Seeing targets in low light - 01/28/23
It's below zero out today and it isn't going to warm up for a while -- I'm bored.
I have some targets set up at the end of my gun room about 40 feet away from where I stood. There are bright lights between where I was standing and the targets. I was standing in a well-lit area too. The targets are not lit up.
I did tests on a dozen scopes. A couple of the older scopes were not high dollar scopes. Most of the scopes were fixed power, because that is what I like. The highest power fixed scope I tested was 6x. The variables were set on the lowest power setting. I have some expensive - at least my definition of expensive - on rifles in my safe. I think I'll pull them out and do further testing.
I did the same test with iron sights. Perhaps the easiest to see with the iron sights were the sights I have on my 375 Winchester. It has an aperture rear sight and a brass post. All but the 375 have factory front sights. (I think I'll be replacing the factory front sights on rifles that I use for hunting, with brass posts). I have one rifle with a not so good open rear sight that had a white dot/top on the front sight. Most of the rest of the rifles have aperture rear sights. The exception is my T-C Muzzle loader. I tossed the miserable buckhorn sight that came with the muzzle loader long ago. I replaced that sight with a flat rear open sight with an opening wide enough to allow light between the edges of the front sight; this set up came in an easy second, almost tied with first. The large opening aperture rear sights did a little better than the other open rear sight with the white dot front post. The small aperture sights and the dark factory front sights were not good, with my old eyes.
I have some targets set up at the end of my gun room about 40 feet away from where I stood. There are bright lights between where I was standing and the targets. I was standing in a well-lit area too. The targets are not lit up.
I did tests on a dozen scopes. A couple of the older scopes were not high dollar scopes. Most of the scopes were fixed power, because that is what I like. The highest power fixed scope I tested was 6x. The variables were set on the lowest power setting. I have some expensive - at least my definition of expensive - on rifles in my safe. I think I'll pull them out and do further testing.
I did the same test with iron sights. Perhaps the easiest to see with the iron sights were the sights I have on my 375 Winchester. It has an aperture rear sight and a brass post. All but the 375 have factory front sights. (I think I'll be replacing the factory front sights on rifles that I use for hunting, with brass posts). I have one rifle with a not so good open rear sight that had a white dot/top on the front sight. Most of the rest of the rifles have aperture rear sights. The exception is my T-C Muzzle loader. I tossed the miserable buckhorn sight that came with the muzzle loader long ago. I replaced that sight with a flat rear open sight with an opening wide enough to allow light between the edges of the front sight; this set up came in an easy second, almost tied with first. The large opening aperture rear sights did a little better than the other open rear sight with the white dot front post. The small aperture sights and the dark factory front sights were not good, with my old eyes.