Thread: Iron sights

I just lifted the scope and rings off my model seven today.........

looking down upon it svelt lines, with the drill holes right at the back of the reciever. And a nice light balance...... I started to wonder about a set of open sights.

Maybe a peep rear with changeable apetures and a simple hooded square blade.
Any body had similar thoughts / experiences

good man! Im a fan of open sights.

Got a couple 30-30’s with opens and I’m happy to shoot deer to 150. Certainly makes for a nice carrying rifle.

I have been having similar thoughts about my bush rifle, especially in the wet, pain in the arse trying to keep lenses dry, came across these on the net:

Weaver mounted peep sight, scope on qd rings, whip it off and install this:
https://www.brownells.com/rifle-part...-prod9643.aspx

And then I found this which I quite liked the look of:







thread on instead of the suppressor and off you go into the bush, light as short rifle with no lenses to keep dry.

there are apertures that go one scope bases but look way to high to be practicle......Ive thought about getting a high set and drilling say a 6-8mm hole through them as rear aperture.

I have shot deer out to 200 metres with open sights, with no great difficulty. I am less of a fan of aperture sights on hunting rifles than I used to be, although for older eyes they are better choice. For a hunting rifle I prefer a wide shallow V rear sight, and a bead front sight, and I have converted all of my open sighted rifles to this apart from the .303.
These open sights, with the bead used properly, are as accurate as an aperture sight out past 100 metres, but seem more user-reliable in my experience, in other words I found that is was too easy to ignore the rear sight completely with an aperture, and be hold the front sight in the wrong place, often too low in the peep. (Yes, I know the eye is supposed to centre the front sight automatically, but that is not entirely true, I have had a lot of inexplicable misses with a peep sight on animals, particularly, the 'ghost ring' type. There is certainly diminishing returns with a wide aperture; with a thin surround 'ghosting' is it too easy to not even use it at all if the shooting position is awkward and you are pressed for time.

Wide open V - like the old british express sights, with a bead held low in the v, so you can only see the circle. (And also, despite what people also say on the internet, with these type of sights they are as accurate as peep sights at 100 metres, and with which I have shot many one inch groups if the rifle and load are capable of it. Nearly as good, is a notch, also used with a bead front sight.

I have no time for a blade or post front sight with an open rear sight, since I have found that in the bush the top of the front sight will often blend with the target or surrounds, and then the elevation will be wrong.

Interestingly, you can shoot extremely well with a variation of this set up, but with no v or notch at all in the rear sight - just simply a straight black bar. The bead is placed over the centre of the rear sight (which just looks like a black block or rectangle), where the eye seems to naturally find the centre of - with the accuracy at 100 metres being the same as a peep sight or v rear sight.

V or notch rear sight. Bead front sight. Sight the rifle in so that the bullets falls into the centre of the area covered by the bead at 100 metres, and then shoot with both eyes open and use the bead like a red dot sight, and shoot through it. But anything from the centre of the bead up to the top tip of the bead is fine (- or three inches higher than that point at 100 metres, if you want to take advantage of your point blank range.)

Do not be tempted to use too big a bead. It is not necessary to have a large one for some special reason, although I often see this recommended. Do not get any plastic coloured sights, truglow or whatever it might be. They are rubbish to use, and break easily.

File your front bead at a 45 deg angle away from the shooter, so it catches the light from above. It will be like a bright little moon. Deer are not often white, so when sighting the rifle in, use black paper with a white bullseye so your front bead shows up. Or grey toned paper with a white bullseye, which ever works for you.

These are my thoughts on this matter, upon which I have spent a great deal of time experimenting on different rifles with different sights, on paper and deer and goats.

have a look at the skinner website, they have some awesome peep sights for a variety of models.

Originally Posted by ebf

have a look at the skinner website, they have some awesome peep sights for a variety of models.

Was using a skinner on a .22 and now have one sitting on the bench to go on a win100.
To be fair though a wide V rear sight can be a pleasure to shoot, just hold the front bead low so you can just see it as Carlsen Highway has said above.

I shoot alot of black powder which means that open sights are on most of my guns and i am pretty competent with them
I find a 6 o’clock hold best i put what I want to hit sitting ontop of the front sight I don’t like to cover the target with the sight
If you do it try that you will find you are more accurate like that

Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

I find a 6 o’clock hold best i put what I want to hit sitting ontop of the front sight I don’t like to cover the target with the sight
If you do it try that you will find you are more accurate like that

i call that lollipoping the target - putting the blade at the bottom of the circle, like a lollipop stick. works well when shooting at black circle targets.

for service shooting i use a rear peep. it takes a bit of getting used to, and some faith, but can work surprisingly well, even at extended distances.

for CQB matches etc, you can use the larger aperture, or on the skinners simply remove the insert. almost no focus required on the front blade. just line up and shoot.

To be clear, referring to what I posted above, when you are target shooting I shoot with a six oclock hold, since precision is the paramount. (With a bead sight, the target and bulleyes look like a figure 8) But when doing that, your point of impact for hunting, is adjusted so that the bullet is dropping about 6 to 8 inches low. Estimate the area that your bead is covering and get the bullet group to be hitting at the centre of where that would be. (You can test it at the end by covering the bull with your bead, this generally means you are filling the size of a A3 piece of paper, and shooting a quick group. You will find its actually quite easy to judge anyway, and get a good group, but this is just to confirm things)

So a 6 oclock hold for target shooting and adjusting sights, and then shoot through the bead on animals, with both eyes open. Target shooting at round circles and deer shooting have different needs, and what is precise on one may not be ideal on the other.

For example, a valuable life lesson will be brought vividly to your attention by shooting a five shot one inch group on a black circle at 100m, and then afterwards trying to hit a wild pig that walks onto the range before it gets away.

Thanks for going to so much detail CH and others that has given me more food for thought.
The model Seven has a short barrel and that is why I had elected to go for a rear peep to give a longer sight plane. I will give it some more thought and try and get to shoot a few varying set ups before I decide.

The other thing that got me set down this path was an air rifle purchase, the nostalgia of open sights was rekindled!
I have gone back to open sights on my A1 222 so would like to try and find a piece of rocking horse shit to put on the rear scope mount slot.

I have open sights on my 44 as a back up or wet weather hunting option,I mostly bush hunt and find keeping the lenses dry a pain and most shots are well under 50m ,I have a red dot mounted on it now but can swap out between the red dot,a Leupold compact low power scope or open sights in a couple of minutes in the field depends on the hunting conditions on the day.only downside of the opens is I can’t use the suppressor but it’s only a 44 so no big deal.had peeps on it but like Carlson said had trouble with the front post/ghost ring position in dark forest,I do have a hiviz front sight tho,couldn’t pick up the post otherwise with enough accuracy.,I can shoot 1.5in groups at 50m with the opens on the 44 ,shallow v at the rear and hiviz dot at the front.

Originally Posted by johnd

I just lifted the scope and rings off my model seven today.........

looking down upon it svelt lines, with the drill holes right at the back of the reciever. And a nice light balance...... I started to wonder about a set of open sights.

Maybe a peep rear with changeable apetures and a simple hooded square blade.
Any body had similar thoughts / experiences

Got a set of factory model 7 opens if you are interested blued steel with screws

Thanks @Huk but my rifle has no slots / holes etc for one to fit to. Hence my thoughts to do a peep at the scope mount holes.