Occluded Dot Practice

I talked about this in the previous post, but I failed to properly define it. Let’s look at what occluded dot shooting is and isn’t.

Occluding the dot, or covering it up, is done for a few different training purposes. If you cover both the front and rear lens, you might be simulating a bad fall in the mud. If that happens, you cannot see the dot (or your irons) and must use an alternative aiming method. We will discuss those another time.

If you cover the front lens only, you could be simulating a fall in the mud (I know, a common occurrence in domestic shootings). Still, in our case, we are using it to force your brain to superimpose the image one eye sees (your shooting eye) with the image your other eye sees (the target). I think this concept was first brought to market by Armson with their OEG sight. OEG stands for Occluded Eye Gunsight and was developed in the 1970’s. Interestingly, Trijicon became the first company to sell Armson sights in the U.S. in the early 1980’s. People sometimes confuse this idea with the Binden Aiming Concept, but that is a different thing.

The point of doing this is to force you to target focus. If you target focus, all is well and you will see a dot on your target. If you try to look at the dot through the lens, you will see nothing, as the front of the lens is occluded.

As a training tool, this is an excellent way to force shooters to target focus. Beyond training, it can be useful in certain lighting conditions that might wash your dot out, like shooting into the sun. But why do we want to target focus?

On a mechanical level, a hard target focus, meaning you can focus on a small spot on the target and not have your attention wander, allows your gun to recoil and return to that spot very quickly. If you follow the dot with your eyes, your gun will not return to the same spot so follow-up shots will either be slower, or your group will be bigger – usually stringing vertically.

On a practical level, there are lots of targets that “do things”. Those things may be important to see and so a target focus allows you to take in information from down range, rather than from the top of your gun. There are some issues with this in the real world, but most red dot advocates are either unaware of them or unwilling to admit them. We will look at those another time as well.

If you want to practice your shooting with an occluded optic, blue painter’s tape is the easiest way to start. If you don’t want to deal with tape every time, there are some commercial covers that work well. I have used several from Opticguard and find them to be useful. I have no relationship with them, I just buy them. If you haven’t tried occluded shooting, give it a shot. If you have used it and have anything to add, leave a comment below so we can all learn more.