The Ancient Buckhorn sights of yesteryear.

Can-down said:
Yup me too..... since it's hard to paint brass I paint them white.
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I go the opposite way and darken the front blade with smoke from burnt masking tape. Of course this only works in adequate lighting. lol

A friend uses a similar trick but using the smoke from burnt plastic disposable coffee stir sticks. These do not rub off as easily as my often used rifle range trick but then you have plastic on your blueing. This method is slightly better for hunting IMO.

Both techniques are better for a straight front blade and you keep the live flame away from the rifle finish. Smoke column only!!!

Edit: Carbide lamps are very neat, but you best have a commercial chemical warehouse with walk in customer counter service nearby. Hazmat fees are stupid expensive these days.
 
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I've gotten really picky about iron sights over time.

I've tried the so-called express sights, with the wide shallow V, but found them too inconsistant. I would get it nicely zeroed, I thought, then the next time out the lighting would be different and so would my point of impact. Trying to do reasonably accurate shooting was very difficult. They're supposed to be the fastest sight going, but I was wasting so much time making sure the bead was centered and level, that it was slowing me down. I've often wondered how much game has been wounded in Africa and India over these dreadful excuses for open sights. I finally gave up on it, and had it welded up and a small V notch cut instead.

I've found I do my best shooting with a flat-topped blade with a smallish V or U notch. I've used beads and square topped flat posts, and both work well, with the flat topped post being a little more accurate. If the stock fits you reasonably well, the sights are naturally aligned when the butt hits your shoulder, and if you can see the bead in the notch at all, you're good enough for close fast shots. Any kind of buckhorn, or ears sticking up along the sides of the blade (Lyman adjustable) are just a distraction.

I have a peep on my Winchester 94, but I've never got on with them on bolt rifles. Mounted on the bridge, they're a little too far from the eye to be ideal. I've tried the cocking piece sights, but there's too much play for decent accuracy. I like having the old fashioned Redfield Sourdough front sight mated with a peep on the Winchester.
 
9.3mauser said:
I've gotten really picky about iron sights over time.

I've tried the so-called express sights, with the wide shallow V, but found them too inconsistant. I would get it nicely zeroed, I thought, then the next time out the lighting would be different and so would my point of impact. Trying to do reasonably accurate shooting was very difficult. They're supposed to be the fastest sight going, but I was wasting so much time making sure the bead was centered and level, that it was slowing me down. I've often wondered how much game has been wounded in Africa and India over these dreadful excuses for open sights. I finally gave up on it, and had it welded up and a small V notch cut instead.

I've found I do my best shooting with a flat-topped blade with a smallish V or U notch. I've used beads and square topped flat posts, and both work well, with the flat topped post being a little more accurate. If the stock fits you reasonably well, the sights are naturally aligned when the butt hits your shoulder, and if you can see the bead in the notch at all, you're good enough for close fast shots. Any kind of buckhorn, or ears sticking up along the sides of the blade (Lyman adjustable) are just a distraction.

I have a peep on my Winchester 94, but I've never got on with them on bolt rifles. Mounted on the bridge, they're a little too far from the eye to be ideal. I've tried the cocking piece sights, but there's too much play for decent accuracy. I like having the old fashioned Redfield Sourdough front sight mated with a peep on the Winchester.
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You are well experienced with iron sights and certainly know what you like.
I literally cut my teeth on peep sights, starting out with the family Savage 22 rifle my older brothers had soldered a brass nut onto the regular back sight, in the homestead days of the 1930s depression, then to an older brothers 30-06 with a Lyman 48 aperture.
When I got my first descent big rifle it was a Husqvarna, the first year they were imported to Canada, which was drilled and tapped for a Lyman 48.
I shot a lot of big game with that outfit, including mountain goats, wolves, etc.
The front sight on that rifle is the best front sight I have ever seen for using a peep sight. The front blade is flat on top, tapering slightly from back to front, so no glare on the top, while the side closest to you is wider than the front, of the blade. absolutely no glare.
That was a great sight on a rifle, the Lyman 48 and the good blade. I l iked it better for hunting than I did after I put various scopes on the rifle.
Bruce
 
Brutus said:
On my own lever carbine, I prefer the Williams FP receiver sight instead.

I find many of the more recently popular rear peep sights have a rear aperature hole that is large enough to toss an adult dophin through them.
When they are too large, it's harder to measure their improvement over factory irons.

lol
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I have 2 rifles with buckhorn sights that work fine for me, but they do interfere with the sight picture.
I'll leave the stock sights on these for historical reasoning, plus they just look so right.

