Open sites, site picture advice

[dkmlever]

Well, a bunch of open sited lever guns followed me home and I want some advice on what site picture you all use.
Some just have a blade front site, so I assume that you hold the circle target on top of the blade creating a "lollypop".
Some have a bead front site, so do you hold those like a "double dipper ice cream cone" ie the bead is under the circle target. Or do you cover the target with the front bead?
As you know the front bead often is much bigger than the target and obscures the target all together.
Any advice is apprecated.

[Lastmohecken]

For target shooting, the lollypop sight picture is not bad for shooting groups, but might need some revising for hunting. Some open sights are definitely easier to shoot than other combinations. The buckhorn rear sight and gold bead front sight on your typical pre-64 Winchester Model 94 used to work pretty good for me, but at 68 years old, not that great on game. If you want to hunt, you might want to consider a replacement sight, like the Skinner peep sights, or the old Williams or an old Redfield receiver sight if you can find one for hunting.

But for hunting with open sights, I like the bullet to hit right at the top of the front sight blade or bead. But there's a lot of different open sight arrangements on various leveractions, and you got to adapt to them as needed or replace them with something better.

[JimT]

Use what works for you. I sight my guns for a 6 o'clock hold. I want to see the target ... whether it's animal, vegetable or mineral.

Standard sight picture

a-sightpicture.png

Long Range sight picture

a-sightpicture_long_range.png

I have a mark on the front sight that is my 200 yard hold

IMG_0828.JPG

[Scott Tschirhart]

I tend to treat a blade front sight just like a bead. I sight in so that the impact of the bullet is right over the top of the front sight.

I take a fine bead at close range and as I move out in distance I put more of the bead/blade in the rear notch to account for bullet drop.

[geobru]

Like some others, I want the bullet to hit at the top of the front sight. When sighting in the rifle, I hold at 6:00 on a 4" round target because it is easier for me to consistently hold at the bottom of the target than to try to center it in the circle. When I was younger, I could see well enough to center the sight in the middle of the target, but due to aging eyes, things are much fuzzier now than they used to be. For woods hunting, I want the group to be about 1" above the bottom of the circle.

[AJMD429]

.
I kind of detest regular 'open' sights, particularly if the front is a Patridge or wide 'blade' - but when I use those, I want my bullet (at sight-in zero distance) to hit on the 'line' formed by the top of the blade, centered of course. That way whether the target is a huge black disk on paper, a small dot on paper, or some game animal's vitals, it's all the same, versus if I do the 'lollipop' thing (with that, hitting the center of an 8" disk versus 2" disk puts the bullet impacts three inches apart - one four inches above the line, and the other one inch above).

For 'gold bead' or other beads, fiberoptics, etc, I do the same; I want the impact to be in that case where the center of the bead projects to, not somewhere above it.

Like others have said, these things obscure the target if it is small/far-away, so there are inherent problems you just have to trade off against one another.

Bottom line - figure out what comes naturally FOR YOU, so it will be instinctive. If nothing 'comes naturally', then try different methods to see what really seems best TO YOU. Then do it.

When I get to choose, I prefer a scope or good red-dot, and for 'irons', I prefer a rear aperture and crosshair front (like the Lyman Globe inserts allow).

Another good one I like (alot) is the Marble's Bullseye rear, because unlike ALL the other iron sights I've used, the lower half of all you should be seeing is NOT obstructed. There is still the front sight type issue and placement, but the almost scope-like view is more condusive to intuitive and rapid aiming.

THIS is what even a nice fine-bead setup looks like with an ordinary rear sight...



...but THIS is how much more you can see with the Marbles Bullseye...



If game is moving, especially towards you, you have a much greater chance of seeing and hitting it quickly.

[LeverGunner]

I sight in so that the top of the blade, or top of the bead is right where my bullets will hit. I hold center of the target. I often open up the rear sight notch to get more light, which helps my eyes.