Weaning yourself off of optics?

I'm half & half between 1.5X powered scopes & peeps on any guns I hunt with.
I actually tried to assess the value of a screw in peep apature a number of yrs ago & found no diff at 300yd beteen useing the insert & not useing it :cool:
 
I usually walk around without the insert but if I'm sitting I may take it out of my shirt pocket and install it. For low light conditions I have tried the glowing fiber optic type and they are very visible, but I find they fragile if you catch them on brush etc. I installed a brass blade from Skinner sights and I am quite pleased with it. Here is a photo of my 99F with this set up.

99Fsight.jpg


99f.jpg
 
Scopes on everything except two lever action rifles, chambered in short range numbers.
[30-30 & 38-55]
These have aperture sights, since I am also in the "aged eyes" category, lol.
I also like the firesights on the front, since they are much easier to see.
Eagleye.
 
I love my peeps, but also like the irons. Last year, was forced to use the factory irons on my 1894C for silhouette shooting. Y'know, by the end I was doing not too bad, just have to practice.

I own a Ruger Mini and looked at the Gunsight. I agree, the front forward scout glass looks fugly. I find the front blade just a wee bit wide for my liking. I narrowed my front blade on my M14 and put a fixed (4x) power on the mini.

If I had a Gunsight Scout, I would be inclined to narrow the front sight. You do have the option of attaching a scope on the regular position, it just means you will have to remove the rear sight. Just like the mini.
 
I have a couple of rimfires with iron sights, a lot of my others don`t have any iron sights on`em. CZ 452 varmint for example. I can use iron sights but prefer scopes, some rifles even look out of place with a scope on it. I can`t stand to see a Lee Enfield or 94 Win. with a scope on it. Each shooter has their preferences. I know i had a lot of trouble shooting either type before i had cataract surgery.
 
K, here we go. I have bought the Ruger Gunsight Scout and I am going to embark upon my old school, non magnified hunting journey. Kind of looking forward to doing it unenhanced. That's what I'm sayin now, wait till I miss my first buck, LOL.
 
If you practice and get use to irons, you can't blame the rifle, you can miss with a scope just as easily as with irons.
good luck and have fun.
 
iceman2 said:
If you practice and get use to irons, you can't blame the rifle, you can miss with a scope just as easily as with irons.
good luck and have fun.
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Trouble is, as you age most of our eyes takes a lot longer to focus on the three points of iron sites, those being rear site, front site & target! Thats why a peep site is a huge improvement for us, you now only alternate focus between the front site & target.
 
Dogleg said:
I think about the irons once in a while, reasoning that brush ranges are short, accuracy is adequite and the guns are sure handy and light. For that specialty use it appears to make sense.

Then I try it.:( Turns out the light is low, the thick brush makes it darker and shooting between the trees works better than trying to plow through them. Then theres the situations where you can't tell head from tail and bull from cow without optics. The plan falls apart before the range gets long.
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This has been my experience too.
 
While I have a number of scope sighted rifles, my ZG-47 is a dedicated iron sight gun, and I enjoy the challenge it provides me, but irons only do limit the versatility you might otherwise enjoy from your rifle.

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I keep hearing guys say they prefer to use a bead or a fiber-optic front sight with an aperture rear, but for the life of me I don't get it. These front sights provide no index of elevation and tend to cover up the target. A rectangular front post should be viewed like a scope's cross hair. The flat top of the post represents the horizontal wire, and the human eye is very good at finding the center of a the wide post (narrowing the post actually finding its center more difficult) the center of the post represents the vertical cross hair.

Proof is in the shooting, and while I have never been able to shoot a MOA group with a bead front sight, I've done it several times out to 300 yards with the rectangular post. Although I can't do it on demand, it sure puts a smile on my face when it happens.

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As for shooting in low light conditions, the advantage that the light gathering qualities of a low power scope brings to the table cannot be overstated, but a brass colored front sight might surprise you. It appears white on a dark background and black on a white background which under many circumstances solves the problem of the post disappearing against the target, but it does nothing in helping you identify your target in low light.

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I prefer irons but I may have to compromise with some glass this fall.
I've got a Bubba'd 30-40 Krag that handles great, but well it's Bubba'd...
A new stock and re-bluing; no problem. But the rear sight is a stamped metal, stolen from a cooey looking thing; the front is homemade:(
No fixing that mess nicely.
S & K makes a no-smith mount; I may have to get one ordered up.
That'd be the 1st scoped rifle in the safe; not counting my daughters K98, of course
 
A scope is the most accurate sighting device available. I have no intention of deliberately giving that up. A scope also provides the best ability to identify the target and beyond of any sighting system. I have no intention of giving that up either. Safety and accuracy are really important to me.
 
rral22 said:
A scope is the most accurate sighting device available. I have no intention of deliberately giving that up. A scope also provides the best ability to identify the target and beyond of any sighting system. I have no intention of giving that up either. Safety and accuracy are really important to me.
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You can't see a blaze jacket with the naked eye? Frightening.
 
rral22 said:
A scope is the most accurate sighting device available. I have no intention of deliberately giving that up. A scope also provides the best ability to identify the target and beyond of any sighting system. I have no intention of giving that up either. Safety and accuracy are really important to me.
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Some of us like the simplicity and challenge of using iron sights. I have taken a deer each of the last two seasons with my Garand and really enjoy carrying that rifle. Inside 200 yards I give up nothing to one of my scoped rifles with it.


