Sights

[Rifleball36]

I wear trifocal glasses and have trouble seeing the sights on my rifles. I have a .36 cal. flint with the rear sight set 9" from the breech, front sight 2" fron the muzzle which gives a 31" radius. With that said, I am just about finished with my .36 cal. cap & ball hog rifle. I have to make the sights, put them on, brown the metal and stain the stock. I am thinking about placing the rear sight 16" from the breech. This will put it just ahead of the balance point and give a 24" radius.
Do any of you have this problem seeing the sights. If so what type of sights do you use and at what distance from the breech do you place them. With a hog rifle any thing other than plain simple sights would not look wright.
OLD MAN OLD EYES

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

If I were you I'd install a set of peep sights, with a variable set of aperatures, like the Lyman No. 57 SML I installed on my Lyman Trade Rifle. I too have to use tri-focals and the peep sight sharpens-up my rear sight and lets me actually see the end of the front sight. I bought the globe front sight a couple weeks ago, but haven't installed it yet 'cause my son just won a competition with the blade front. . I use the stock primitive sights that came with the Trade Rifle (we did so well with the first, I bought another for him). Not sure what the exact measurements/distances are sight radius wise, but the peep is about 4" behind the breech and the front blade is about 2" behind the muzzle. Good luck fellow tri-focal user, hope this helps, Dave

 

[paulvallandigham]

I agree. There are adjustable peep sights available, and also an adjustable one that uses a suction cup to stick to your glasses( Made by Merit Corporation). Both will help you see both the front sight and the target better than you have in years. And, the adjustable peep mounts close to your eye, just as a standard peep sight would be.

I also find using a ghost ring style peep sight( large hole) works for me, provided its mounted close( within 5 inches) of my eye. I look through it, and let my eye, corrected by my glasses such as it is, center the front sight bead in the ghost ring, and all I have to do is align the front sigh with the target. The ghost ring site works in a variety of light conditions, from bright sun, to fading light at dusk. The adjustable peep allows you to close the aperature for bright light, and open it for dim light.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Rear sight for old eyes, designed to replace standard rear sight, I now use no other.
[url] http://www.trackofthewolf.com...SUBID=167&STYLEID=768&PARTNUM=RS-CA-PEEP[/url]

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I think I remember seeing an add for the suction-cup thing in MuzzleBlasts. I'll give it more serious thought...some guys shooting bullseye .45 ACP have been seen using these too I think. Thanks again for reminding me! Dave

 

[duke21]

thats an interesting looking little peep site. i am under the impression to change the height of the peep, you grind off the bottom a bit or file down your front site? i wish i had seen that before i installed the glow sites on my 50 cal. who knows my try it anyway.

i have sometimes have the fuzzy site syndrom as well. i have an astigmatism that is my big issue. some sites are absolutely no problem, then others i have trouble locating the front site rapidly. I have several old mossberg 22 rifles and some have factory peeps on them. it is unreal how much cleaner the site picture can be. i look to hear more infor on this,

thanks,

duke21

 

[Many Klatch]

I use no line bifocals. I find that somewhere in the lense there will be a place where I can see the sights. You might consider shooting smoothbore, that way you only have to mess with the front sight.

I found that on my rifle that if I put a really wide blade on the front sight and then file the slot on the rear sight to where I get daylight on both sides of the front sight that I can get a pretty good sight picture. The barrel on my rifle is octagon to wedding band to round and my rear sight is as far forward as the octagon barrel part goes.

Many Klatch

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Yeah I got that astig too, a real pain. I'm gonna get a smoothie eventually with a BIG brass bead front sight. I used to shoot 2" groups at 50 yds. with my .50, now just on good days.

 

[lanedh]

I have the same fuzzy sight problem, even with the no-line (called 'progressive') prescription. The Merit gizmo has been the answer for me. The aperture diameter is adjustable, and you may find that one setting is good for your rifle, and another is good for pistol shooting.

BTW, more than a few original rifles are found with a blank piece of metal where the open vee-notch rear sight used to be, and the sight itself moved forward closer to the front sight. That was the solution for many whose eyes were failing but didn't have prescription glasses. I have an original underhammer rifle with exactly that arrangement.

 

[armymedic.2]

peep sights are all we ude on the military rifles. There is cretainly no faster sight other than only the front, and it allows us precision shooting out to 300 meters. I have played aorund with it out to 500, which is the limit of out pipsquek .223's, and it does quite well. Having two sizes to flip up and down for precision and low light make a big difference. My eyes are young, but not perfect, and i can pick out target with ease under a parachute flare using the large peep.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

It hit 80* down here in Jersey yesterday, went to get propane for the grill...now what was it I read in the "how do you do " part of this site...yeah I know, something about STEAKS :hmm: . Peep sights seem a hole-lot sharper after a good angus meal That kid wake-up to the gunfire yet? :haha: All the best, Dave

 

[FASTFRED]

IMO, regardless of what anyone will tell you or believe they are telling you, no one can see the target, front sight, and the rear open sight all at the same time clearly...Your eyes just don't have the depth of vision to deal with all three...

Need to consentrate on the target and front sight and look thru the rear sight (open or peep)...The rear sight will not be in focus if you've got the traget clear...

Try a wide front sight, a rear with a wide and deep notch with a good flat on each side of the notch....The flat gives you a good reference for elevation even if blurred...A good bit of light on each side of the front as it sits in the rear notch gives you good windage centering...

I never spend alot of time anymore consentratng, trying to make the sights perfectly aligned...Do that and you'll get tired pretty quick and really start to[url] shake....Main[/url] emphasis on the target first and the front sight next...Never hold over the target your trying to hit... :winking: ...The Lizard...

 

[Don B]

Lizard,

Why a wide front sight? I would think a thinner blade would obscure less of the target and increase your "resolution".

Don

 

[paulvallandigham]

Don: If you try looking at both a narrow and a wide front sight, you will find that the wide front side is easier to see in different lighting conditions. Anything is easy to see on a bright sunny day, no matter how small or narrow. With the wider sight, as with all sights, you don't look at the whole sight, but at an imaginary line down the middle of the sight. Take a handgun out and shoot a pop cans, not at a few feet, but at 100 yds. You will find that the can appears to be much smaller than the width of even a handgun front sight. The way to hit the can shooting that short barreled handgun is to imagine a thin line down the middle of the front sight, and align that line under the can. The same thing is done when shooting rifles, only the wider front sights are much easier to see in bad lighting, and with shotguns when shooting round ball or slugs. Open the rear sight so that there is as much daylight on both sides of the front sight as it appears in that rear sight notch , as the front site appears to be wide in the rear notch. In effect, you want your notch to be " three front sight widths " wide, and how wide the front sight depends on the actual width of the front sight, And the distance between the rear sight and the front sight. The longer the distance between the two sights, the smaller that wide front sight will be.

Some shooters have found success in eliminating windage problems on rifle and slug gun sights, by etching, or scratchin, or painting a thin line in the center of the notch on the bottom side facing the shooter. This gives the shooter a reference point to align the center of that front sight. I don't find any benefit to making a line on the center of the front sight, simply because sun light shines off such a line, etched, cut, or painted, differently when the light strikes it at different angles as the sun moves through the sky. I have tried front sights with centerlines, and elevation bars, and none have produced consistent results. The alignment line on the back of the rear sight notch is a small help. Having shot peep sights quite a bit, I now simply look over and through the rear sight, and not at any part of it, concentrating on the front sight and its position in relation to the target.