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

Another idea is picnic supply or party supply stores with the little salad plates, or bowls.
I'm way past the ability to shoot open iron sights, I need a globe (or a GLOB) sight, something I can look through after centering up the fuzzes. If all the fuzzes are equally fuzzy, then I'm in the bullpark.
So, some white meat paper, some kind of colored paper plate, and that seems to give reasonable results. If you want to record hits, what I do is put a sheet of 8x11 down, then center the "bull" over the center aim point of the record sheet and fire. That's cheap because you can tack your perforated bull back up and at distance, it's still good enough for aiming.

Quite sometime ago Rifle Magazine published an article mentioning that a blue back ground was the most effective with a black bull.

I use the NRA 300 yard smallbore center replacement target, it is a 19 inch diameter black center bull that goes from 10 ring out to a 7 ring. Remember, it is a target center replacement. It is large enough to use with a center hold or six o clock hold from 50-400 yards with receiver sights. I buy them from American Target company out of Denver. I buy in bulk, IIRC you get a box of 200 for sth like $40. When I am wearing my .75+ diopter aviator style glasses that bring my front sight into sharp focus (66 yr old presbyopia) the target is large enough when it blurs out to still give a good sight picture out to 400 yards. I own about fifteen receiver sighted rifles, love shooting them, they're what I grew up on after all. I believe you will find these targets a good solution for shooting irons.
Regards

I have to wear reading glasses to see iron sights. When shooting my Garand, the top of the front sight appears to slant down to the right. Of course the top is flat and square. Is it the light hitting the sight from the side causing the appearance of a slant? How do I fit that?

8" gong or a paper plate.

I like a plain white sheet of printer paper, 8 1/2" x 11", set vertical on a black background.

I think I failed to add, if you are using irons for game, then IMHO the best way is drop the coin for printed game targets, cut them out and put on cardboard or buy cardboard if they make em.

You DON"T Have a definite target there, and as such you have to search to find what works for your eyes.

Thats how I decided years ago with irons I'd zero such that I was high enough for the heart on a low chest hold, IE bottom of hair line. Touch bottom of chest, where there is generally a color or contrast change with the background and I know I'm good.

I too like to hold near the bottom of the hairline.

Thompson Targets Dead Center is pretty good for getting a good zero with irons.

http://www.thompsontarget.com/dead-center-15x19-large-targets

This, or the NRA pistol target with about 6 inches of black.

All of my open sight weapons are purposely equipped with a flat top post front sight like that found on a Garand.

I find it effective to place the black dot just atop the post as in "Pumpkin on a post".

If I hold on the bottom of a six inch dot at 100 yds and the load groups in the center of the dot, that is my correct hunting elevation.

In the field, I envision the target's heart and set it on the top of the post. With the 260 Rem, for instance, that hold is good for 250 yds.

If one insists on using a bead front, it is usually recommended to find a contrasting color bulls eye of the proper dimension that one can see a complete ring of color around the front bead.

Hedge apples work well too.

I hunted with this rifle a bunch last year, albeit nothing showed. I've only shot hedge apples with it.










I also have an open sighted Savage 1899 in 30/30 that has only seen hedge apple duty and has taken deer.

Same here, I use the NRA 25 yard slow fire pistol targets at 100 yards (5 1/2" bull) and for 200 yard shooting have some replacement target centers, MR-52C which are 200 yard slow fire rifle targets with a near 12" bull. Also have flat posts on must open sighted rifles, either mil-surp bolt actions or the Skinner replacement front post on a couple of others.

I figure if those are good enough for target shooters then they're good enough for me.

The plain white printer paper set against a brown cardboard backer at 100 yards also works well with the flat top posts.

I prefer an 8" metal gong for practice but have used white 8" paper plates set out at 200 yards quite a bit. Those are stapled to surveyor stakes and stuck in the ground, one for each rifle I'm using or sighting in when I need to have a record of shot placement for the individual firearm.

Yeah, paper plates are a hell of a lot cheaper than 'targets'.

Wolfe Publishing had targets for rifle, handgun and scope. The item number was 552. Don't know if they are still available.

I shoot white paper with a bold capital T shape, that is upside down.

Put the top of the rear sight to align with the horizontal line, and the bead/blade to align with the vertical line.

Very repeatable.

Depending on the distance I'm shooting, I make the upside down "T" with either electrical tape, or black duct tape.

White bead with receiver sight, like the Lyman or Williams and targets with an Black Bull that changes color when hit by the bullet

Kaiser, I have had to deal with fading eyesight for quite a while. I do best with a square post and a 6 o'clock hold as several here have mentioned. The beauty of your Brno 22F is that you can have the best of both worlds, assuming you don't have the early round top action. The double square bridge version will take QD Warne rings that will hold zero beautifully while being taken on and off repeatedly (I have tested mine extensively). No drilling/tapping is necessary.

Sorry I don't have a closer pic of mine with the scope on it, but you can see the QD levers in this shot:



Mine is a 7X57 and would be the last rifle out the door if I had to get rid of everything.

I have about 15 different target images on file. Specifics depend on the sights in question and distances that used. I never realized one could do moa accuracy with irons until I came up with a pattern that perfectly fits my Sharps.

I use a target with a large black bullseye and vertical and horizontal crosshairs to which I add a 2" flourescent orange dot. This gives an aiming point that works with all colors of metallic front sights.