Let's talk about rifle sights for a few minutes. I will get into magnified optics in the next blog installment.
There are three types of open or "iron" sights. Traditional "hunting" or "old school" style, target style, and ghost/post tactical style which are becoming more and more popular.
Let's start with the traditional open sights as these have been the standard since the musket days.
Here is a picture of some different types of traditional open sights.
These are the same sights as on the Daisy BB guns that a lot of us grew up with and most pistols on the market are equipped with these in some shape, form, or fashion.
They are accurate when zero'd correctly to the shooter and once zero'd on the rifle for a certain ammunition, they probably won't have to be touched again for general purpose shooting.
These traditional sights can be as basic or as elaborate as you can imagine (or afford). Some are merely three rectangular chunks of metal that you line up for your shot with the only adjustments being to the front sight post by using a hammer and brass drift to move left/right when the shots are not hitting center target.
Some have small knobs for easy traverse/windage adjustment and some are easily adjusted for elevation just by sliding something on the rear sight to the front or rear. A good many of them, though, have to have a tool or coin to make adjustments. That is fine at the range or when getting sighted in for zero, but if you need to adjust "on the fly" while hunting, it can make adjustments a major obstacle.
Precision with these types of traditional sights is mostly limited due to the larger front sight post or blade, especially the width of them. Typically the thinner the front blade/post, the easier it is to precisely line up INSIDE of a target and maintain muzzle movement within the target. A large post might completely block the target out of view so there may be no way to see your muzzle movement within the target at all.
Pros:
Price/Value. Typically installed on the rifle from the factory.
Accuracy at a known distances.
All weather.
Hard to knock out of zero.
Easily modified with glow paint for low light conditions.
Large area of view down range.
Ease of "snap" or "quick" shots.
Cons:
Sometimes no easy adjustments or hard to adjust on the fly.
Factory front blades/sight posts tend to be too wide for precision accuracy at different distances.
Takes a lot of practice to master these at different distances, especially when there is no elevation adjustment.
Long distance shots with a lot of bullet drop can be almost impossible due to not being able to even see the target if there is no elevation adjustment.
Precision distance limited by shooter's eyesight.
Target - Aperture Sights
Moving on to target sights which are called "aperture" or "peep" for the rear sights and "globes" for the front. This style sight has been around for as long as the traditional sights. Target shooters saw the limitations of standard sights, especially the hard or impossible to adjust ones, and started developing sights which were easily adjusted for distance and wind conditions and very precise concerning sight picture.
Here is a picture of an Anschutz Target rifle equipped with target style aperture rear and globe front sights.
Here is a picture of some front aperture or "globe" inserts. These are typically interchangeable for the front sight, based on the shooter's application, conditions, and preferences.
There are three types of open or "iron" sights. Traditional "hunting" or "old school" style, target style, and ghost/post tactical style which are becoming more and more popular.
Let's start with the traditional open sights as these have been the standard since the musket days.
Here is a picture of some different types of traditional open sights.
These are the same sights as on the Daisy BB guns that a lot of us grew up with and most pistols on the market are equipped with these in some shape, form, or fashion.
They are accurate when zero'd correctly to the shooter and once zero'd on the rifle for a certain ammunition, they probably won't have to be touched again for general purpose shooting.
These traditional sights can be as basic or as elaborate as you can imagine (or afford). Some are merely three rectangular chunks of metal that you line up for your shot with the only adjustments being to the front sight post by using a hammer and brass drift to move left/right when the shots are not hitting center target.
Some have small knobs for easy traverse/windage adjustment and some are easily adjusted for elevation just by sliding something on the rear sight to the front or rear. A good many of them, though, have to have a tool or coin to make adjustments. That is fine at the range or when getting sighted in for zero, but if you need to adjust "on the fly" while hunting, it can make adjustments a major obstacle.
Precision with these types of traditional sights is mostly limited due to the larger front sight post or blade, especially the width of them. Typically the thinner the front blade/post, the easier it is to precisely line up INSIDE of a target and maintain muzzle movement within the target. A large post might completely block the target out of view so there may be no way to see your muzzle movement within the target at all.
