• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

How do you hold?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Depends on the gun and the sights. my Dixie TMR has very long angled tapered ears so "A" would be point blank range, and then working the blade up from there to "D" as range increases. On other rifles with different sights like those @Hatchet-Jack illustrates I would hold like he does, straight across, with equal space on either side of the front sight, With a handgun its always 6 O'clock.
 
I guess I'm confused. Isn't Hatchet-Jack's diagram just like YampaValleyMountainMan's figure C? I'm assuming the "bead" or circle on top of the front sight blades in figures A,B,C, and D represent the round target. I hold like figure C or Hatchet-Jack's drawing.
I assumed the round dots in @YampaValleyMountainMan 's sketch represent a front "Bead" sight, not the target, but he can clarify that. I can't imagine how you could bury the target in the rear sight notch with no visibility of the front sight in position "B". That's what lead me to the conclusion the round dot is a bead.
 
I guess "A" level with the top of the rear sight but I don't like those rear sights that angle down. I like a flat rear sight so I can put the front sight level with the top of the rear sight.

I hold centered and adjust what the "center" is based on distance and wind.

This:
View attachment 351666
On squared off sights like you pictured I use your sight picture. On the "V" type sights I like position B with the bead tucked way down low. For me that lessens side to side error by not having to estimate an equal space on each side of the bead.
 
Like Hatchet-Jack for me: at six hours under the target, up and down by the front view, I never use rear views with an angle (normal, buckhorn or vernier/diopter). Position like this:

351767-1000006096.jpg
 
Either B or like Hatchet Jack’s for my flat topped rear sight guns.
Both front stuffers get 90gr 3F Swiss or T7. They shoot both powders to POA consistently. Both are sighted in at 60yds currently, as bifocals make longer shots on live targets iffy. I tend to catch the divider line in my lens.
I shot 1000yd BPCR in high school, open irons Trapdoor with a factory flip up sight. No glasses then.
 
On squared off sights like you pictured I use your sight picture. On the "V" type sights I like position B with the bead tucked way down low. For me that lessens side to side error by not having to estimate an equal space on each side of the bead.
I want my bead as low as I can get it! I have eye problems now and can no longer shoot well. I would like to remind people that the square sights we see on most rifles today were just about non-existant prefifties. As scopes became the rage gun factories started cheapening up on sights and we started seeing the square sights. These type sights are not conducive to extremely accurate shooting. There is a reason rifles had bead sight or silver or brass blades. People put peep sights on rifles. They are aware that it is needed to wring out all the accuracy a rifle has to offer. It is next to impossible to do it with the cruddy sights they put on rifles now? With that said I have seen some decent targets shot with the square sights but very few.
 
I guess "A" level with the top of the rear sight but I don't like those rear sights that angle down. I like a flat rear sight so I can put the front sight level with the top of the rear sight.

I hold centered and adjust what the "center" is based on distance and wind.

This:
View attachment 351666
This type sighting is what I used on aierial and running targets. You don't have time to draw a fine bead plus your target is generally close which allows you a bigger margin to work with.
 
Usually B for a bead, A for a blade, 6 o'clock for target guns, COM for hunting.

Not really fond of the blade type rear for hunting. It covers too much of the animal.

Ironhand
 
How do you hold?

And, and you using a 6 o'clock hold or a dead hold?View attachment 351613

What does this drawing have to do with a 6 o'clock hold or a dead on hold ? 6 o'clock hold for as long as I have been alive is holding a normal sight picture at the bottom of the black center to hit ( hopefully ) in the x ring rather than aiming using the same sight picture at dead center of the x ring. On targets I use a 6 o'clock hold so I do not shoot up my aiming point and my sights are better seen on the white background. All else I shoot dead on and have my hunting guns sighted to hit center with that hold.
 
I like D with a semi buckhorn rear and brass or gold bead front. Use a full buckhorn like a big peep. Shoot point of aim.
 
I'm with Hatchet Jack. All my sights are flat on top. If I am shooting long range I elevate the front blade. At 200 yards the base of the front sight rests on top of the rear with the blade centered in the notch.
I’m with ya out to 100 yards with the rock-lock….. much beyond that I using glass - in this case I’ll kick back and look thru the binoculars - mainly because the rifle isn’t up to my accuracy standards for a shot on game much over 100yds.

I can use that same hold well beyond 100 but would prefer to trade the rear billboards and notch for an aperture if I couldn’t use glass.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top