Close, Medium, Far: Manage Your Sight Picture for Max Accuracy

Winchester's Becky Yackley explains how your pistol sight picture should change when the distance to the target does.

posted on June 29, 2022
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **

Becky Yackley is many things: champion competitive shooter, hunter, writer, Winchester brand ambassador, mother and expert mentor. She's been helping women of all skill levels achieve on the firing line for years, and she's happy to share her secrets. Top among those secrets is the fact that your sight picture—meaning the way that your handgun's sights relate to one another and to the target—needs to change just a little depending on how far away you are from your target.

In this video from Winchester Ammunition, Yackley will shoot from three distances: one that's nearly close enough to touch, one further back and one a full 150 feet away. These various distances are called "target presentations," and that's relevant both for competitive shooters and for self-defenders. At very close ranges, as Yackley notes, your sight picture is really secondary to what you need to do, which is essentially treat the gun as if it were your index finger, point, and then shoot. (Hence the term "point shooting.")

Further back, the sight picture becomes increasingly important, because the margin for error becomes narrower. Once you've retreated to 15 yards, it becomes important to align the sights side to side and top to bottom before squeezing the trigger. So what does that look like in practice? Let Yackley walk you through the steps of close, medium and far and you'll start to get the (sight) picture.

Latest

Deering How Not To Shoot Truck
Deering How Not To Shoot Truck

How to Not Shoot Your Truck

It happens more often than you think—someone shoots their own truck while sighting in a rifle. Why?

NRA Women's Leadership Forum Spurs & Sisterhood Online Auction: Patrick Mavros Jewelry

You can soon be wearing these stunning pieces of African silver jewelry—a staple at the WLF auctions for many years—if you are the high bidder!

The Armed Citizen® Reload April 10, 2026

Two men each had only one leg to stand on after choosing to attack armed women.

NRA Women's Leadership Forum Sisterhood & Spurs Online Auction: Concealed Carry Bags

Check out some of the amazing bags—many of which have opening bids of around $20—that some lucky ladies will take home if they are the high online bidders!

New Guns 2026: HK VP9CC Micro-Compact Pistol

Made in HK's Oberndorf, Germany, factory, the new concealed-carry pistol comes equipped with friendly ergonomic features.

Gun Tote'n Mamas Partners with Charter Arms

The collection includes the Clutch Concealed Carry Purse Distressed Buffalo, released in December 2025.

Women's Interests



Get the best of NRA Women delivered to your inbox.