Lets talk open sights.

[Bushleague]

For a few years now I've been shooting with open sights more and more, and the more I shoot them the more I realise how well they work. Today I was impressing the young fellow next to me at the range by ringing the 200 yard gong at will with an ancient .303 and the stock irons, not that I think this is a terribly notable skill, but a few years back I never thought I'd be able to do it. Since much of the lore surrounding the use of irons has pretty much been lost, I'm always happy to listen to tips from those who are willing to share, so I thought I'd ask on here. Tips, techniques, favored sights, and the rifles they come on. I want to hear it all.

What little I've learned...

I don't do well with any rear sight that isn't completely flat on the top... anything with the word "buckhorn" involved is not your friend.
At longer ranges, dial in the irons to hit high enough that you can hold under the target rather than obscuring it with the front sight.
I've found that for me its very important that I concentrate on sight alignment just the right amount... thinking about it too much or too little will end up in poor groups.

[obsessed1]

I have peeps on all my iron sighted rifles much prefer them to any other type of rear sight. Also prefer a 6 o'clock hold.

[petew]

as the eyes age irons become difficult to see. I like a peep now, and have tang mounted peeps on all of my muzzle loaders except for the 45 cal Southern Mountain rifle with a 42" barrel. That one has a full buckhorn ,mounted quite far up the barrel , that I use like a peep .

By mounting irons farther up the barrel it is easier for old tired eyes to focus on them.

[yukon254]

I've been shooting irons since I was a kid. I wont own a rifle without them. Learned the value of aperture sights and the 6-oclock post during a stint in the US military. I like the ghost rings made by XS. They are amazingly accurate once you get used to them. I watched a good friend who also uses irons put two rounds from his old 45/70 right behind the shoulder of a mountain goat at 200-yards, a couple years back. You could have covered both entrance wounds with a toony. I'm comfortable out to 300 yards or so on game with them, and thats about as far as I've ever had to shoot game in the field.

[NCC]

I also have a set of XS sights on a 30-30; they’re easy to shoot and robust. I struggled with the factory buckhorn sights and found the ghost ring to be a huge improvement.

[catnthehat]

I've been shooting and competing with iron sighted rifles - both aperture and open , since 1967 .
I still prefer to hunt with open sights, but also hunt with a scope sometimes, unless the riffle dictates it as in my muzzle loaders or my other rifles that are not equipped with with scopes.

As far as shooting targets goes, about the only time I use a scope is to do load development on a rifle but if i can I use irons right out to 1K.

Cat

[catnthehat]

As far as sights go, I prefer a patrigde style front with a fairly wide so ot in the rear sight for a hunting rifle as it lets my eyes center the front easier in the rear sight . I detest a front bead style sight that is shiny as itvwill refract the sunlight .
I never use a 6 o’clock hold on my hunting rifles I always aim where I want the bullet to hit unless it is that far away that I have to hold over a bit .
Open sights are not a long range affair.
Cat

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by obsessed1

I have peeps on all my iron sighted rifles much prefer them to any other type of rear sight. Also prefer a 6 o'clock hold.

Yeah, I've owned quite a few rifles with peep sights over the years, and have found them to be effective and easy to use. Its more recently that I've found open sights to be nearly as effective, took more work to get as comfortable with them though.

[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Yeah, I've owned quite a few rifles with peep sights over the years, and have found them to be effective and easy to use. Its more recently that I've found open sights to be nearly as effective, took more work to get as comfortable with them though.

For hunting I found the buckhorn sights too slow accuracy was always ok but it took me longer to align the sights and break the shot. All my iron sighted rifles now have receiver mounted peep sights and my 39 A has a tang peep. Snap shooting is much faster now and more accurate deliberate fire is just as or more accurate/ precise as with the original buckhorns. Most of my open sight shooting has been with marlin lever actions. Although my parked hale does have a blade type I've never used it. Most of my rimfires also have irons of some type or another.

