Deer hunting with iron sights.

[N80]

I think I've goofed. I bought the Lyman peep sight off eBay and it will be here soon. So I pulled the scope off this rifle, removed the bases and sighted down the barrel. (It has no rear sight on it right now). I noticed, as I expected, that I could not see the front sight clearly because of my 49 year old eyes. I assumed, however, that looking through a peep sight the front sight would become clear. So I got a dark piece of card and put a hole in it and held it in place and sighted through it. Well, sure enough everything in the distance became sharp and clear even with my bad eyes. Unfortunately the front sight did not. It was better than my unaided vision but still not sharp and a little hard to see the top of the sight clearly. I tried a smaller hole in the card and that helped a little more but still not sure if I will be confident enough to use it to shoot at an animal. We'll see how things go with the real sight since the peep sight hole will be much more precise and clean than a hole poked in a card.

Bottom line is, some of you guys were probably right about peep sights and old eyes. We'll see. Things may also be a little better in natural light. My current blade front sight just has a little white paint on the rear tip so a gold bead or even one of those translucent rear sights might also help.

The one piece of really good news is that when i took it out of its stock to see how much I would have to modify the stock I found that it had a Timney trigger!:thumbsup::licking::thumbsup:

I was very impressed with the trigger when I was sighting it in with the scope a few weeks ago. Now I know why.

 

[nybirdman]

You need to try a larger sized peep,or remove the screw in aperture all together.I learned this thru archery where peep sites are more commonly used.I am 62 and still use a peep on my bow.Your eye will naturally center the front site in the peep.The peep on my bow is almost 1/4 in.You also my try;painting the front site.

 

[N80]

The sight I orderd has two size apertures, one for target, one for hunting. The hunting one may help. I'll touch up the paint on the current front sight and see how it goes.

 

[dmccarty]

White paint will help. I had to put Tritium fiber optic sights on a pistol to help aim. Reading glass help too.

Last time I had the rifle out, I did not have a problem seeing the peep sights. Yet. Old eyes stinketh.

Later,
Dan

 

[N80]

Old eyes stinketh.

Later,
Dan

Amen, and amen.

With reading glasses and my mock peep sight, the front sight is razor sharp but target is slightly soft....better than without the reading glasses though. Of course, with a scope EVERYTHING is sharp.

As soon as my vision plan kicks in (Janurary) I'm going to get this all sorted out...I don't care what it takes...lasers, contacts, glasses....whatever....

 

[dusty3030]

Amen, and amen.

With reading glasses and my mock peep sight, the front sight is razor sharp but target is slightly soft....better than without the reading glasses though. Of course, with a scope EVERYTHING is sharp.

As soon as my vision plan kicks in (Janurary) I'm going to get this all sorted out...I don't care what it takes...lasers, contacts, glasses....whatever....

If you got the front sight sharp you got the correct sight picture.
With a peep the target should be blurry, the peep your don't even see it, the front sight tip should be sharp and in focus.
If the rifle is zeroed then wherever the front sight tip is when the shot breaks is where the bullet will strike.

It goes faster in use than explaining but you have a target, when you bring rifle to shoulder and get a good cheek weld on the stock your eye will align the front sight in the peep, that comes natural.
You view your target clearly through the peep and verify where you want to put the shot then switch your focus to the front sight tip and put it on target. Keep the front sight tip in focus for the rest of this process. At this point you should be controlling your breathing and applying direct rearward pressure to the trigger when the front sight is on target. Holding pressure (don't let off) when it is not. Keep this up until the shot breaks as a "surprise".

Sounds harder than it really is. I learned it the easy way from a USMC PMI. We did that for two weeks straight, all day. And were given great remedial motivation when we didn't pay attention:thumbsup:

 

[dusty3030]

I am very near sighted. I can't function well without my glasses.
I can't do it today, my vision has gotten worse, but at 18/ 19 years old on the rifle range I would with my glasses on figure out which target was mine and remember it. Take my glasses off so that I couldn't even focus on the target if I wanted too. Concentrate on my fundementals and I would shoot Expert every time, and either be the company high shooter for that day or right there in the running.
Can't do that anymore, I can't see the black center of the target without my glasses at 100 yds much less 500. I used poor vision as an advantage at one time though! A PMI (primary marksmanship instructor) at boot camp taught me that one.

 

[N80]

I have a pellet rifle with a pretty good peep sight on it so I've shot peep sights before with good accuracy....but it has been 3-4 years since I've played with it. Eyes have gotten much worse in that time, both near and far vision with near vision being the worst. My concern is that even with the target in focus (which the small aperture of the peep sight will accomplish) that the top of the front sight is going to be to indistinct for proper target placement. Paint, a bright bead or even one of those 'fiber optic' fronts will probably help.

 

[dusty3030]

I have a pellet rifle with a pretty good peep sight on it so I've shot peep sights before with good accuracy....but it has been 3-4 years since I've played with it. Eyes have gotten much worse in that time, both near and far vision with near vision being the worst. My concern is that even with the target in focus (which the small aperture of the peep sight will accomplish) that the top of the front sight is going to be to indistinct for proper target placement. Paint, a bright bead or even one of those 'fiber optic' fronts will probably help.

I think that is different for everybody. I really like the idea of and try to make fiber optic sights work for me, but honestly I can't make them clear, no matter what color.
For me:
Black as coal - best
Brass bead - next best
Silver bead - Ok
Any other color - fair
White - worthless

But, that is different for each, at least front sights are cheap and come in varieties and are easy to change yourself! Thank you Brownells!

 

[N80]

I think for me it depends on the background I'm shooting against. And for my current purposes (hunting) the background will be variable, but on the darker side most of the time. For years I've had iron sights on my turkey shotgun (Rem 870) and bright orange paint on front and rear has been the best, but that is a very different thing from aiming a rifle. I suspect it is going to take a good bit of trial and error before I get it right. What looks good against a white paper target is probably going to be different from what looks best against trees and brush.