Lets talk open sights.
Anyone hunt with them ? What distances ?
Other than the Skinner ones for Marlin, what are good aftermarket options ?
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Lets talk open sights.
Anyone hunt with them ? What distances ?
Other than the Skinner ones for Marlin, what are good aftermarket options ?
i have a winchester 30 30 trapper with open sights. great for sika in the manuka. last deer i got with it was bout 30 m. i quite like using open sights, rifle is lighter, and no scope to fog up. have never shot long range with open sights, most up to 100m max i spose. good thread.
Shot a lot of stuff with an open sighted SKS, 100m or less. Tech sights are meant to be good. Done a bit with AR open sights. Took my RRA upper out to 400 yds on a big steel gong, hits on tap, was pretty impressed. I can get about 3MOA at 200yds with my open sighted AK. When I was poor and in high school I used to shoot quite a few critters around the farm out to about 50yds with my open sighted Winchester 69A. Can be deadly when you get your eye in.
I've only shot one deer with open sights, my first stag at 10m with a old .303. I've used the open sights on the single shot Winchester .22l&lr but dont like them much.
Oh and a few goats with a SKS
Tx Beavis, those tech sights look like a good option for my Marlin 795, and they should fit the 3/8 dovetail on the Baikal as well :thumbsup:
I prefer aperture sights over the other sort (can't remember their name). Aperture is way more instinctive.
I shot my first deer with an aperture sighted Jungle Carbine. My BSA Sportsman 15 has a Parker Hale aperture sight on it.
I use Buck Horn sights on my 1892 Winchester 25-20wcf adn skinner sights on my Rossi 92 44 mag
Both are surprisingly accurate over 100m the Buckhorn sights are good the Skinner Sight is even better :thumbsup:
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Cheers
Pete
Stug, might be different terminology, but I know the traditional ones as post & notch.
Then you get peep sights like the skinner and tech
Also ghost ring on HK MP5, very fast acquisition
Shot hundreds of thousands of rounds with open sights threw airrifle when a lad. 22 when a bit bigger mainly bunnys but the odd goat and deer.
Few goats and deer with 303
Then got a stuffed 308 with a scope and didn't look back until fairly recently i bought a rossi lever 44,didn't much like the sights on that to much gap in the notch for my liking.
Pretty much everything i ever shot with open sights was 100y or less.
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The buckhorns on my 94 30-30 are ok.
I way prefer the express sights on the .375, the shallow v is great for fast acquisition.
However the best Iron sights I have shot with for fast target aquisition was a ghost ring on my uncles .375, that is a different league for speed and you only have to put the front sight on your target.
c9 and gympie guns were open sights we were snap shooting using the open sights on our styers awsome fun c9 gun out to 500 600 m and gympie out past 1500m styer 50m snap shooting.
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean Maori, eh Neckshot ;) quite a bit of fun!
Aperture or peep sights work ok even at medium range. I remember my first center fire, a .303 No 4 had 300 and 600 yard flip over sights and used to bounce a piece of 4x2 around the paddock at approx 250 yards no problem 8 or 9 shots out of 10. Good fun out on the farm, not good on rabbits only found fur piles.
Open sights are under rated for close range and snap shooting in my opinion, but they can't compete with the holographic style sights.
Interesting, over here (Missouri) most people hunt with open sights due to the thick nature of the woods here. It is usually from a blind or tree stand. I have borrowed a 22 for squirrels and it has open sights but it is surprising what you can hit with them and at what range!! As tussock said you just have to trust them and not think too much..
I had the scope off the 22 a year or so ago but was in need of a rabbit or two. So off I went, after missing a few home I came. Seems the eyes aren't up to them buckhorn thing's. I just couldn't focus on the three different points.
Aperture sights are awesome. I have almost more iron sighted guns than with optics now.
+1
Using the Aperature sights, Focus on the front sight, Place the front sight on the target and the eye will automaticaly center the Rear sight for you.
I use a 6 o'clock hold for all my open sighted Rifles.
My Old Man hunted his entire life with a DMW Rifle in 300 savage fitted with an aperature sight.
He was very successfull with this Rifle and would shoot out to 300m with confidence.
He purchased this Rifle new in 1952 and retired it two years ago.
I have shot this Rifle on the range at 100 and 200m and with the aperture sights it's more than accurate enough to confidently hunt with at ranges under 300m, although one may be a bit dissapointed if punching little tiny groups in paper is the objective.
Using the aperature sights is like rolling the clock back ten years vision wise.
I like them.
Cheers
Pete
I found I lost the rear ghost ring when hunting darker bush now use notch rear and hiviz front sight,works well.
Doesn't make much difference if your eyes focus on the target or on the front post, so just focus on the target.
That way, especially with old eyes, at least you'll see ONE thing clearly - let the reader understand. (<:
Open sights? We're not living in the 1800's...
And wooden stocks can also go to hell.
