How to Aim with Iron Sights

Even though iron sights come standard on most rifles and handguns, learning how to use them effectively is a lot harder than it looks and takes practice and patience.

In fact, contrary to popular belief, using iron sights is much more difficult than using a scope. With a scope, whether it's a Weaver magnified scope or a Bushnell red dot, there's only one thing to focus on. With a typical rifle scope, the crosshairs lie on a single plane, which means that a shooter has to focus only on one point: where the crosshairs meet.

With a red dot, the single dot sits in the center of the optic. All a shooter has to do is place the dot on the target, and, provided that the scope is sighted in, the firearm will hit where the red dot is aimed.

With iron sights, however, there are three points to focus on: both sides of the rear sight and the front sight. All three must be aligned and must be on target before the trigger is pulled. Otherwise, you'll miss your shot.

Iron sights have many benefits, though. They're much more durable than scopes, they hold their point of aim once sighted in and they allow for a full-field view.

So, here are some sight basics on how to accurately and effectively shoot with iron sights.