Guns shoot high

Ganderite

Ganderite

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I tested some shotguns today. Shot CIL slugs at 25 yards. Three of them shot about 8" high. Obvious solution is a higher front sight. All they have now is a bead.

Can anyone suggest a CHEAP front sight solution? Brownells sell a HiViz steel sight with a fibre optic insert, but do not offer a section of heights. I need something taller than the existing medium bead.

These are plain barrels - no rib, so there is not a lot of meat to screw a sight into.
 
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Hi-Viz makes a snap on fiber optic bead that might raise the front enough for you...but it sounds more to me like you need to lower the comb on the guns as you are probably seeing to much barrel between the reciever and the bead.
 
Or buy a not so old gun lol. Or buy a new barrel with rifled sights. Smoothbore or rifled.

Not really any options for plain barrels aside from that hi viz clip on or getting scattergun ghost ring sights soldered on!
 
Alright, then in that case maybe you could try a Williams shotgun shorty ramp front sight. I did that to a friend's Win. 2200. Used the 1/4" tall sight and then ground the top down to remove the dovetail for the sight blade and then drilled and tapped a new hole for the bead. It looks a little odd but it works!
 
Williams short shotgun ramp and a rifle front blade. You may need to braze the ramp to the barrel if the walls are too thin for screws. Or JB weld might hold it. By the time you buy a ramp and a blade, you'll probably spend around $50 or so with taxes and shipping, etc. One other option is a weaver base on the receiver, and a red dot. More cash for the dot, but maybe you already have one not being used too much?
 
Its probably dead on at 50 or 60 yards. These things shoot like a cannon ball. I have an 870 smoothie with iron sights., it shoots high at 25 yards too. If the deer is only 25 yards away, I aim lower. Leave your sights alone, they are probably fine.
 
The issue is if you do not have a rear sight you are not getting the same alignment every time you mount the gun.

I watched 3 guys this year only shooting a bead sight or front sight miss every shot they took at a deer this past season.
 
8" at 25 yards is more than just trajectory. Most of my shotguns be it plain barrel or vent rib shoot the challenger and winchester rifled slugs pretty much point of aim at 20-30 yards and again at 60-65 yards with a mid-range no higher than 4". By 100 yds they are about 8" low. I have never bothered testing beyond that point has I have dedicated slugs and rifles for the job.
 
And my vent-rib 1300 with mod choke tube installed will group 3 Winchester Super X 1oz. rifled slugs into a fist sized group at 100yds with nothing more than a bead. So it is indeed possible to get consistently good results without a rear sight.
 
Winchested said:
The issue is if you do not have a rear sight you are not getting the same alignment every time you mount the gun.

I watched 3 guys this year only shooting a bead sight or front sight miss every shot they took at a deer this past season.
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They should practice more, you should know your gun, specialy a shot gun if your going into the woods slug hunting deer.
 
The slugs print under 4" groups at 50 yards, so consistency is not the issue. But they are very high at 50 yards, too. I need a taller sight on these. Some of my guns shoot to point of aim at 25 and 50. I want to adjust the ones that don't.
 
I would likely go for the williams shorty ramp and epoxy it on and experiment with that till i found out what i needed to get the impact i wanted, then go with a more permanant solution like silver solder.
 
You don't say what make your shotgun is but
Ganderite said:
I tested some shotguns today. Shot CIL slugs at 25 yards. Three of them shot about 8" high. Obvious solution is a higher front sight. All they have now is a bead.

Can anyone suggest a CHEAP front sight solution? Brownells sell a HiViz steel sight with a fibre optic insert, but do not offer a section of heights. I need something taller than the existing medium bead.

These are plain barrels - no rib, so there is not a lot of meat to screw a sight into.
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You didn't mention what make your shotgun is but Burris makes a red dot sight that fits between the stock & action of many makes for about $300. Brownells has an assortment of replacement sights. You might need to do some math to figure out what change of elevation you need. Measure the diference of hight (from center bore or half the total thickness) of the receiver & then the end of the barrel. For example if the difference is 0.200" & your bead is a 0.125" then you should probably try a 0.330" elevation at the front. Your local gunsmiths recommendations will be best as he can examine the gun, even if you intend on doing it yourself.
 
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It's really a question of what you want. If you really want taller sights then you can get them, it might just take a little work. A tall bead just doesn't work as it would snap off. You can either use a ramp and a bead or get a tall blade. If you're using a modern shotgun, you can upgrade the sights to adjustables, it just won't be cheap.

If your gun is a little old tech, or you don't want to spend a bundle, find out where you want to be able to shoot your slugs accurately, and how far out your POI is at that point and run it through a sight height correction calculator like Brownells has. ww w.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=13093/GunTechdetail/Sight_Correction_Calculator

Order up a ramp and bead or a blade that matches the new height you want and you should be doing better than you are now.
 
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