I grew up with open sights. I hunted with them and did quite a bit of target shooting. I can't recall the exact diameter of the bullseye ring on the traditional 200 yard targets, but it wasn't unusual for folks to get a 'possible' with every shot in the centre ring at that distance using aperture sights. (Was it 8 inches or bigger ? ... maybe somebody here will remember). I recall my uncle bringing along his old long Martini Enfield to the range one day. It had a fairly coarse foresight and a shallow rear vee. It was the type of rifle you can pick up and feel really comfortable with. I hit the center ring with my first shot at 200 yards and I've been in love with that rifle ever since.
I've hunted with both aperture and vee sights. When I was a teenager I used an old Long Tom .303 with a vee sight. The foresight had a bit of a cant and I got the occasional misfire. But I also got game with it. I can never be sure how far my furthest shots were, but I remember one deer I dropped with one round of fully jacketed ammo at a decent distance that my dad estimated to be around 180 yards (and he was pretty good at estimating having been an artillery officer and a life-long hunter).
I also missed with open sights at very short distances. Dunno why for sure, but I think buck fever and the use of target shooting technique may have been factors. With target shooting I was into careful breathing and squeezing. I think my hunting accuracy and success improved later on. With hunting, I feel it is good to get an instinct about when it is the right time to 'pull' the trigger as the foresight hovers across the target. But everyone is different. The only chamois I ever shot at was lying in the sun about 25 yards away. I lay down, shot... and missed. It got a heck of a fright though. Another time my dad had taken me and a friend out. We were driving along when we suddenly spotted a deer just a few yards away. We got out of the car and both of us opened fire as it trotted off. None of our shots connected. We were both top target shooters at college at the time. Very sobering, and it was good the rest of the team wasn't there to jeer.
I love simplicity and reliability. When I pick up my open-sighted rifle I can generally get a good idea if the sights are where they should be. But I can't do the same with a scoped rifle. To me open sights help to keep things more instinctive and I can have a good field of view looking over my rifle. I'm sure I'd improve with practice, but it is often a heck of a lot quicker to locate the animal using open sights compared to a scope. And I don't like having to 'baby' my rifle because it has a scope on it. If I want to crash through bush or clamber down a rock scree, it is good to be able to toss my rifle from hand to hand as I reach for trees to keep my balance... and I've found that scopes can get in the way.... or get caught up in vines etc.
Having said all that though, I do own a good centrefire with a scope. And if I am going hunting when I really want to do all I can to ensure that my investment of time will be successful, I would generally opt to take that scoped rifle. Scopes are far better for very long shots and in low light. But when I'm out exploring or hunting with no pressure to bring meat home, my preference is to carry a sleek, sturdy rifle with open sights.
The rifle in the picture is a Lee Enfield that has been converted to shoot the 7.62 x 39 cartridge. This particular deer was shot at a relatively close distance, but on another occasion I did get another deer at a comparatively long range with this rifle. I don't know how far away it was exactly, but I held my sights near the top of the deer's back and the bullet went through the heart. Taking a long shot like that was a bit risky, but it was my last day away hunting and we were leaving the area that afternoon. I guess the more you use a particular rifle and set of sights, the better you can become at making a quick decision about where to aim and whether or not to take the shot.
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G'day bomber !
It good to see an oldie thread brought out again.
I've used a target aperture (PH 5A) on my 303 for hunting.
Having used them before that indoor smallbore I found it pretty instinctive and got good results. Shot my first deer from about 150 yards with it. However other goat bomb ups weren't always very successful. I glued a bit of copper electrical plug over the foresight because I'd been told gold was the go to colour for a foresight.
Then I moved up to a 4x32 redfield scope and that was just fantastic. Sometimes I have gone back to the aperture and too right the gun is soo light and easy to carry !
Nowadays I find although the foresight is sharp the animal is a blurred smudge in the distance and it's pretty hard to hit one beyond 100m let alone place a shot.
Take into account that your ability to identify your target is quite limited with open sights. A small pair of binos can fix that.
10/22 is away now having front sight fitted so I can use a ghost ring type setup on it.have had it scoped but really like the balance and stock fit when using opens.
Thoroughly enjoy using them from time to time. Really like the fact they don't fog up or need covers and don't mind a couple of knocks. Am really keen to get some Skinner sights for my rossi 92 but nobody seems to want to bring them in etc
If you have a Rossi with safety catch( dummist idea ever) there is a neat aftermarket peep sight that screws into safety catch threads available from a guy in the states.
That is exactly the model I have if you mean the funny little twisting safety? Wouldn't happen to remember the name of it?
That's the sort of feedback I was after @7mmwsm did you have to go through the process of the import permit etc?
Man a lot has changed since this thread was started. A few years on I still really enjoy shooting open sighted rifles. Get a much greater sense of achievement getting consistent, predictable hits with open sights vs optics.