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

This is the only one Ive ever killed with open sights. It a 1899 B built in 1908, a 32-40. He was facing me, bullet went in his chest went all the way through. A mess to clean. He was about 60 yards. i shot up a bunch of pigs with it one day. It was about the most fun pig shoot ive ever had. I caught two bunches that weekend. Its fun to bang away at them 50 yards away.







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Not too many.

I have probably killed 15 or so Deer with open sights. All back in the 1970's. No cell phones back then, and I didn't carry a camera around in those days. So no pics. However I did save one of the racks to use for rattling. This one was killed at Ft. Benning Ga. in 1978 when I was stationed there.

Several deer but many hogs with my old marlin 30/30. Never had a scope on it when I used it. I put a bushnell trophy scope I had laying around on it about 10 years ago just for kicks. I have never zero’d it. If I recall the last time I shot that rifle was probably back in the late 80s. I bought it new for $125 from Service Merchandise on a clearance deal the mid 80s. I used it a few years until I got a ruger tanger in 30-06. Then never used it again.

Several! My first was at age 11 using a Stevens 22/410. Just a lucky shot with the 410 slug! After that 2 or 3 with my Model 88 Winchester in .308 Win, prior to my getting a scope.

If handguns count……an Antelope (similar in size to a deer) with my 629 S&W at a bit over 100 yards. memtb

A bunch. I'm not even sure how many. I always preferred open sights until my eyes started slipping

Mule deer, white tail, elk and African plains game all open sighted. Mostly with a muzzleloader but also handgun's, lever guns and a bolt action .458 Lott. I prefer Hawken style muzzy's to this day with both peep sights and plain open buckhorn sights. With enough practice, there is very little handicap to 250 yards with a modern gun and scoring off hand hits can be easier without the illusion of so much scope wobble. Hitting prairie dogs at distance with a carry handle AR 15 isn't too difficult. As I age my eye sight is the limiting factor, but still regularly head shoot grouse with my carry pistol. That said, I put an optic on most guns when I can except for my Hawken rifles and pistols.







Todd

A whole bunch with 12 and 20 gauge slug guns, Winchester and Marlin 30-30's, .50 T/C Hawken, Ruger Blackhawk .357 and various .22 rimfire rifles.

I have killed a few with a shotgun and a Muzzleloader. None that I can think of with a Centerfire rifle.

Only two, one with a Winchester 94 .32 Spl with factory irons, and the other with a 71 .348 with Lyman peep. Have numerous iron sighted guns that need to be bloodied, but almost every deer I ever see is at last light.

I have always preferred iron sights to scopes even though my first rifle I ever got (at 12 years old) had a 4X scope on it. I do like scopes and have nothing against them, but overall I like irons better.
I was about 7-8 when I killed my first deer. Using my dad's 300 Savage (with iron sights) I was about 9 or 10 when I killed my 1st elk (with the same rifle) I had exceptional vision up to my 53rd year when I lost about half of it and was down to 20/20. (no joke. That's how good my sight was when I was a kid and young adult) So for the most part, using irons and especially peep sights was not a hinderance for me. Now days, I can shoot well with scopes but my days of shooting very tight groups with irons are gone. I still mostly hunt with irons only, but for the last 12 years or so I have had to let some game walk away simply because the distance from me to them was too long for me to shoot with irons, whereas 20-40 years ago I could have (and did) make such shots commonly.
I cannot count the number of game animals I have killed in my life, but it's way up there. Looking back, I'd guess about 60% of them were killed with guns with irons only. Getting old "ain't for kids" and today I have to accept the fact that if I take an iron sighted rifle there can be times that I have to let the game walk off. If my time is not pressing, I do just that, and hunt the next day, or week or months.
But I now have to resign myself that for the last few days of each hunting season I am wise to take a scoped rifle. Living in a place with a lot of game and a lot of opportunities to "go out again" I still take iron sighted guns probably 9 time out of 10. But I am not foolish enough to tell new hunters not to get a scope. Scopes are better then irons for sure.

