Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Problem with Williams "Fool Proof"

I bought a Williams FP peep sight for my 99G and the hole in the aperture is very large. Makes it very difficult for me to aim correctly. It's almost like I'm guessing from shot to shot where the bead was in relationship to the hole on my last shot. Were there different size discs made to insert in the aperture hole? powdr

The idea is to ignore the aperature, focus on the front sight and target. Lots of folks just remove the disk and use the threaded hole like a ghost ring for hunting. If the size of the hole bothers you, Williams has aperatures in various sizes, or you can get an adjustable Merit disk. A disk that's too small will be hard to use in the woods.

A smaller hole for hunting is a handicap.

Don't try to focus the rear and front sight, rather simply focus on the front sight and your eye will automatically find the center of the rear hole.

First off, I am NOT putting you down with what I am going to say. I can see without a doubt what your problem is. You are making the fatal mistake a large number of "peep" sight shooters make. Do not look AT the aperture, instead, look THROUGH it. Just use your front bead and use a "6 o'clock hold. Once you get used to it, it will become second nature. BTW, the larger the hole in the aperture, the better it is for hunting purposes. And another BTW. They never made a 99 too nice to shoot. That's what they were all MADE for in the first place.

What these guys said...




Just look through the aperture, not at it...


Your eyeball is built to naturally center it, so forget about it!


If you want to feel better about it, bench the gun and shoot a group with the front bead as far out to the sides of the aperture as you can get it. You'll see its still kill zone size...easily.


And yes, different sized apertures are readily available.




And just because I'm on a roll, if you are shooting a rounded polished front bead you may experience a phenomena known as " shooting away from the light".
i.e.If the sun is hitting your bead at ten o'clock position, your eye naturally centers that little ball of glare and your shots will end up closer to the 4 o'clock position...etc, etc...
An easy fix with a flat faced bead or blade type sight....I personally always preferred a flat faced bead painted red.

Agree absolutely. It would be worth the time/cost to pick up a variety of apertures and try them out in various light conditions.

Use this guy:

http://aperturesnmore.com

He will make whatever you need for whatever sight you have.

.095 is the diameter I like for hunting. It lets enough light in low light conditions and gives you enough of a field of view to be able to pick up moving game, but still enough "black" around sight hole to know you are actually looking through the back sight and not over it.

If you are ghost ring hunting and aren't sure that you are actually looking through the back sight you are most likely going to look right over the top of it. If you are going to go ghost ring, no point in even having a back sight. Just put a bead on the end of the barrel and call it a shotgun shooting a single rifled projectile.

Man you guys hit all the points dead on!

I'll second Pappy's recommendation re: the Merit adjustable sight disc. I invested in a few of them over the years and always put one in whatever sight I'm hunting with. Open it up wide for early morning-late evening light, and narrow it down when the light is stronger. Remember, the smaller the aperture, the sharper the sight picture will be. It's always a compromise to one degree or another.

As for the "ghost ring" effect with no disc at all installed, for me personally when I do that it becomes a "no ring" sight. My eyes are that bad. (Probably I'm still getting the aperture effect sub-consciously, but still.) That's why I like a well defined ring even with a large opening, and the Merit device fulfills that need admirably. (The alternative would be to carry different size apertures into the woods. Yeah, that'll work.)

Front sight beads aren't to be overlooked either, as Le Poohbah pointed out. I file my beads (usually gold, literally) relatively flat faced with just a hint of a rounded edge for obscure reasons best known to myself. Truth be told, a sourdough sight may well be better yet. I use both.

gnoahhh, what's the value of a Merit? I saw an adjustable peep this last weekend at a gunshow at $50. I remembered what you said about them so was tempted, but decided to pass for now.

Unfortunately that is the ballpark rate for one these days. But if you factor the cost of a handful of separate apertures to meet all your shooting needs (not to mention losing them in the leaves when dropped while changing them out in the field), it becomes a bargain.

Just a quick Gooogle check, MidwayUSA has several for 48 bucks ea. New.

Vintage ones may be finer made and period appropriate and worth the premium tariff. Dunno.

powdr: I have the same sight as you on my 99 and bought a Williams "Twilight" aperture for it. It's still relatively large when target shooting and just when I start thinking I really need to get a smaller aperture to tighten things up, I remember my 100 yard groups aren't all bad. Must be what was mentioned above about essentially ignoring the rear sight as your eye wants to auto-center it. Would a smaller aperture tighten groups a bit at the range? Probably and I may still pick one up as Williams Sight isn't that far a drive for me

BTW, the "Twilight" is an aperture with a brass insert/ring that supposedly helps in lower light. I think it helps a bit but don't expect a miracle. At the very least, it dresses things up and for about $10 is worth a try.

Thanks guys...all good stuff. Recruit, I might try the Twilight...it looks neat to me. Never shot a peep before but want to try. It's a 110yds to my feeder...I hope I can pull this off. powdr