[yukon254]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

As far as sights go, I prefer a patrigde style front with a fairly wide so ot in the rear sight for a hunting rifle as it lets my eyes center the front easier in the rear sight . I detest a front bead style sight that is shiny as itvwill refract the sunlight .
I never use a 6 o’clock hold on my hunting rifles I always aim where I want the bullet to hit unless it is that far away that I have to hold over a bit .
Open sights are not a long range affair.
Cat

I think it depends on what you consider "long range," and who's doing the shooting. During my time at Ft Leonard Wood I saw some incredible shooting with irons. One time while I was stationed there a local civvy long distance shooting club was invited to come and compete against a Marine Corp rifle team. Anyone who has spent time in that neck of the woods will know that most of those Missouri hillbillys can shoot. They showed up with true long range rigs like any civilian would use. The Marine rifle team were armed with open sighted M14s and they shot circles around the civilians, all the way out to 800 meters. To me thats long range shooting.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by yukon254

I think it depends on what you consider "long range," and who's doing the shooting. During my time at Ft Leonard Wood I saw some incredible shooting with irons. One time while I was stationed there a local civvy long distance shooting club was invited to come and compete against a Marine Corp rifle team. Anyone who has spent time in that neck of the woods will know that most of those Missouri hillbillys can shoot. They showed up with true long range rigs like any civilian would use. The Marine rifle team were armed with open sighted M14s and they shot circles around the civilians, all the way out to 800 meters. To me thats long range shooting.

When I posted about open sights being short range affairs I was speaking about hunting not match shooting on a range .
And I must say if someobe ne ever bested me with an open sighted 14 when I was using my irons match rifles 800 yards I would give up shooting !
Unless of course you were talking National course and those civilians were if a lesser class and the Narinrs were all Master class shooters but even then, if they were shooting open sights and the civilians were shooting national course match rifles that is very hard to believe .
I have shot National Course, Service rifle and Palma match , so I do have s bit of experience in sanctioned long range match shooting .
Cat

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by petew

as the eyes age irons become difficult to see. I like a peep now, and have tang mounted peeps on all of my muzzle loaders except for the 45 cal Southern Mountain rifle with a 42" barrel. That one has a full buckhorn ,mounted quite far up the barrel , that I use like a peep .

By mounting irons farther up the barrel it is easier for old tired eyes to focus on them.

Yep age sucks. I finally had to put a side-mount on my 1894 30-30.
As for smokepoles. I shouldn’t be shooting anything farther than 60-70 yds so I'm still good.

[Yycadm]

Of all my rifles, I only have two scoped, and one pistol caliber carbine with a holographic sight on it. Everything else has iron sights. The gun that goes out the most by far is my short barreled Rossi lever gun in .357....she has a Skinner peep and a fibreoptic front blade, meant for a 10/22.
My eyes have 60+ years of wear and tear on them, but I can still get most stuff done out to 200 yds or so with irons. Scopes add some range all right, but I’ve never been big on taking 300+ yd shotson game anyway. I’ve done it, successfully, a number of times, but if I can shave off a hundred yards or so before making a shot, I prefer to.
The Skinner peep on the Rossi is great; fast to acquire, great accuracy. I just put a set of edgematch sights on one of my Glocks...They’re fairly new on the market, and odd looking. I like “odd” so thought I’d give them a try.
I’ve only had them to the range once for a couple hundred rounds, and I like them, a lot. Glocks factory sights leave a lot to be desired, and these are MUCH faster to acquire, and the accuracy with them is really good once you get used to them. Scopes are great, but irons are still best for me...for now anyway

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by obsessed1

For hunting I found the buckhorn sights too slow accuracy was always ok but it took me longer to align the sights and break the shot. All my iron sighted rifles now have receiver mounted peep sights and my 39 A has a tang peep. Snap shooting is much faster now and more accurate deliberate fire is just as or more accurate/ precise as with the original buckhorns. Most of my open sight shooting has been with marlin lever actions. Although my parked hale does have a blade type I've never used it. Most of my rimfires also have irons of some type or another.

