most accurate sights

[Carl Fowler III]

What type of sights do you find to be the most accurate at reasonable hunt'n ranges, I've been playing around with different front and rear sights to see which is best for me but was wondering what you all have tried? I have a problem with thin blades at 50 yds or more, they seem to blur on the target especially the brass ones...experimenting with different targets and coloration as well. :bow:

 

[hanshi]

A peep, whether tang, receiver or even barrel mounted is almost as good as a scope. I particularly like receiver sights on modern guns but any aperture sight on a ML can't be beat. The ghost ring is my favorite with a full buckhorn being a close second.

 

[fleener]

a lot depends on your eyes and at what conditions do you normaly get shots at?

I like peep sights ands have quite a few of them. But peeps are not as good when the light is poor and wet weather can be bad on them as well.

fleener

 

[nkbj]

Kodiak, it depends on how old I am at the moment. Right now a peep seems to be working best.

 

[Vaino]

All my MLers have a square notched rear sight and a blade front sight. The front blade is .100 thick and the rear notch is twice the blade width when actually sighting. The rear sight is located forward of the rifle's balance point and usually ends up somewhere above the entry pipe. Very accurate setup for older eyes, but quite suitable for other eyes.....Fred

 

[Little Wattsy]

I tried a peep on my hunting gun and was sorly dissapointed; Probably just me. I went to a german silver front blade and really liked that. I use them on all my ML's now.
I have, now on my "hunter" a fiberoptic front sight. makes a WORLD of differance; Expecially at the longer yardages (from 70 to 100 yrds)

 

[ohio ramrod]

For hunting as well as target shooting I use an ivory inserted front sight. ( The ivory insert is in a slit in a blued steel blade, pure ivory is brittle and will break if used for the whole blade).

 

[George T.]

As we age this answer can change. I have shot them all but I do not hunt with peep sights as they do not do well for me in poor light as in early and late. I have found that I need to widen the rear notch to be able to get a good sight picture in dim light. At times I put diffrent colors of paint on the front sight but end up back at flat black. Geo. T.

 

[Trench]

I like a bright silver front blade and a subdued notched rear sight.

 

[M. De Land]

I still have good eyes so I can't speak for how aperture sights work for poor eye sight but I think the mistake most folks make with them is thinking they have to have small holes to be accurate.
A hunting aperture should be quite large. .125 is not overly large and is very fast as well as more accurate than any open sight.
Yes, I said more accurate than any open sight!
Physics being what they are it is indisputable and a ghost ring aperture not only gives you a longer sight radius ( usually a third longer)it allows you to not have to line up one more sight plane. Once one gets used to the idea and practices with looking through the sight and concentrating only on the front and target they become amazing sighting devices second only to scopes and not as far behind them as one might think.
That's the reason modern military rifles use them.
1. simpler
2. more durable
3. more accurate
4. one less sighting plane to deal with
5. easier to teach how to use
6. longer sighting plane
7.function under more lighting conditions
An ivory bead or brass tipped partridge show up like a sore thumb in the alder brush and rain through a large aperture. MD

 

[Col. Batguano]

It all depends on the conditions you're anticipating. For fine work; fine sights. For course work, course sights. That's why shotguns just have a front bead, and target free rifles use micrometer adjustable peep sights. The finer the sight, the more time it will take to get target acquisition. If you're anticipating shooting at twilight moose at ranges less than 10 yards, use a big bright course sight (moose are dark). If you're shooting at mid-day prairie dogs at 1/8 of a mile, use something dark and finer.

Match the tool to the job.

 

[hanshi]

I simply remove the aperture from the sight and use the ghost ring, always. It's that good. But this is only with modern rifles.

All my front loaders have plain, notched rear sights and blade fronts. This is traditional and I can accept this additional challenge for the sake of historical accuracy.

 

[Rat Trapper]

The peep sight is by far the best way to go. anyone who has been in the military knows how to use one. If you have ever looked at the sights on the German 98 mauser and the rifle the Japs used during WWII and then looked at our M1 Grand you would see what advantage our boys had!

I keep my hunting appterure in the cap box and use the smaller one for target work. The Williams sight company makes lots of appetures of different sizes and for hunting you want a .125 or .150. Bow hunters all use peep sights today, so there is no reason we can't get them to work for us either.

 

[Carl Fowler III]

Have already dropped off the .50 cal barrel @ the gunsmith to drill and tap for a peep @ the rear of the barrel...plan on using the larger hole for hunting...have a front sight with a white 1/16 bead on it...will let you know how it works when I get it back from the gunsmith! :v

 

[M. De Land]

And they use them at arms length which is what I had a question about before putting one on my .54 pistol.
I've used it for kids day when perhaps a couple hundred different kids will shoot it in rotation through out the day and they could hit with it with about 30 seconds of instruction.
I've never seen one on a hand gun before. MD

 

[Dphar]

I simply remove the aperture from the sight and use the ghost ring, always. It's that good. But this is only with modern rifles.

All my front loaders have plain, notched rear sights and blade fronts. This is traditional and I can accept this additional challenge for the sake of historical accuracy.

Peep sights were pretty common by the 1830s.
There are original Hawkens with peep sights or provisions for them, the Pistol Grip rifles have schuetzen types with one still having the sight. There is a picture of one in "Steel Canvas" or one of the "coffee table" books I have around here of a Hawken with a little tang sight base at the rear tang screw. There are several examples in the Museum in Cody.
Note the PG rifle.

This one.

There are others. Some are strap types with a long flat spring strap with a peep affixed something like this on one of my rifles.

This is on a match rifle and peeps are allowed.
Dan

 

[onthefarm]

I go with a peep for hunting and just use the aperature mount hole. It's big but I find it is almost as accurate as a small aperature, I can see it in low light, and it gives a good "field of view".

 

[Rifleman1776]

I simply remove the aperture from the sight and use the ghost ring, always. It's that good.

I have read many articles on this subject over the years. It is widely held by many that the eye naturally centers the front sight in the rear apeture and/or ghost ring. Such a set up was very popular for hunting in the days before optics became the norm for modern rifles.
You may just be doing what comes naturally.

 

[Rifleman1776]

We have two target rifles with this set-up for the rear. This is a Redfield Olympic peeper. A big globe is on front.
Those peepers cost more than the rifle these days.

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[SwanShot]

I'm just in the process of being converted to ML But, every modern rifle I own has either a peep, or a scope,2 scopes, and 3 peeps and, no kidding here, I prefer peep when hunting.With practice they come up and lock on faster that a scope. The trick is learning to shoot, or at least locate the target with both eyes open.