Pros:
Price/Value. Typically installed on the rifle from the factory.
Accuracy at a known distances.
All weather.
Hard to knock out of zero.
Easily modified with glow paint for low light conditions.
Large area of view down range.
Ease of "snap" or "quick" shots.
Cons:
Sometimes no easy adjustments or hard to adjust on the fly.
Factory front blades/sight posts tend to be too wide for precision accuracy at different distances.
Takes a lot of practice to master these at different distances, especially when there is no elevation adjustment.
Long distance shots with a lot of bullet drop can be almost impossible due to not being able to even see the target if there is no elevation adjustment.
Precision distance limited by shooter's eyesight.
Target - Aperture Sights
Moving on to target sights which are called "aperture" or "peep" for the rear sights and "globes" for the front. This style sight has been around for as long as the traditional sights. Target shooters saw the limitations of standard sights, especially the hard or impossible to adjust ones, and started developing sights which were easily adjusted for distance and wind conditions and very precise concerning sight picture.
Here is a picture of an Anschutz Target rifle equipped with target style aperture rear and globe front sights.
Here is a picture of some front aperture or "globe" inserts. These are typically interchangeable for the front sight, based on the shooter's application, conditions, and preferences.
These aperture sights are the original precision sights and their benefits far outweigh the limitations with precision target shooting applications.
Pros:
Precision accuracy percentages-huge increase.
Ease of adjustment.
Large selection of different peep diameters for the rear and different front inserts.
Pricing is reasonable compared to scopes.
Cons:
Hard impact could knock out of adjustment.
Very sensitive to light conditions. Globe front sights sometimes very hard or impossible to see.
Takes time to go from a ready position onto gun and get a good sight picture making quick snap shots a challenge.
Precision distance limited by the shooter's eyesight.
Ghost/Post Tactical style. Small ghost ring sight in the rear, front sight post. This is the standard iron sights for the U.S. Main Battle Rifle from the M1 Garand in WWII up through the M16/M4/AR family of firearms and also used in a lot of tactical submachine guns and shotguns. As a hybrid of target/traditional open sights, it makes a happy medium. Target acquisition is much quicker due to a larger diameter rear sight ring (the ghost), and the front sight post is typically somewhat open (not enclosed in a dark globe) so it works well in lower light conditions. Front sight post is easily changed out and can easily be adjusted up and down for zeroing purposes. Rear ghost rings are sometimes a double ring, offering the shooter the ability to change the opening diameter for lower light conditions by just flipping the sight.
Here is a picture to give you a good idea of what the front and rear sights look like and a small selection of different apertures and sight posts.
This type of setup is becoming more and more popular in the sport shooting and hunting circles due to the increased amount of AR style weapons on the market. This style is also becoming more prevalent in hunting/sporting rifles as well.
Pros:
Good precision, depending on front sight post width/style.
Very durable.
Easy to adjust for traverse/windage
Easy to adjust for elevation/distance (in the cases where that option is on the rifle, as shown above).
Quick target acquisition, even in lower light conditions.
Large selection of front sight posts for different applications. Low $$ for upgrade.
Cons:
Good precision, but not great.
Aftermarket upgrade for most sporter/hunting rifles.
Precision distance limited by shooter's eyesight.
Even though a shooter can really learn the open sight system on their rifle, they will certainly be limited on their precision based on their eyesight.
Hitting a large target within your rifle's distance capabilities isn't too much of an issue with any of the three setups listed above, however your precision is directly affected by the three systems in one way or another.
The one thing that fell into all three system's deficiency table....the precision distance is limited by the shooter's eyesight.
If Mother Nature (and my kids) allow it, I hope to get some data collected to demonstrate how much of a difference in precision, even at short range, that a magnified optic can have over some basic traditional open sights that might come on your rifle.
One shooter, one rifle, one ammo, one distance (30m/32yd), open sights vs. an inexpensive 3-7x20 Tasco magnified scope.
I should prepare myself, so off to http://www.LuckyGunner.com for some free targets.
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