I just LIKE irons.
It's like my hunts with revolvers and flintlocks or wood long bows. I hunt with those tools because to me it's more fun. Not because they are "just as good".

Open sights on my mzl for a few deer. With a CF either a receiver sight or scoped, now almost all scope as old age sets in.

I killed my first deer with a scope just 2 years ago. Living in a slug gun state growing up always had open sighted guns. Switched to straight wall and put a peep on my .375 Marlin. All in somewhere around 36 deer l, 8 hogs with open sights. Still carry open sighted .22lr for squirrels more often than not.

Few with old school muzzleloader and handguns, few with shotguns slug and buckshot. Couple with a Winchester 94 only deer rifle i have that isn't scoped

Somewhere between 100-200.

Same as Fuller

My first and biggest 4x4 mule deer back in the day when we just tossed the huge racks under the fuel tank. 30-30 Marlin. A doe as well same rifle.
Cow elk Ruger 338 peep and post. 5-6 anterless here in Kansas in my later years with my 1903 Springfield 35 Whelen. Three nice Upstate NY Bucks , one shotgun, one Syrian Mauser 8x57, one 458WM Whitworth in the years in between.
F01

Killed a few that way

18 deer with open sights on my T/C Hawken .50. First few were with factory sights. All the rest were with tang mounted peep. I recall one tall Va 7 pointer at last light. Finally saw him between oaks, completely vanished thru peep. Screwed peep out, dropped it in my vest pocket and ghost ringed him at about 50 yards.

Four or five with my Ruger SBH before she got a scope. Glocked a few coyotes from my tree while deer hunting. I had shot a nice 8 pointer and a fat doe one crisp morning during Va early BP. Took a final scan of the frosty field before climbing down… with an empty Knight. Out stepped a coyote, who started my way. I rested my Glock 19 on the stand, covered the whole critter with the front sight, as it sat on its haunches eye balling me. Squeezed off a Gold Dot and hit that gal just above the eye. Straight down tail twitcher. Lazered at 63 yards. All by 7 am. Probably my luckiest day hunting.

Lot of small game and one turkey with Dad’s Model 41 Targetmaster.

Life was simple back then.

bomtek44

I've killed well over 100.

My first deer was done with a Winchester Model 37 single shot 12ga with a BB sight at about 10 yards. My father bought it at the local hardware store for $20 back in the late 50's. It was the only shotgun he would let me run slugs through. I killed several with it.



Then I confiscated his Rem 1100 and bought a slug barrel for it with open sights. I killed a ton of deer with that gun. My son has it now.

I also have this Zouave 58 cal reproduction that I bought when I was 15 or 16. I killed a ton of deer with this also. In 2002 I bought my Encore and never touched the Zouave for 20 years until they started our primitive season Feb 1-3. This was the last deer I killed last year.

From the time I was 12 until 27 I only used iron sights. I averaged better than two deer a year but I missed a few years with the USMC.

I mostly used a 99R .300 Savage or a .25-35 SRC. I occasionally used dad's .308 Winchester Model 88 as well.

I still use them occasionally. I have an 1899 with a tang sight in .250-3000 that does a good job.

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

windows 7 screen shot

Model 71 348 win repop

1886 Winchester 45-75 repop

screenshot studio

T/C Pennsylvania Hunter 50 cal. Round ball and patch

All of my shotgun deer were taken with open or no sights. Three four deer with an open sighted handgun. Since 2004 I've taken 7 deer with my peep sighted.300 Savage Model 99. A couple of deer decades ago with a peep sighted Marlin .35R. And my only elk with a borrowed .300 Savage

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Open Sites, Mule Deer, Whitetail, Elk, Antelope, and other critters, more than I can count, whats so strange about open sites ?? Rio7

Open sights are the manual transmission of hunting. Some guys can’t kill anything without multiple Xs, crowded crosshairs and a spotter telling them to send it. Multiple deer here in Connecticut with a shotgun usually smooth bore and irons.

