As Col. Jeff Cooper wrote, "If there is one thing that is most vital about pistolcraft it is concentration on the front sight."

Those looking to learn or improve their ability to shoot a handgun should commit his quote to memory. For without mastering the ability to concentrate with dogged determination on the front sight you will only be guaranteed of learning to do two things: waste ammunition and miss. You must also learn the proper manipulation of the trigger. Or, said another way, you have to learn how to operate the trigger without disturbing your sight picture.

Handguns are purchased for a variety of purposes: personal protection, competition, hunting, and recreational shooting. Often the same handgun used for self-defense will be used for plinking and informal competition. To fully enjoy a handgun you need to be able to hit what you aim at, and many shooters find handguns more difficult to shoot accurately than rifles because the sight radius is greatly reduced and because with handguns there is only one point of contact with the shooter.

The combination of a big dot front sight and a shallow "V"-notch rear sight can be beneficial for teaching proper sight alignment and trigger control.

Regardless of the handgun you choose or the circumstances in which you plan to employ it, the handgun must have sights of some sort. Some hunting handguns, and in some cases handguns used for competition, may use an optical sight, but most come equipped with some variation of a post front and a notched rear sight.

PROPER MANAGEMENT OF A HANDGUN

Proper management of a handgun is essential and often overlooked even in law enforcement training. Proper handling of the handgun encompasses the loading, unloading, presentation, and operation of the firearm. Handgun handling can be broken down into four positions. Different tasks are performed in each, but a handgun should never be in any position not described below. Savvy handgunners develop techniques so they can transition through each position, stopping as the situation dictates. Holster Position: Used to secure the handgun. You should be able to holster and unholster smoothly and without looking. Ready Position: Taught differently by different instructors, it is essentially with the handgun held close to the body somewhere above the waist and below the shoulders. Here you conduct reloads and deal with malfunctions and become ready to face a threat or target. Cover Position: Most often used after a target has been engaged. Arms are extended with the muzzle lowered to allow the shooter to take in the totality of the circumstance. It is applicable to all forms of handgun shooting. Use it to assess the target before and after shooting to determine further action. Engage Position: Used for squeezing the trigger/ engaging targets, The position is most often taught with both arms extended fully and the sights aligned on the target.

Shooters who seek precision marksmanship favor the square notch and post sight, and short of optics, it does offer the most precision. However, for the defensive handgunner, law enforcement officer, or tactical competitor, there is another option that shooters are fast learning works better. (It is also very beneficial when teaching first-time handgun shooters.) It is a large dot front sighted and a shallow "V" rear sight.

Handgun sights like the notch and post require fine alignment before they provide that "perfect" sight picture we expect to see before we squeeze the trigger. The problem is many shooters struggle with trigger control.

This is mainly because many double-action triggers require a long and sometimes heavy pull and double-action, fast-action, and Ultra-Safe-Assurance striker-fired trigger systems are very prevalent today. As shooters work through trigger travel they can find it difficult to maintain that "perfect" sight picture required by the notch and post system before their brain gives the go-ahead for trigger break. That's why and how trigger panic sets in.