Yeah, I don't like shooting with buckhorns at all. If a rifle fits me properly I find I am able to shoot sufficiently quickly with express type irons. Probably not as fast as with a peep, but good enough.

One advantage I feel that good open sights have is when shooting at a target that is at close range and all broken up, such as a game animal behind a screen of brush, which is a pretty common shot for me to take. Even with a 1X scope, and to a lesser extent with a peep, I find I have a tendancy get a little bit of tunnel vision. With open sights I find it more easy to keep track of the big picture and make sure I thread that bullet through the right opening. Ditto on tracking an animal that is on the move, I don't shoot moving animals but I like to keep them in my sights so that if they pause for even a moment I can make the shot.

Not that I cant do these things sufficiently well with a low powered scope or a peep sight, which both have their own benefits, but I've come to find it a tad more easy with open sights.

[petew]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

Yep age sucks. I finally had to put a side-mount on my 1894 30-30.
As for smokepoles. I shouldn’t be shooting anything farther than 60-70 yds so I'm still good.

My 94 in 32spl has a factory tang peep I love. It was made in 1909 and has the long octagon barrel. I would love a tang peep for the 30-30 , but not at $150.00 .

[KegRiver]

I read somewhere, one of my shooters Bibles I think, that pep sights are the most accurate sight known, more accurate the scopes.

I know scopes are plagued by something called parallax error. Obviously no iron sight would have that problem.

Scopes are also much more likely to getting knocked off setting.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by KegRiver

I read somewhere, one of my shooters Bibles I think, that pep sights are the most accurate sight known, more accurate the scopes.

I know scopes are plagued by something called parallax error. Obviously no iron sight would have that problem.

Scopes are also much more likely to getting knocked off setting.

Well, the target used in Fclsss has a V Bull that is half the diameter of the target used at the same distances for the irons rifles , that should say it all right there concerning accuracy .
More reliable ? I would argue that although they can get broken , bent and knocked out of adjustment , I would take the irons every time for a hunting rifle that is going to be used inside 150 yards all day long .
Modern scopes however can be made so dependable that the difference is minute
Cat

[32-40win]

I'm having a bit of an issue seeing irons properly lately, with the right eye, so at the moment I'm trying a red dot sight on the SXS. With the Schuetzen rifles I could shoot scores right along with what I shot with scope at 200yds, using a peep with an aperture front sight.

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by petew

My 94 in 32spl has a factory tang peep I love. It was made in 1909 and has the long octagon barrel. I would love a tang peep for the 30-30 , but not at $150.00 .

I had a Williams FP on it. Couldn’t focus on target and front sight at same time.
And yes those Lyman Tangs ain’t cheap.

[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by petew

My 94 in 32spl has a factory tang peep I love. It was made in 1909 and has the long octagon barrel. I would love a tang peep for the 30-30 , but not at $150.00 .

I have a lyman tang sight on my 39A. I have shot my 8" gong at 400 yds with reasonable consistency sitting with my homemade quad pod sticks.

I attempted to mount on on my 45-70 but found it smacked the back of my thumb under recoil so I switched out to a Skinner receiver sight. Im hoping to get a Smith m95 long range sight for the big marlin one of these days and try slinging chunks of lead way out there.
Currently it has Skinner winged aperture rear with the Skinner white front blade.

My 336 carries the low profile Skinner and williams firesight front sight

My 39A has factory front sight and semi buckhorn and lyman tang peep.

My mk4 no1 has factory flip peeps and custom thin blade front sight. Sights regulated at 100 and 200

[marxman]

Old timers at any time in your life could you focus 3 different distances at once if you can’t focus the front sight get a pair of glasses wher you can a pair of +1.25 drugstore reading glasses might do it