Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Target for open sights?

Can someone recommend a good target for opens? I'm looking to refine a load for a 8x57 BRNO 22f that seems to love 200gr bullets. After all, what's not to like about an elk capable rifle that carries like Winchester 94?

Kaiser Norton

Depends on the type of irons. Do specify . . .

Doesn,t matter much as long as it is big enough for you to get a consistent sight picture.

And it contrasts with the sights. Hard to get a very precise 6:00 hold on even a big enough bullseye with an ivory bead front.

True ,but I wouldn't consider it a consistent sight picture unless it did contrast with the sights.

Semantics and such !!

When I could shoot irons I liked a flat top bead or a Post
It seemed to work better for me.

I prefer a 4-6" total black bull for 100 yards and for iron sights I use sight black spray by Casey's. You can either set the entire bull on top of the front sight or use the flat tire approach with the front sight a smidge above the base of the bull.

In any case, you don't want to cover up the bull with the sights.

Of course globe aperture sights that use a circle front and back are different.

I've used blacking of various sorts, along with making a little sight hood out of tape and cardboard (always have both along in my range stuff), but another good trick learned from Montana gunsmith Dennis Olsen is the use black cardboard and a white paper plate.

There are also several commercial targets that work well. D'Arcy Echols has an iron-sight target with a T-shaped black aiming area for testing iron sights on his custom rifles, and Mountain Plains has some very good iron-sight designs.

What I've found is that a lot of people who "try" iron sights for the first time use targets designed for scopes, which in general suck for hunting-type irons.

Where do you get black card board, or do you paint it? Sounds like a good idea.

Office supply stores. I started buying them in various colors for backgrounds in photos of cartridges, bullets, etc. They're good-sized and relatively cheap.

Think it's Birchwood Casey makes a 3" or so black round dot that turns green if you hit it. I use those for checking the sights on my muzzleloader at 50 and 100 yards. I've used them with a .45-70 guide gun as well. Nothing is perfect but those work fairly well for my eyes. I take a regular rectangular paper target, flip it over, turn it 1/8th of a turn so it's a diamond, then center the dot horizontally and place it just above the vertical center.

Tom

With a post front I like an aiming mark which is flat along the bottom, and ideally one which appears about 3 times the width of the front sight. A black semicircle, flat side horizontal at the bottom, or a black square. I hold with a thin white line between the top of the post and the bottom edge of the aiming mark.

Blacking the foresight, as mentioned above, is a very good idea too, as you can see shifts in the point of impact as the light changes if you have a shiny front sight. The traditional and field-expedient method is with the sooty smoke off a candle or a match you just blew out, but matt black paint is more durable.

I'don't much like bead fronts, but I'd use the same aiming mark for them.

Round, bullseye targets are best with ring foresights IMHO, but I wouldn't use a ring foresight on a hunting rifle.

I actually like bead front sights for most hunting, but file the face of the sight flat at about a 45-degree angle to the sky. This eliminates "hot spots"" and picks up as much light as possible, and also provides a quick, rough estimate of range, just like a reticle of known size in a scope.

Thanks for the replies, Gents. Rifle has a bead front, Lyman elevation adjustable rear. Target at 100yds was a 7" black bull with a 1" white center dot (think it might have been a pistol target) Target at 50 yards was an unused black oblong sticker I found on a target frame at the 50 yd line.

I shot a few loads at 50 and 100 yds (200gr TSX, 200gr Accubond, 180gr BT). My aging eyes were able to get a much clearer sight picture on the 50 yd target vs the 100. Was happy to see one load (TSX) go just over 3/4" in a nice, tight triangle - at 50 yds. At 100, it was over 3".

I'm sure I could get excellent accuracy out of this rifle with a scope, but I am loath to drill/tap this thing and ruin it's trim handling feel (and the butterknife handle isn't going to help scope mounting at all). The rifle will shoot, I just need to learn how to operate the sights well enough to get an accurate fix on a load.


Kaiser Norton

With old eyes you can help matters by doing your testing in really good light, as your pupils contract and your depth of focus is improved.

Even better is using a small aperture near your eye, again to increase your depth of field. There's at least a couple of commercial versions, probably the best known of which is the Merit optical device, which attaches to the lens of a pair of spectacles. You could probably work out a field expedient version too. Of course these suggestions are intended for use on the range, not in hunting.

Edited to add an image of the Merit device:

"Victory Rifle" target from www.PrecisionPlusTargets.com

Not cheap, but effective.

Yep, that's an excellent target too, one I've used a lot both for rifles and handguns.

I have used nothing but these targets for the last 4 years.

To me, they are worth all that I pay for them.

You may want to try them out.

Steve

Biggest thing to me to remember is focus is on the front sight.

Beyond that I've used so many targets, and can even shoot center of a feed bag with no aiming point, its all in what you get used to. Almost all of it is in your head.

I prefer the bull to be same width as my front sight, but can deal with it either way.

Front sight must be crisp and clear.

I don't care much for sharp bull contrast, it seems to make the bull edges blurry and I suspect thats a reason that black on white is tough for my eyes, so a lot of targets I'll just use center mass of any bull. Works perfect.

If I shoot 6 oclock I prefer it to be buff and black like an NRA Highpower target. Much easier for the eyes to deal with the edgess. And edges seem much sharper.

I hate bright targets of any... green, orange, red etc.. they are so blurry to my eyes I have a hard time with them.

With scopes I only use black on white or vice versa....

But in fairness I shot a LOT more irons than most folks ever will think of.

And if I was working up a load, I"d put a scope on the gun so I get the best load and try to eliminate stupid aiming errors... then take the load and zero it on paper with irons, but then if you are game shooting, you really need to know how to aim.

My Elk MZ was always sighted in 8 inches above the post at 100. Allowed me to come up from the bottom and touch hair, once I had the hair confirmed the shot was gone and was in the bottom 1/3 of the target just like I prefer for them to be.

Does the V-victory target work well with a round bead front sight?

With a peep rear sight and round-bead front, the best target may be a round black bullseye target with an open center large enough so that the front bead when centered would be surrounded by a white halo. The sight picture would resemble the traditional round aperture front sight used for competition shooting of round bullseye targets. Perhaps this sight picture is what is obtained with the paper plate on black background taget of MD/Dennis Olsen?

A problem is matching the size of the white center to target distance and the diameter of the bead in order to obtain a proper halo. Carrying a selectiion of differently sized paper plates might solve the problem. Using colors of backing other than black might permit easier spotting of bullet holes, also.

I've been using the target shown below in some trials with a Ross M-10 280 having a round bead and peep, out to about 175 yards. Under a variety of daylight conditions, its an improvement over a black bull, both for sight picture and because holes are easy to spot. I don't care for the sticky post-it back, although some may like it.

[color:#0000FF]http://www.championtarget.com/targets/paper/adhesives/restick.aspx[/color]
--Bob
.

Never killed an animal with a bullseye on it!

I shoot white AR500 plates and the hits stand out akin to a five carat diamond in a Billy Goats arse!!

White spray paint is cheap!!