The goal with my rifles is to get the most distance between the front and rear sights as I can without
having them interfere with my grip (Tang sights) to have a workable sight radius. The sights must be durable
as well and not so bulky so as to hang up on brush or in tight fitting rifle bags or scabbards. I shoot with
both eyes open.
I prefer the standard .090" aperture on the XS sight & the fact that it is small, fully made of steel and doesn't have side mounting to the receiver which breaks up the clean lines of the rifle. I have a Williams FP w/Twilight peep on my .375 Winchester '94 which works fine for my aging eyes.

The .230" aperture that also comes with XS sights is big, but useful on short barrel carbines if used with a 3/32" front bead sight. My older eyes prefer ghost ring aperture sights & I also grew up on aperture sights as well as open irons.

Where the larger standard .190" aperture works great for me is on my 12" barrel Rossi RH carbines. Any finer aperture would make the front bead appear to fill up the hole too much for decent aiming. I use a 1/16"
bead Marbles on the front.:)

Williams FP on .375 Win. Big Bore '94 (Works fine, but clutters the view.)
View attachment 13577

XS Fitted Rossi RH .357 carbine.
View attachment 13578

XS fitted Rossi RH .45 Colt.
View attachment 13579
 
I have used iron sights almost exclusively for decades. In fact only a recent CZ527 223 is scoped in my safe with a 4X M8 Leupold Compact.

I switched to a peep with my first big game rifle, a 444, and have used them a bunch since. My Miroku Winchester 92 has a buckhorn and I hate it. My vision sucks but even if it didn't I would upgrade. I have a Lyman steel 66 for it but have considered a tang for the first time. A small peep close to the eye really sharpens the sight picture. My receiver sights, I have 5, all use the small diameter insert that has been drilled out to a decent hole. The insert can be removed for a ghost ring and when hunting it was common enough to do that early or late day. I really liked the FN in the Forces when my eyes were young. Minute of bad guy was quite a distance back then from a slit trench!

The buckhorn is quite useable on my 32-20 at short range. This rifle is a plinker and it is accurate up to about 50 paces, after that peep or scope. My flintlock has a Lyman Receiver sight and it sure was a big improvement from the folding Lyman barrel sight. However it is one of those clumsy cantilevered sights that seem to hang in mid-air.
 
Quite frankly to me, irons are irons if we're talking express / buckhorn / standard placement. I actually prefer buckhorns to my shallow V express sights, they allow better elevation precision. There's nothing particularly special about buckhorns either, but they do line up a tad faster for me than standard sights, as the give a better reference to center in the sight for me by allowing your mind to fill out the circle of the rear sight so to speak. I personally don't find a 200 yard shot with buckhorns, express, or standard a particular challenge, with practice it's very simple as 200 just isn't that far. Apertures are far better, and I shoot good ones to 1,000 yards on our range, there is no practical limitation to irons, it's all up to the shooter if he has the eyesight. I'm still holding 20/10 but the days of the first decline are steadily approaching, I have to test annually for work and let out a sigh each time I haven't slipped. It's coming though.
 
I make no claim to be an expert, but for myself I find that aperture sights are better and faster. It likely has to do with me learning to shoot on aperture sights, but I just find them intuitive.
 
For my lazy eye, the big Buckhorn finds it easier for me to get myself in order.
Mr. H, your eyes are working great for you,...............judging by your target groups.
 
I picked up a cheap Win 84 used a couple of years ago that had a missing rear sight, previously I'd taken a look through a friends buckhorn sights, so I thought I'd get those.

Well, looking though and actually shooting with are apparently two completely different worlds. I very much dislike the buckhorns, to me there is too much "open area" on the sight, I'm used to shooting with peeps on my Lee Enfield so the plan is to ditch the bucks and put on a Williams FP.
 
I strongly dislike buckhorn, or the more common semi - buckhorn sights.

I think they are only put on new rifles because at some point long past, someone put them on a classic rifle (for reasons unknown) and it just became a standard that stuck.

Buckhorns are probably the worst sights I've ever used, and I swap them out immediately on any rifle that's more than a safe queen.
 
Here are some pictures of how my handiwork, which some will likely say is the work of Bubba, that transformed my Winchester 69A into an ideal rifle for small bore sporting rifle target shooting, done some fifty odd years ago.
The Merit adjustable eye piece is mounted as close to the eye as possible. For off hand shooting I can rest the rubber, outer ring of the eyepiece, on my eye brow for a virtually sold meld with the rifle.
The Lyman 57 aperture is a very solid sight and combined with the Lyman interchangeable disc front sight, is about as good as sporting rifle sights get.
For shooting grouse in the head or neck the aperture front disc will be exchanged for a bead, or a blade disc.


 
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