Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why no barrel sights on the ruger hawkeyes?

In fact,no sights on the m77 mII anymore.When and why did tis happen.I'm really disappointed

It happened because no one uses iron sights anymore. If you want to you can have better ones than they used to come with added.

I like them too !
I have seen the new RSM rifles and they come with the nice looking banded front sight.
I wonder how much ruger charges to put one on.
Cerainly a usefull item
I would probably buy one of NEGCs peeps that fir the scope slot for the rear.
keep the peep zeroed and in a pouch on my sling.
...tj3006

It saddens me to see iron sights going away. There's a lot of people who think the simple open sight is completely worthless.

if you wanna shoot iron sites go buy a milsurp or a model 94, with my scope set to 3x I feel comfortable with any shot including ones very very close in. iron sites clutter up the gun and make it look less clean, IMO iron sites are only for rifles to be used on african game, ad to that every rifle thats been made since the late 60's generally doesn't have a stock design well suited for iron sites, they end up being about as worthless as tits on a boar

I think rifles without iron sights look incomplete, and the ability to shoot up close with a scope is irrelevant -- I shot a running blacktail in the reprod at 35 yards last year, with a 6x36. Real hunting rifles have iron sights, and eventually all of mine will have them. I may never use them, as I tend to prefer shooting game with scopes for a variety of reasons -- but they should be there.

Just an opinion, of course, but it is mine .

Dennis

Once while climbing up a rather steep mountain, one of the sling studs pulled loose and my rifle went into a 15 foot freefall. Landed scope first breaking the objective lens. I didn't have open sights on that rifle, so my hunt was over. I won't make that mistake again. And I acree with muledeer, rifles look a bit nekkid without them. On a clear day, I can hit most anything I need to with open sights. Scope just adds better lighting and more precision for the longer shots. But I can get closer if I have to.

This year was the first time I ever went on a fly-in trip with a rifle without irons. My partner's rifle had only irons (.54 Hawken), so there was a "backup" if necessary. We ended up shooting two Sitka blacktail bucks bedded together, at perhaps 50 yards. I was so glad I had a 6X scope... .

Forgot to add in my earlier post -- the .300 RCM and.338 RCM Hawkeyes, as well as the .375 African and Alaskan, do carry iron sights, and I think are much the better rifles for it.

Dennis

I always thought iron sights were a good thing. If something happens to the scope, you can still hunt, but if there no open sights, you have a piss poor walking stick.


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Front sight focus, trigger squeeze

Why include the weight and cost for something that many people do not use any longer. 50 years ago there was a vibrant market for after-market peep sights (Redfield, Williams, Lyman, etc.). Few are sold today.

I fully understand why the manufacturers don't include them. They typically don't provide great triggers or stocks either.

I just think a big game hunting rifle without useable iron sights is incomplete, and don't like hunting with one if I lack ready access to a backup rifle.

Dennis

So China Mart can sell them cheap.

Sometimes scopes are a pain in the butt. Ever try packing a rifle with one of those huge scopes on a horse? I helped guide for a guy earlier this year that brought an AR-10 with a big scope. Great rifle, but what a pain to pack around.

I fondled a Ruger Hawkeye Alaskan the other day. Great rifle, they did a really good job on it. Sights were good and it pointed well. Short, light and handy. If I had any need for a thumper, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Now if they could make a .308 or .30-06 Hawkeye with a 20" barrel, wood stock, and those same sights, I'd buy it right now. As it is, I'd have to spend an extra $150 or so for the NECG sights and then have to install them. I still might do it though.

They do -- it's called a .300 RCM. If you want a slightly better mousetrap, it's called the .338 RCM.

Worth looking at...

Dennis

Yah know somthing comical I saw the other day,
A new remington 25,06 with the standard open sights you would see on such a rifle,
And right next to it another remington bolt in 35 whelen , no sights.
Seems a webit bassakward to me.
My Idea that I mentioned above would amount to having the banded front sight ruger uses, and the back up sight from negc in the pouch is beacuse I once sat huddeld under a rain poncho for about 2 hours watching a trail waiting for an elk.
It was raining so hard my scope was not worth much.
A decent peep sight would have been better.
And I can shoot a peep prety well.
But to each there own.
...tj3006

Thanks for the heads up. I looked. Those are nice. I just don't need a magnum for what I do. Something like that, in .308 with a 1.5x5 scope in QD mounts would be just about perfect.

I also like for them to have sights. I still have some without sights, but have been installing the NECG sights with a barrel band front and barrel band sling swivel on all mine. I also use Talley mounts and take a spare sighted-in scope with me on a trip away from home, so I guess I believe in being prepared for the worst.

I think most of us guys here are rifle loonies, good lord don't most of you guys take a back up rifle, I do, I always have a second rifle back at camp, one year my dad fell and broke his stock, you guys talking about breaking the scope, what if you break more than that on the gun. thats a great excuse to buy another gun and have it as a backup, if you are someone else in camp breaks their gun.

This year I was hunting 8 miles back in the Gila wilderness. One rifle is enough to pack.

Also, on the first day of the hunt, we headed out in the dark. One of the hunters slipped on a rock and fell hard on his rifle. No big dings on the scope, but it knocked the BC scope cover off. He had the old style windage adjustable scope mount, so I wouldn't be super confident in the zero on that rifle.

When you fly into the bush and are limited to 75 to 100 lbs per person, a second rifle is not part of the equation. Ditto backpack hunting.

When I drive my truck to a hunt, I take several rifles. But I live on an island with 42 miles of road, so I don't do a lot of that, except when I take the ferry south to America to hunt. Having functional redundant systems can be fairly important at times.

Dennis