Factory sights, how do you do it?

bob-nj sir

I’m 50 and was born with wonderful better than 20/20 sight. By the time I was 18 I had to wear glasses to read a chalk board from the back of a class room, now at 50i can’t hardly read 2” print on a box without glasses.

It’s all astigmatism and every two year when I get my eyes checked it’s always been slightly worse. Every four years requires new scrip for my glasses.

In short sir, what I’m saying is I understand sympathetically.

There are two things you can do “or three” depending on how it works for you.
My first experience with fiber optic sights was as exciting as my first experience with contacts, one word.

Out standing

You can use different colors front and rear to find what works for you and line up all three colored dots. They don’t seem to fade out front to back and are excellent in low light when other open sights seem to fail.

Some one suggested peep style sights and those are as varied from super basic to very expensive and also work very well depending on what your trying to do and what combination of peep related sights you are using.

Then you can use a combination of peep and fiber optic. If you are using this sighting system for general hunting and target should work very well for you.

The rear sight in a peep sight system can be a simple ghost ring to a fine peep.

Then the front sight can be even more varied and the combination can get as expensive as optical glass so I usually just go with glass as it’s easier to use and decide what to get and use for a given set up.

Hunting glass for me is usually 4x30 something or 6x40 single power.

Get a rear peep of the right diameter “I think I’m right here” that improves your focus for your use with Target paper punching. Then when in the field hunting you can remover the small peep and use the threaded part as a ghost ring for ease of sight picture.

I would suggest trying both a brass bead and fiber front in either red or green.

My second suggestion would be a front and rear fiber optic sight , red in front and green in rear.
When the red diapers between the green or are lined up with the green your ready to go bang.
Finder optic open sights work great for hunting with open sights and astigmatisms.


Back to peep sights.
I use diopter and peep somewhat enter changeable but they really are not. So for give me. When I said diopter I was referring to peep.

The peep size can tremendously aid your yes in their abilities to focus and the peep or ghost ring virtually disappears so you are only focusing on the front sight and the target. As someone else pointed out your eye/brain automatically centers the peep and it vertically disappears.

Then if you get the sighting system as a whole the muzzle sight is almost unlimited and you choices are as varied as scope choices.

Cross hair, globe, post , post and globe, brass bead, and more. Circle with a cross and dot.
Again it just depends on what you are going to use it for. These front sights with this system are easily changed from one to another if you chose to get them as well.

I’m new to peep sight systems but like them enough to get a ghost ring for my yellow boy and may get more for future walking guns.

I know nothing about diopter other than they focus and are kinda like scopes and peeps and are still considered open sights.



"The biggest communication problem is we don't listen to understand, we listen to reply"

I am 80 so I know your problem. Peep sights do work but it is getting harder to see small targets. Red dots have no magnification and without glasses are pretty much useless. I am by necessity using scopes but not high power fancy ones. I stick to the lower variables and am liking fixed power more and more. Started with 4x32 scopes many years ago and they worked.
My Takedown has a set of Skinner sights made specifically for the Takedown. Rear barrel mounted peep with a proper height front sight. They work very well for irons but are really there for backup. Even good optics can fail or be damaged. It is also carrying a Leupold 1.5-4x20 VX Freedom scope on a grooved picatinny rail so you can see the sights with the scope off. It is in the lowest rings I could find to keep the scope as low as possible and still have clearance. If I were to set it up now I would use a Leupold FX1 4x28 fixed power scope. Same price ($200) as the variable. The Leupolds are very light. Mine is in a Backpacker stock which I highly recommend.
http://skinnersights.com/ruger_firearms_22.html
https://www.opticsplanet.com/s/leupold-fx--i-rimfire-4x28mm-fine-duplex

Thanks again for all of the helpful info guys.

PEASHOOTER67 - There's a lot to digest there, and I will in time.

JTJ - God Bless you at 80 and still givin it hell.

Right now I think I want to try the Hawke red dot that my local shop has in stock.
They will install it while I'm there and I can take it out this weekend and try it.
Any other option I would have to wait for parts etc. and I don't want to do that at this point.

The factory brass front sight was hard for me to see. I polished, then sanded it shiny but that didn't help me.
That's when I turned the rear sight around and put a white dot on the front sight.
That helped me. I could now focus on the front sight, but as I stated, I couldn't get a sense for the rear sight at all. Elevation wasn't bad, but windage was a total guess.

At that point I had 250 rounds through the gun and decided before I just wasted any more time and ammunition, I would explore some options which is what you guys have given me.
It's always good to get other opinions and ideas, at least I think so.

So, I'll let you know what I think after the red dot and we can take it from there.
If that's not the answer for my particular eyes, the low power scope sounds like the next most logical place to go, even though I'd rather not.
I will however do what I have to so I can enjoy myself and not waste ammunition guessing at what I'm looking at.

Thanks again
Bob

Bob

Go to a gun store near by and ask if any have fiber optic sights already mounted and give them a look. I think you will like them.

If it’s a big box store a Henry youth rifle will have fiber optic or fiber front and ghost ring rear.
This will allow you to experience one or both with out buying them.

I have a stainless marlin .22wmr bolt rifle model 882 that cane factory with fiber optic front and rear.
I found I could use open sights again with them and they opened up my world to open sights again.
Then I recently acquired a marlin 200L biathlon target rifle and it has the peep rear with changeable front sights and again my world to open sights were opened even more.

These two guns at this time are all I have with these open sight systems but in time the rest of my walking guns will have at least a fiber optic front with some sort of peep rear in the future.

I now nothing about the sight system you are going to try except that they are as varied in quality and price as scopes are and my budget only allows for one or the other in those price ranges.


"The biggest communication problem is we don't listen to understand, we listen to reply"

Thanks again everyone for all of the thoughtful and detailed responses.
So much information, and SO many options I didn't even know were out there.

As I said previously, I'd like to try all of them, but unfortunately I can't do that
without collecting a lot of items that maybe I wouldn't use or like, and spending a lot of money.

So here's what I did.
The local shop has a little spot out back where you can go test fire a new gun and the like. He had a Hawke Model 12134 in stock. (Previously I said it was a 12131 but was mistaken)
I went to that shop, the man behind the counter mounted the red dot, we went out back and wala!
I did better in the 20 shots I took there than I did with all my shots previously.
The difference was, I wasn't guessing at anything.
I could see what I was aiming at, both eyes open, no reading glasses needed.

Now I can work on keeping the gun still instead of being frustrated over the sight
picture I was not happy with.

So,
I've learned a boatload of things here, and still may wind up exploring some of them. For right now, the red dot is what I will work with and see what happens.

Thanks again
Take care
Bob