Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Open sight limit?

For those that regularly hunt deer size game with open sights what is your range limit?

Back when I was courting my 1895 marlin in 45-70, 180 yards was the ABSOLUTE max in good light for me with the factory sights and good 350 gr. handloads

Kilt a cinnamon phase spring black bear at 175 yards with the 1895, aiming right at it, and tipped it over. That fall, the wife laid claim to the 1895 cause she found she could hit stuff like magic with it, head shooting a deer and dropping a cow elk so fast we thought she missed as the small band thundered off after the shot, Both elk and deer about 50 yards. I purnt' near had to file for visitation rights of the thing after that.....

If the terrain is brush, thick timber or just gunna be close quarters open sights and a 45-70 rule, no mater the game!

With a good peep rear and front post, I like the XS system, I'd shoot out to 200yds. More my ability limitations than the equipment's.

I found hitting man-sized targets at 300 meters with an M16 to be childs play. Not every rifle is as easy to shoot as an M16, but my 03-A3 with Lyman aperture sight, Marbles white bead, and Timney trigger is close. The limiting factor for me is light. I doon't see too well in the dark. The best time to shoot game animals is often dawn and dusk when light is low. For that reason I scope almost all my big game hunting rifles. The squirrel rifle is scoped for precision on small targets. Having said that, I have killed deer and squirrels with open sights and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that goes along with it. I also prefer open sights for moving (running) game.

I'll admit to a practical open sight hunting range limit of 200 yards, but you really don't want me shooting at you with an M16 at 300 or even 400. It could be very hazardous to your health.

Yeah I was thinking that 200yds would be a limit.

300 would be reasonable but beyond that errors in yardage are severe and time of flight are too long for the rifles I shoot.

My longest is 260.

Brent

The whole secret is practice, practice, practice. I watched a team of GI shooters compete in a 1000 yard match using peep sights. (they were competing against other shooters that had state of the art rifles and scopes) The range officer said if they could get their dope right, they could shoot possibles at 1000 yards.

Depends on the rifle/cartridge, sights and target. My .44 Mag, not much past 100 yards due to the sights. My Marlins, 200 yards.

My sights are set at 125 yards with my 357 mag.

That is the only firearm I use to hunt deer.

500 yards prone is the furthest I have pushed a shot on game. Was actually 493 according to the range finder.

Twenty feet. Old is not for sissies!

I also had little problem knocking down pop-up silhouettes of a man to 300 meters with an open sighted M-14(292 out of 300),but that was then and this is now.

100 yards seems far these days with open sights..50 is even better.

Jayco

I once turned down a huge coastal brown bear that I spent several years chasing in GMU 7. He appeared across a canyon at 11:30 at night during an early May hunt and was 250 yards out. I chose to pass on the shot, in hopes of getting another crack at him. I never killed that bear, but I believe he and another large male killed each other a couple years later. The recovered skulls of both those bears went 27+ inches and 29+ inches.

200 yards is a good place to stop with my old eyes and most sights. Lighting conditions need to be goood for that range to work as well.

with aperture sights with the gold colored aperture inset and a sourdough front I might go 250 with that.

Whoever said " the older I get the better I was knew about iron sights".

I could possible at 500 meters pretty regularly with the M-14. Of course, known distance shooting at a big black bullsey in the Hawaiian sun is pretty good duty.

Target shooting with irons - I've done 1,000 (and even beyond) but it's different with hunting. Most of my hunting with sights has been pretty close in, 200, 250 yards at the most. Generally much closer.

Anymore I seem to need pretty good light to use sights well at more than modest ranges.

Im pretty conservative, Id say 150 is plenty for me. If I were in a pinch or had plans to be limited to rifles without telescopic sights, I believe I could be somewhat more effective beyond 150.

My open sight situations are when I know Im gonna be killing in the thick of it.

The last time I was at the Whittington Center I was cracking the gong with my 348 at 200 or so. I ended up killing a bull a few days later at about 75 yds with a scoped rifle in Tres Piedres.

Joseph

50 years ago I didn't have as much difficulty seeing both iron sights and the target. I even filed the bead off the front sight of one of my .22 LR rifles so the bead wouldn't cover long range targets.

I recently decided that I needed another .30-30 model 94 Winchester. I found what I wanted on Gunbroker, but when it arrived, the sights were just a blur.

About 5 years ago Lasik surgery corrected my far vision back to 20-20, but now I need readers for everything closer than about 4'.

Earlier this afternoon, there were 4 whitetails feeding on the hill above my house. I lasered them at 228 yds away. Sighting at these deer with my Model 94, the front bead would almost completely cover one of these deer. With 1.25 reading glasses, the front bead was in focus, but the deer were a blur. Without the readers, I could clearly see the deer, but the rifle's sights were a blur.

I think that about 150 yds would be my limit for shooting with open sights at an animal. That's why I have scopes on my other hunting rifles.

Peep sights are not open sights, and open sights are what the man asked about

When I was younger. 125 yds. Now? Half that.

This would be for open sights.

Remind me where I mentioned peep sights!