Benefits to shooting iron sights?

I'm thinking about shooting iron sights for a few months. I started with iron sights from june  2014-jan 2015. When I put the dot on my scores jumped up and leveled off around 92% as of a few months ago. Does anyone else think maybe a few months back with iron sights might give my scores a boost? I figure at least it'll help my eic scores....

I think it could help. Anytime you change things up it can motivate or change things enough to help scores. The dot really shows your movement which can be a bad thing affecting your fundamentals. The irons don't show the movement as much (it's still there) and can help you stick to your fundamentals. I just shot my first Distinguished .22 match. I haven't shot irons in forever (900 service pistol match in February). I shot an 1800 in the morning with scopes (best .22 score in quite some time). I shot one hell of a tight group for my SF portion of Distinguished match. Better than my morning SF group. My TF was blah because I tried to make them too pretty and I finished with a 98-7X RF. I had 2 shots just outside the 10 ring. I noticed that the pistol moved less and I had to work harder aiming because of those pesky irons and old eyes. I'm on the verge of shooting irons for a bit just because; it was fun and I was shooting really tight groups.

And for the record Jim Lenardson broke 2670 4x with irons.

I say go for it )
Jon

I went all irons a while back. I legged out, and I just got my Expert card in Metallic. 

Once you start really looking at the right things, it isn't a setback to use irons with good vision and good lighting.

Jon Eulette wrote:

And for the record Jim Lenardson broke 2670 4x with irons.

I say go for it )
Jon

Wasn't the highest score ever shot with iron sights? A M41 and a 1911? 2680? Those guys have nothing to worry about from me.....

With irons, I shot the best string I ever had.  Then my head got in the way.  8 straight inside X's at 50 with a Colt 38 OMM revolver.  I will always remember that like it was my first hole-in-one on the par 5.  Sight alignment, trigger control, AND keep your head empty of anything else.  That third one is hard.  Actually the better 50 yd groups for me are usually irons/revolver IF my head is on straight.  Seeing the sight helps too.

Other than the benefits mentioned above I thinking of the best is that shooting the iron sights teaches you to keep wrist motion out of your hold.  Using iron sights wrist motion becomes one of the main things that you focus on and this has major benefits in accuracy.  When using the dot you cannot tell the difference between arm movement and wrist movement so clearly.

I am a firm believer in periodically switching to iron sights.  I do it quite a bit and the crossover benefits are well documented.  Plus; I really enjoy it.

The transverse, moving from irons to dot, is good for other disciplines also.  Years ago I was doing quite well in PPC but had reached a plateau.  A coach had me practice with a dot (a very early generation one as it was years ago) for a period of time.  When I went back to iron sights; my hold was greatly improved and I was able to jump to a new/higher level.

Jim

spursnguns wrote:I am a firm believer in periodically switching to iron sights.  I do it quite a bit and the crossover benefits are well documented.  Plus; I really enjoy it.

The transverse, moving from irons to dot, is good for other disciplines also.  Years ago I was doing quite well in PPC but had reached a plateau.  A coach had me practice with a dot (a very early generation one as it was years ago) for a period of time.  When I went back to iron sights; my hold was greatly improved and I was able to jump to a new/higher level.

Jim

+1

Scope is valuable tool to learning/reinforcing shooting fundamentals.

Jon

Rob9mmshooter wrote:Other than the benefits mentioned above I thinking of the best is that shooting the iron sights teaches you to keep wrist motion out of your hold.  Using iron sights wrist motion becomes one of the main things that you focus on and this has major benefits in accuracy.  When using the dot you cannot tell the difference between arm movement and wrist movement so clearly.

This is so true. Excellent point.

Do it.