BigUglyMan said:
You can't see a blaze jacket with the naked eye? Frightening.
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Not all provinces require blaze orange while hunting and not all people in the woods during hunting season are hunting or dressed accordingly, regardless of the provincial regs.


Mark
 
My uncle bought a Baikal o/u 12ga/30-06 a couple of years ago and put peep sight on it. The following is an email he sent me last night explaining why he has put a scope on it, which is kind of timely for this thread.
It shot like a house on fire with the William's Fool Proof Receiver Sight on it, but there every time I had a chance with it I could either not find the front sight in the dusk or couldn't clearly see the animal. There was the moose up at Armstrong - all I could see was a shadowy form, who knows with a scope I might have picked out an eye or an ear, something for sure - we were tagged for any moose, and it was a moose, I could tell by the tracks there after, but I just couldn't identify it.

Then there was a buck on Barrie Island two years ago, running, I fired two shots at it and never cut a hair because I never found the front sight, (I should have had buckshot in the shotgun and just shotguned it instead of aiming).

There was a big buck came out over here last year, at least I think it was a buck it stood there but I could not see the horns or #### so I couldn't shoot. A scope would have fixed that! And there was a pair of deer on Barrie Island, couldn't find the front sight.

It is funny how something that works so well on a sunny June day does not work worth a damn in late November in the bush.

Live and learn. Except I have learned that lesson twice now, as my first rifle a 336 Marlin .35 Remington had a Peep sight and the same things all happened.

Maybe I am a slow learner.

Personally I have never been a fan of Peep sights for hunting, but have had great success with good open sights (a flat rear sight with a medium to small v and a fine front sight with gloss white bead). But you will always give up low light shooting opportunities in comparison to a scope with open sights. On the other hand I have missed opportunities using a scope that I wouldn't have with open sights (breathed on it at the wrong moment, got jarred out of alignment, had the power up to high, got snow in it, held it to close to my body on a cold day, etc) most of these things you can handle with experience and more equipment, but sometimes I feel like my nice handy rifle is getting unbearably cumbersome with all the gadgetry.
 
emerson said:
This has been my experience too.
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same i choose not to shot at a large buck that was around 100 yards walking. i was carring a win 94 klondike. that was the day i decided it had to go.. i had a 270wsm ruger 77 mkii sitting at home but i bought into the "brush hunting " theme

rral22 said:
A scope is the most accurate sighting device available. I have no intention of deliberately giving that up. A scope also provides the best ability to identify the target and beyond of any sighting system. I have no intention of giving that up either. Safety and accuracy are really important to me.
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X2 for me

BigUglyMan said:
You can't see a blaze jacket with the naked eye? Frightening.
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BIGUGLYMAN ; often BIG UGLY MEN walk thro the bush without blaze orange
 
Optics! I can shoot iron sites but why would I if I don't have to? I could eat Kraft Dinner all the time but you won't every catch me eating that junk! :)

J/K Iron sights are cool - I run them on my XCR.
 
i love irons or peeps on .22s and lever guns but when it comes to longer range cartridges most of my bolt guns have scopes on them.
That being said growing up i would shoot 500 to 1000 rounds of .22 a week in the summer pegging off gophers out in the pasture and just plinking in general with good old iron sights so practice , practice ,practice.
theres nothing more frustrating than losing a target in the bush because the magnification on the scope is too much and on the flip side in open country out to 200 yards you cant beat optics.
 
Eagle160 said:
Does anybody who used to be an optics only/mainly hunter now go mainly/exclusively with open sights where the majority of shots are 100-250 yards for Whitetails? My eyesight is still good so I don't have any excuse to be forced to use a scope.
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I've always been and iron sight shooter and advocate. Even in the early days with a mod 70 and a scope, I've dropped animals but found it to be less sporting with the use of (sometimes massive) optics. Most of the huntng i do is in the bush and often don't get the opportunity for 300 + yard shots.


Being a milsurp shooter this is perfect... or should be until the eyes get older. Not sure how many more years i can still shoot with irons but its getting less and less.


175 yard heart shot:




80 yard heart shot



50 yard heart shot
 
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