Retro! Anyone still using iron sights?

80% of my rifles in the safe wear glass, 98% of them have irons that I have sighted in with and hunted in my earlier days..... Getting old sucks but certainly beats the alternative!! So precious little time in the bush, not going to be limited on a chance due to range or my fuzzy eyes!!!

Dirk
 
LOL. I use both diopter and scopes including a red dot on a combo gun. I can still shoot iron reasonably well but for real accuracy my vision needs help. Respecting "Each to their own" and enjoying your shooting is more important than what you shoot or how you shoot. I have a Dianna pellet rifle with stock peep sights I take to the range. I get some depreciating looks sometimes from those who think pellet guns are for "Pu$$ies". Their problem and loss, not mine.
 
Up until last year my Buffy gun (45/70 Rolling Block) had iron (Soule) sights, good to about 2400 yds (445 moa); cataracts finally forced a change over to a Malcom scope.

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Cheers!
 
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Edencheif, I had the same problems with cataracts as you are experiencing but bit the bullet and had the operations last year at the Eye Clinic in Calgary. Painless and afterwards my vision is better than 20/20 now in both eyes. But I now need glasses to read which is a bit of a pain but overall, I would highly recommend doing the procedure! The trouble with cataracts is they are only going to get worse if left alone.
 
Yeah I never used a scoped rifle until I was almost 20 years old. Always shot the irons growing up and never felt the need for a scope until I started hunting longer range and bench shooting.
 
I started using iron sights on my 22 and enjoy shooting squirrel when they are a problem. I am starting to look at a center fire rifle with irons for deer hunting. This would be for close range in the bush...
 
I use to shoot a lot of irons but these days my old eyes don't work as well and I shoot mostly with glass. Just picked up a nice red dot that i have been playing with and so far that has been great!
 
I've got an old Savage 30-30 bolt action with iron sights. Shot a deer with it last year at 50 yards. For close range I definetly prefer iron sights, plus I don't have to worry about bumping them like I would a scope. This gun goes with me on out of town hunting trips as my back up.
As a person with glasses, the iron sights are definetly nicer to deal with.
 
My old eyes prefer a low power scope for hunting. But I always take a back up rifle to camp in case main rifle goes down or in case of a heavy rain or snowfall when a scope is a pain. The back up has irons.

My preference for irons is a big peep and a fibre optic front.

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If my eyes were still good I would use iron sights. When I was younger I never thought about using a scope but now I have no choice.
 
All my favourite guns have irons sights. Blade front and a apeture rear. My newest is a Savage Hog Hunter. On it I ditched the barrel mount rear sight for a Williams reciever mount apeture sight, sweet shooting set up out to 250 MR. anything past it and the bead covers the target.
 
Royzo said:
I try but the old eyes are saying otherwise. Getting a little harder to use irons every year. CRAP!!
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Same here.
This topic came up a while ago. I dug through my old posts and found my reply. copy-paste- see below

I still shoot peep/receiver sights a lot and love doing so. With my Ross Mklll sporterized military rifle, I often get great groups at the range. I made a choice a few years ago to put scopes on my hunting rifles. My eye sight is no longer what it was when I was 30 years younger. I find that if light is poor, as it often is during hunting season here in the pacific north 'wet', I just do not have the visual acuity to distinguish my target at distance. I owe it to the game I hunt to make the best shot I can and I know that a scope allows me to do this under almost all circumstances.

That being said, for really close range requiring quick sight acquisition where pinpoint accuracy is not the primary concern, an express sight is great and so is the battle sight on a Lee Enfield.

I would encourage anyone to learn to shoot peep sights but also to realize the limitations of this type of sight and your own vision limitations.
 
scopes are nice and all, but if you happen to damage the scope while out'N about, then what? I use irons as much as possible.
 
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