Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders sighting in with iron sights

Ok I'm gonna profess my ignorance, I have a T/C encore thats whooping my butt to get sighted in. At 25 yards its high, at 50 yards its low, at 100 I have no idea where its going. I'm using 245 gr. powerbelt bullets with 100 gr. by volume of 777 FF I have left and right good to go it is just up and down whoopin me. By the way I am used to shooting scopes and not open sights so any help would be grateful!

put it 1" high at 50 yards.

How are the groups at 50 yards? 2" or under?

yes under 2" at 50

you're just going to have to get it at least 1 to 2" high at 50 yards and then see how she does at 100 yards.


I use the shoot n c targets from birchwood casey, they are 12" black circle with a 3" orange dot in the center. That or a simple white piece of paper with a 3" black bulls eye in the middle.

I'm useing the shoot n see targets also, it is frustrating when you can hit at 50 and have NO clue what it is doing at 100!

Get yourself a 4'x4'piece of cardboard to attach your target too, with target in the center of the cardboard you'll be able to find out where your hitting at 100yds then.

The thing that helped me tighten groups more than anything shooting with open sights is the "6-O'clock hold". Instead of covering up the bullseye with the front bead, you place the top of the front sight at the bottom of the bullseye. You can tell a lot more accurately where you are aiming that way.

I use a 1" bull for 25 yards, a 2" bull for 75 yards, and a 4" bull for 100+ yards. That allows me to see what I am aiming at instead of guessing.

Also using a good sandbag setup or a gun vise until you get things dialed in is useful

Ditto what txhunter58 posted.Guys try to hold in the center of the bull and cannot do it consistently.Use the 6 o'clock hold on a 6" black bull with just a sliver of white under the black and then adjust your sights to hit right on the 6 o'clock black.

If you're shooting 2" low at 50yd's and if your front sight is a blade sight you'll need to file down a little at a time until your hitting where you want on the target. Or raise the rear sight for the same effect.

Yes, and if you follow my advice and use the 6 o'clock hold, you will be hitting even lower (oposite of where you need to go). Follow the advice above: you need to get it hitting 1-2 inches high at 50 yards first and as RWL99 says, there are two ways to raise your point of impact: Lower the front sight or raise the rear.

I used the 6 oclock hold all worked out fine I'm hitting an 8 inch target at 100 yards 5 out of 5 times. It is minute of deer so all should be good! Thanks for your help all.

You just have to train yourself when buck fever strikes not to revert to covering the target with the front bead. Easy to do. Good luck