Ghost ring sights or bead sight?

What are you shooting out of it and how far?? I prefer bead for guns that will primarily be used for buckshot and actual sights on guns that will be used for slugs, though I do have a scoped/rifled barrel for one of my 870's. I say this after having shot numerous bears, deer and a few pigs with the shotgun, as well as foxes, coyotes and feral cats.

I'm a huge fan of the XS bead and have an 18" cylinder barrel with the factory XS front and rear and I think it's probably the most well-rounded when it comes to shooting everything. I think eventually it will go to Casey at TacOrd to be Vang Comped...
 
Of the two, bead.

I think the theory of ghost rings is sound, but every one I've tried so far has the rear sight mounted too far forward to achieve a proper "ghost" effect, and most are just too visually "busy" and eat up too much of your field of view for fast, close use IMO.

I prefer open sights for all round use.
 
mudgunner49 said:
What are you shooting out of it and how far?? I prefer bead for guns that will primarily be used for buckshot and actual sights on guns that will be used for slugs, though I do have a scoped/rifled barrel for one of my 870's. I say this after having shot numerous bears, deer and a few pigs with the shotgun, as well as foxes, coyotes and feral cats.

I'm a huge fan of the XS bead and have an 18" cylinder barrel with the factory XS front and rear and I think it's probably the most well-rounded when it comes to shooting everything. I think eventually it will go to Casey at TacOrd to be Vang Comped...
Click to expand...

Under 100 yards, for general purpose plinking or hunting. I had a 590A1 SPX and while the gun was great I hated the ghost ring sights. I sold it and bought a regular 590 with bead sight and heat shield and its awesome. Love the heat shield, saves the hands when reloading with a really hot barrel.
 
I liked ghost rings when I was even more of a noob than I am now and only shot with one eye open. Now that I can shoot with both eyes open and have a specific, shorter range application for my shotgun, I prefer a bead.
 
For slugs I still prefer good old iron sights, but thats what I was brought up with. I do ok with the ghost rings, but it's not as instinctive. I do have all 3 though.
 
My absolute favorite setup is a fiber optic front bead with a vent rib, I find it hard to miss with that setup regardless of target type. If needed you can attach a rear sight to the vent rib.

Anyway one thing not mentioned enough is the effect of sight radius on bead sight long distance accuracy, a bead on a sporting length barrel can easily keep up to open or ghost ring sights for precise shooting out to a surprising distance. Try it sometime.

OTOH a bead on a riot length or shorter barrel, particularily when paired with the further reduction in effective sight radius a short stock brings, is a lot harder to shoot "small" with at a distance, not impossible but its definately a different animal.
 
Bead for me. It might be because I use my shotguns for hunting...

But, someone who uses their shotgun in a tactical role might prefer the ghost rings...

Cheers
Jay
 
I use the shotgun as a powerful short range rifle, so my primary gun has a ghost ring and post arrangement, although I can be happy with either sight system. The bead sighted shotgun should have the bead on a pedestal to match the height of the receiver. This prevents you from shooting high, which you will even at short range, if the bead mounted directly on the barrel. Of course if you are trained to shoot for the belt buckle to get chest hits, all's good, but IMHO, this doesn't provide a level of precision that I'd be happy with. The ghost ring IMHO, is best matched to a rectangular front post, whose flat top provides a precise index of elevation which a bead type rifle sight can't match.
 
Just got my grizz from canam yesterday, barrel is indexed properly wich is good cause if it weren't, we'll lets just say you would be hooped, cause the front sight looks like its actually part of the barrel. Im talking about the ghost rings of course, but the only problem is that the protective housing on the rear sight was damaged during its journey here...:(
 
A bead is just not going to be as accurate at any real distances as the ghost ring.

There is no consistency as there is no point of reference, which is what the rear ghost ring provides on the ghost ring/post set up.

At 25m it may not show, at 50 it becomes apparent, but at 100m it is night and day.

I am in a Shotgun only WMU for deer season, and have used every option out there, and the ghost rings are the next best thing to a red dot IMHO.
 
Depends on application.

If I'm going to be carrying a SG and expect a high probability of shooting beyond 25yds then I will take GR sights or an optic.

However if its a wilderness defensive gun where the action is likely to be close and last minute then all I want is a bead. I don't want anything that will hang-up on clothing or gear, that includes crap hanging anywhere on the gun. It might be carried in a scabard if I'm in open terrain, or on a 2-point if the brush is close.
Either way a bead is fine because that first shot isn't likely to be very far away regardless, and the second even closer.

-Grant
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom