Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Who Hunts With Iron Sights?

Depends on the rifle. My Browning B92 .44 Mag is my only centerfire without a scope but all three of my Marlins have Warne Quick Detach rings.

Eyes don't like irons nearly as much as they used to.

I just put on some fiber optic sights. I think i'm going to like them. Even though the sights are a little blurry with my crummy eyesight. I find it easy to line up the sights.

I'm going to go shoot it after lunch.

PM sent

Sometimes.

I've gone back to metallic sights for all my rifle hunting. I like being "limited" by them. They inspire me to hunt better, harder and smarter. With metallic sights I almost never have an opportunity to just raise my rifle, aim and shoot. I have to get closer or the lights not right, the angles wrong, can't thread a shot through the brush, etc., etc., etc. When an animal is spotted the hunt is just beginning, kind a like bow hunting. These critters may not be trophies as far as the "book" is concerned, but all were hard earned and memorable in their own way.

2 hour stalk to get within 25 yards of herd


All day cat and mouse across the prairie


10 yard ram after 3,000' climb & many days


Goofy stag buck last day of season ordeal (lesson re-learned)

Iron sights and still hunting go together like ham and eggs. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks for all the posts guys. Seeing someone using iron sights always brings a smile to my face.

EG 300 Sav?

1922 vintage 1899 Model G in .300 Savage. Antelope rifle is a .250-3000.

I've shot several whitetail and one hog with open sight handirifle in .45-70. shot one running doe with open sight mosin-nagant 7.62x54r. hope to take my 1903 springfield in .35 whelen fitted with redfield aperture sight after elk this october.

I still like to hunt with open/aperature sights when the conditions are right. I have a few rifles and muzzleloaders set up for them. A pair of T.C. sidelock percussion rifles, a Winchester 64 in 30/30, Marlin 30AS in 30/30, and a new to me Mauser 98 in 9.3x57. The Buck was from this years early muzzloader season with the T.C. .45. Still hunting, shot at @ 20 feet from the muzzle, patched roundball.

Excellent.

Forgot one:

Type 38 in 6.5 Arisaka mannlicher.

me too

Nice Shiras.

I never get tired of looking at guns with iron sights. They look so right to me. Seeing the game they killed is even better.

Keep them coming men.

These pics have been shown before but redundancy is not always a bad thing...


While this isn't really open sights it is a 1-4X that was set on 1X and still looks "right" to me.

One more

I've got a couple of lever actions that wear receiver sights and have taken 6 deer with muzzleloader and open sights plus two with revolver. Open sights do have their place and are without a doubt the quickest for close shots. Scopes certainly have their place as well. I've taken many deer with my scope sighted rifles that I couldn't have been certain of an open shot with iron sights due to vegetation.

300 yd shots with open sights may be easy for BrentD but I seriously doubt my abilities (and 99+% of most hunters) to accurately place the first shot on a critter at that yardage under field conditions with open sights, practice or not.

If I'm going to hunt with open sights as I do on occasion I do so knowing that I may have to pass up a shot that would be relatively easy with a scope. That is part of the challenge and the fun.

I'll agree there are times open sights allow a guy to see (and avoid) vegetation he wouldn't have seen through a scope but I must say with the single focal plane scopes are much faster (for me at least).

When shooting open sights you have to focus on 3 points. The rear and front sights plus the target. Peeps are quicker some as you just concentrate on the front sight and the target but still not as quick as a scope. Maybe I just need to practice more with open sights. I don't know. I do enjoy killing critters without a scope though. It just seems more satisfying.

I really wish I had just one non-scoped hunting rifle in my humble collection that worked for me but sadly, the ones I tried, MOA becomes H (hour) OA. I've got a 30-30 that I couldn't find the paper at 100 yards. I finally gave up and put a scope on it.