult as the inability to see a larger blob prevents better shot calling. Its kind of obnoxious.
A 16" AR with irons is pretty technical shooting but I can assure you of one thing, the only fix is better fundamentals. You can replace the post with a match post, which is thinner, and can refine your focus and not obscure a target as much, but until you fix that actual fundamental element of focusing on the post it won't matter. You can get a lighter trigger, which is nice, but won't fix a bad trigger squeeze. If you snatch, jump, or set and finish a trigger it won't matter how fancy the trigger is, your squeeze is rotten. A free-float tube will not help bad sight picture.
So, how do you fix the focus issue? You have to retrain your eyes. Its pretty easy to learn to focus your eyes on a 20" AR or a Garand, a carbine length is tougher and you have to retrain them. Brightly light a plain white wall, preferably flat or satin, glossy can cause eye strain. Dry practice against this white wall, with nothing on it, and do so at a distance that all you can see past the post is the wall. Your eye, with nothing else to focus on, will naturally then focus on the post. Five minutes 3 or 4o times a week will make a world of difference.
A Rifleman's score with a carbine length AR is not rockit surgery, but it is pretty technical shooting. Don't make it mroe than it is, just improve your fundamentals and ventilate.
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