I’ve killed deer with my 54 ml and round balls

Only two. Both were shot with a Marlin 336.

I've got 5 deer pics on my phone now from past 8 years, killed this year's with a scoped 270Win. Vast majority of my rifle kills were with iron sights, coyotes, turkey, plus the deer which are easy! I've killed gray squirrels all my life with an open sighted 22, now that will challenge your shooting like nothing else, especially early season with leaves on, steep mountains & big timber. I've killed near a train load! But I'm 65 and that shooting ability has declined in past 7-8 years. But I can't post pics on this site.

A lot with a Rem. 11-87 and buckshot running dogs. Also a T/C Hawken .45 during muzzleloader season. I cant recall ever shooting a deer with a centerfire rifle that wasn't scoped.

Took my longest shot with a peep at 150 yards with the M71 348 Win this year. I like using irons or a peep. Still waiting for a good opportunity with the big 50 2 1/2" Sharps. Taken a few with a handgun and irons as well.

well done.

If the front bead of a double barreled shotgun counts, I’ve killed a pile.

A few from over the years in no particular order ....
6.5X55 FAIR Safari 500

.303 Brit Ruger#3

Same

.58 Fraser River Hawken

8X56 Mannlicher Schoenauer

I killed a doe at 120 yards with a shotgun bead, spined her and she just tipped over easy-like, dead as can be. Have killed several with bird barrels, muzzleloader sights, iron sights on slug guns.

My first an only deer with open sights with a gun. I was 14 in central Wisconsin using my Franchi 20 g. semi auto. After that about a dozen with my bow,

Probably a dozen, all does, all with a flintlock.


I don't see well, have never desired to limit myself like that while using a
modern gun.


21 year old son in law loves to use open sights, don't tell the Boomers.
According to them, he doesn't know how.

Dozens upon dozens, too many to count, Sharps rifles with black powder, 50, 54, 58 and 8 Bore black powder muzzleloaders, all kinds of lever action rifles with black powder and smokeless, as well as a dozen more with 12 gauge buckshot and slugs, not the most effective way to hunt, but definitely the most satisfying.

Killed my first deer with my dad’s 1954 rem pump in 270. Used it again a few years ago to shoot a decent buck. I put a scope on it and my daughter killed a couple bucks with it. I’ll probably be dead but m leaving it to my grandson and hoping he will carry on. He is only four now but his mother’s a hunter still. Edk

A few with the Hawken and a .530 PRB.

killed a pretty good nine-point last season with NEF Handi-Rifle in .45-70, NECG banded front sight, No-Dak Spud peep, about 65 yards.

I would have to think hard about this. My first two were with a 94 .32spl. Later I killed antelope and mt. lion with that rifle. Three with my .30-06 before I scoped it.
One antelope with .50 cal. Hawkin. Maybe a dozen head with 44s and 45s. A mountain lion with a 336 30/30. One antelope and coyote with my 94 .30/30. I guess that is about it. When I was in my late teens, I was hunting with a custom .30-06 with a 2.5-8
B and L scope on it. I remember my older friend telling me it would be no good in the brush. The last afternoon of the last day was a dreay day in Dec. I was a driver and they wanted meat. We were pushing a bottom full of old crabapple trees, a real mess.
I jumped a bunch of deer to my left and saw them move ahead. I jumped up on a small mound of dirt just as the first one flashed though an opening, when the next one hit that spot, I shot it in the neck just below the head. I would have never had time in the dim light to line up and shoot with irons. From that day to this, scopes have been my choice.

Two - whitetails - different hunts , with a 4-inch S&W M57 41 Magnum

i killed i-don't-know-how-many-deer-I've -killed with a open sighted rifle back in the day, but i betcha its alot. with open sighted revovlers, probably around 20 or so deer. flintlock 50 cal, many.

aperture (peep) sights is around 10 deer.

