[ordu]

Since I have absolutely nothing but time on my hands these days I've been experimenting with this idea.

For the record: All of my training has been sight based. Why would I blow a thousand bucks and get all my sights the same on all my pistols otherwise... I digress. However, in CQB training I'm usually firing as soon as the pistol is unholstered. Say 10' or less. Obviously it's situational based so there's no at x use y until x > 10 then use z crap.

While I do not have one these widgets that attach to the side of the gun I do own XD's which reading on lots of boards are apparently the in thing for point shooting. So, enter XD 4" service model... and its airsoft friend. (thank you robert for letting me borrow it)

So, my condo does not allow for much range in firing but it gives me a couple choice setups for testing this at over 10 feet.

Unholstered, firing at a spot 20' 7" away my results for 10 shots:

Sighted: 90% success rate at headshot
Pointed: 50% success rate at headshot

Sighted: 100% success rate at hitting the target
Pointed: 90% success rate at hitting the target

I tried two different methods of point shooting, using my middle finger to fire (which took some practice but I got used to it pretty quick) and just pointing the gun and firing. The first method I was most successful with so I'm going with those numbers.

More interesting was when I switched to my left hand.

Sighted: 90% success rate at headshot
Pointed: 20% success rate at headshot

Sighted: 100% success rate at hitting the target
Pointed: 60% success rate at hitting the target (and the failures were epic in most cases, like not even hitting the paper)

I am fairly ambidextrous - I just prefer to shoot right handed since most guns eject the brass to the right.

The target was moved at least 2' in one or more directions between each test to hopefully prevent memory having something to do with it.

Granted, none of this is scientific and unfortunately my nikon d80 is in the shop so I don't have any cool pictures of my setup, which wasn't cool at all and I think my wife would eviscerate me if I sent out pictures of the inside of our house.

Anyway, just more fodder for the trolls but it was a fun experiment to do. I'd like to repeat it at the range with my P7M8 and p2000sk and see what the results are (couldn't find an airsoft of those).

This would seem like a very easy thing to test scientifically, which in my mind has already been done by the overwhelming data that the sights do, indeed, make a difference.