Although no one has brought it up yet and despite the fact that the term "peep sight" is often used to identify any aperture sight, there is a difference between a peep sight and a ghost ring. While the peep sight might be better on the rifle range, the ghost ring is a better general purpose sight, useful for a number of shooting genres when the combination of speed and accuracy is advantageous. So what is the difference? The peep is often encountered with a thick rim or a disk with a small aperture while the ghost ring has a thin rim and a large aperture, sometimes as large as a quarter inch. When the marksman aims with a ghost ring, once his sight picture is acquired, he pulls his focus to the front sight, his target blurs and the ghost ring "ghosts" out of his vision and sometimes disappears all together, leaving nothing to interfere with his focus on that front sight. Thus the ghost ring is very fast and practical shooting proves it gives up little to the conventional peep sight in terms of practical field accuracy, yet gains much in speed and the allowance of tracking a moving target.
IMHO, the ghost ring is at its best when combined with a rectangular front sight. I don't much like bead front sights, they are easily damaged, and provide no index of elevation. Neither do I like day glow orange sights or fiber optic sights as these like the bead do not provide a sharp outline of the sight, are seldom encountered with a flat top, and seem to be prone to damage. The rectangular sight once understood, provides a degree of accuracy to the marksman that is not unlike the scope's cross-hair. The wide flat top takes the place of the horizontal cross hair and the center of the post, which is fairly easy for the human eye to locate, provides the vertical. For those who are concerned about having sufficient contrast between the sight and the target, consider a brass front sight or a front sight with a brass face insert. A brass front sight has to be used to be appreciated in that it appears black on a light back ground and white on a dark back ground.
How accurate can the ghost ring and rectangular front sight be? Well when shooting my ZG-47 .30/06 with a NECG peep opened up to a ghost ring and a rectangular post front sight I've shot numerous MOA groups . . . some out to 300 yards from slung up prone, while lying in a snow drift! This was done with my regular practice loads consisting of 180 gr bulk bullets, mixed brass, magnum primers and what ever powder I had an excess of at the time of loading, it could be as fast as 3031 or as slow as 760 or 4350. While I don't claim to be able to produce such groups on demand, when it happens with irons it feels pretty good. But more importantly it does show what can be accomplished with a good set of irons, and I am by no means am anything more than a competent marksman.
All of my our regular carry long guns, that is our .30/06s, my Brno 602, and my 12 ga all have ghost ring and rectangular post sights. The ghost ring on the 602 is a back-up to the scout scope. Some of the rifles that I have relegated to the toy department: such as a beat up (when I got it) Winchester M-94 NWT Commererative .30/30, a Chinese M-14, and a M-54 Winchester in .270 also have ghost rings. Last year I managed to pick up a gorgeous .22 rimfire bolt gun, one that I have been looking for for 30 years a Unique Dioptra T bolt action. I had intended to put a ghost ring on it, but the comb is too high, and I refuse to cut away any of the beautiful walnut when scoping it solves the sight height problem. Needless to say, I am a fan of aperture sights in general and ghost rings in particular.
NOT that a proper 1X scope can't do the job but at the expense of simplicity & bulk.
