Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer you have killed with open sights

A good many a open sighted model 9422mag was my ranch and grove gun. Also did a lot of hunting out of airboats, swamp buggies, behind dogs and off horses. Now with old eyes I have a hard time with rifle sights.

1886 45-70








Original Sharps in 40-90 bottleneck…






Winchester 1895 40-72







Winchester 1894 32-40








Winchester deluxe 45-70








Winchester 1886 and Bullard 40-65









Another Sharps 40-90 bottleneck






50-100-450








Winchester high wall 25-35

Shrap, that last muley in the snow made for a great pic! 😎

Ballard repro made in Cody, WY. 45-70 loaded with blackpowder and 30:1 cast.

All of mine with muzzleloaders and most with handguns were shot with iron sights. Centerfire rifles .. I'm not sure. I shot one with a Marlin 336 Cowboy .38-55 with a receiver sight. I swear the bead was 3 feet from that deer when the hammer dropped but somehow it went in a pile with the aorta and top of the heart scrambled. Musta bounced off a rock I guess? I'm not sure about any others anymore.

I killed quite a few with open sights on side lock muzzle loaders. Maybe half a dozen each with a shotgun and a bead and various handguns.

I've killed a couple does with a savage 99 takedown in 250-3000. That's the only iron sighted rifle I ever used on a deer that I can remember

Cataract surgery opened a new world for me, no way for Iron sights before that

killed lots of things with open sights, including big game.

They are about the worst choice, as you have to have a lot of light, and can't see intervening things like vines etc.... But they are fun.

Cap and ball pistols, almost all my MZ rifles and shotguns. Killed a lot of deer with handguns and irons. Killed a lot of animals with AR15s and irons since we shot em that way in competition for years. Killed one deer approaching 600 yards with an AR once with 4 witnesses in the truck. The last nuisance bear I shot in Alaska while guiding was shot with irons on a sig 365 9mm.

That said I still think they are the worst choice except maybe close range handgun, which could go either way. We are perfectly fine handgun with RMR or irons. Even my brown bear backup rifle runs a scope and I'm VERY thankful for it, even in the alder thickets/tunnels the wounded ones usually go up into. Irons would be a handicap.

Thats a cool rifle Hanco. But I still wonder why you bang at pigs in a trap that far away. We've trapped lots of pigs over the years and while you have a few years on me and I didn't start the trapping part until the 80s, every single pig we've trapped we walked up to and plugged with a 22 ,even in the bigger round traps like you have. And as far as I recall I don't ever recall body shooting one. Yup it takes a bit of time and patience but never did like all the noise and such with using deer rifles and the like. Maybe East TX pigs are different, but when we hunted over there they seemed like the ones at our house and the ones we hunted in the hill country and still do.

While I've killed several deer with an iron sighted muzzle loader, I don't have a single picture of them. The last iron sighted centerfire kill is this little mule deer from central Oregon. The rifle is an old Win Model 94 in .32Win spcl and 170gr handloaded Speer bullet.

The rifle was gifted to me just a few weeks before my friend and hunting mentor passed away. He didn't believe me when I told him I'd take it hunting. That set the stage for it being carried on opening day where this little forky stood around a bit too long. It was the only buck in our camp for several days and quieted my trash talking friends down quite a bit!

.45-70 405 Gr Cast bullet, black powder...back when my eyes were young enough for irons, and I had hair...and it was brown!



Same

Killed this one New Year’s Eve a few weeks ago. Used my grandfather’s Browning BAR 270 with Williams peep sight and fiber optic front. He owned 3 rifles in my lifetime (I’m 48 now)…. This Browning, a Winchester M94 30-30 (have it too), and a Remington 742 30-06 he traded in on the Browning in the mid to late 80s. He never used a scope so it was only fitting to keep it scope less. I’m not into scores much but it did score 147 green. He would have been proud!

Last month, repop Winchester 1873 44-40.

1899 Savage 250-3000

1894 Winchester 38-55 Rebore

1895 Winchester repop 30-06

1895 again filling a B tag

Apparently there's some confusion about "open" sights and "iron sights." Am seeing a lot of aperture ("peep") sights on the rifles in the photos.

Big bodied booger.

I got on a kick using open sights and older, original rifles for a few years, and got a few bucks with them. .303 Sav, .30-30, .30-40 Krag, etc. It was fun, but my interests shifted I guess.
Also took a few does and such with them too back in high school and college, back in the late 90s.

Doe at about 40 yards with a T/C .50 cal percussion Renegade Hunter using a T/C Maxi-Ball