Developing your Index

Tangentially related to the sub-second draw, a good index is a very valuable thing to have. It is probably impossible, or at least very difficult, to develop a sub-second draw without a good index, but a good index is tremendously beneficial at any speed. So, what is a proper index and how do you get it? What does it do for you?

Index is how we refer to your body/gun/target alignment. In rifle shooting, we would call this natural point of aim or NPA. The better your index, the closer your sights are to automatically lining up to the center of the target. If you are a Modern Technique shooter, your index is going to be drastically different than if you are a “Post-Modern” shooter, but the concept is the same. I don’t expect readers of this blog are using the Modern technique, but there are always some holdouts.

It is pretty easy to figure out your index. Aim the gun at the center of the target and close your eyes for a couple of breaths. When you open them, if your sights are exactly where you left them, then you have a great index. If they are somewhere else, then you need to shift your body (feet, not arms) until your sights are back in the center of the target. Then close your eyes again for a couple of breaths and check again. Keep doing this until your sights do not move from the center when you close your eyes.

Once you have your index, memorize your stance and relative position to the target, and attempt to acquire that same position every time you present the gun to the target. Once you get used to this, you will be able to address a target at any distance and automatically be in your correct stance, which will lead to having a good index.

Of course, if you alter your grip or any other part of your shooting platform, you will likely need to re-adjust your index. With experience, it is pretty easy to do this at an unconscious level.

So, why do we care about having a good index? For one, having a good index lets you present your gun (draw or press out) faster because you spend less time looking for your sights. That’s great whether you are playing on a range or doing something more serious off of the range. When “the something more serious” is too close or too violent for you to take your eye off the threat and look at the sights, having a good index can be the difference between winning and losing. If you have a good index and you are threat-focused because of the nature of the threat, you can still get good hits.

If you don’t have a good index you are likely to get a lot of misses and maybe some peripheral hits. If that scenario sounds like stuff you often see in the news, that’s because most people who get into a shooting just don’t have much skill, let alone a refined index. Unfortunately, this includes most tactical-type professional gun carriers as well.

If you don’t have a good index, recoil will destroy your position. Recoil control seems to be a bit of a lost art these days anyway, but without a good index, repeat shots will be slower and less accurate and will get worse every shot, more or less. This leads to resetting your stance and grip every few shots, and when you see people do that, you know they usually need to work on their grip, recoil control, stance, and index. This is another part of why people miss so much off the range. A good index will help your gun return to the same spot, shot after shot.

If you take a class from someone and they don’t address index, they are doing you a disservice. Maybe they don’t know as much as they should. There are certainly times when you won’t be able to have a good index (many wounded officer positions come to mind), but index does not just apply to standing. With correct practice, you should be able to drop into kneeling, squatting (rice patty prone), sitting or prone, pistol or rifle, and end up correctly aimed at the target without having to muscle the gun.

Like other shooting skills, index is not the be-all-end-all of shooting. A good index though makes everything else easier and better, and may just save your life one day. Index is certainly much more important than what gun or sighting system you have.