I have killed deer with muzzleloaders, Marlin lever, Remington 7600 pump, and shotguns. Unfortunately my eyesight has deteriorated and I have to use scopes.

First Handgun deer

I’ve only killed one with open sites, a doe with a muzzleloader.

1976, button buck with Zouave replica and minie ball. Couple years later, 870 with Rem slug. 2004, 357 Security Six.

0 big game.

Small game when I was a youth.

My eyes started going bad at 9. Years peering at a computer screen made it worse. I finally had to mount scopes on all my deer rifles about 2001. I gave up bow hunting in 2007 partly because I could no longer see the sights and the deer at the same time.

I went back and found the last time I hunted with irons. This was early ML season in Kentucky in 2004. I nailed a doe at 50 yards with my .54 Hawken.



The good news is my nearsightedness started getting better about a decade ago, and the Chemo in 2022 radically changed my eyesight for the better. I got a new script last year and went to the LGS shortly thereafter. I saw a Rossi M92 and asked to handle it. Hoop-de-DO! I could sight with the irons. I bought a Stanless 24 inch M92 this past spring. Sadly, when I got it out in the fall, my sight had changed again and I couldn't see the target. I went to the doc, and got new glasses, but it was after season. I'll get my eyes examined just before season next year, and be ready.

Some of you guys have piled them up with iron sights!
I've killed probably half a dozen deer with open sighted muzzleloaders, two with my Ruger Blackhawk .41 mag, and one with my peed sighted Marlin 1894 .41 mag. I have a 1949 Marlin 336 .32 Special that wears a peep sight as well. I've taken it out several times, but haven't had a shot opportunity yet. My up close vision went to crap after I tuned 40, so I now I use peep sights instead of open sights when I'm not using a scope.

I can't edit my previous post. PEEP sighted. I wasn't wearing my glasses when I typed that post.

I honestly have no idea but it’s way north of a hundred. Ol 1100 12 ga.

A couple of mule deer with a 50 cal T-C traditional cap-lock muzzle loader. One with a 44 mag S&W 629.

Had to put down quite a few injured or sick deer with a 5.56 AR-15 or my 45 1911. Only one of those was a somewhat challenging shot, the others were basically very short range mercy killings.

Mostly I do hunt with a scoped rifle, but I still like having sights on the rifle and would still use them.

Guy

My first two deer were mule deer (bucks) in Montana breaks country. The first was a Winchester Mod 94, 30-30 and the second was a Marlin 336 in 30-30. After that I realized the distance I could shoot with a scopes bolt action so went that route.

A couple Whitetails, a Mule Deer and a couple elk. All with muzzleloaders. Oh, and one Black Bear with a .348.

Just one, .44 Magnum Super Blackhawk.

A good many.

With .44mags, .30-30s, .30-40, .30-06, 12 gauge, .300 savage.

Never felt under gunned with an open sight.

- jake

Fair amount with pistols and a few with muzzle loaders.

Just a handful with flintlocks.

That's my current goal

2 with a double barrel 20 ga and one with a 6" revolver.

kwg

I was about to post only 2 deer then I read kwg020 post about a shotgun and remembered I killed a small buck with a Winchester Mdl 12 12 ga. with 00 buck in about 1982 or so.
I then shot a small buck with a Ruger factory folder Mini 14 with open sights in 1985
then about 2015 or 16 I shot a young buck with a 1891 production Winchester Mdl 1886 rebarreled sometime to a 33 Win.

Maybe 6-8. A few different shotguns with slugs over the years and a couple rifles. Last season's doe was popped with an iron sighted 375 Win.

Shot a few does with open sights, but these would be the only animals I have pics of. This was the first buck I successfully took by tracking. I slipped on some ice and knocked the scope out on my main rifle a couple days earlier, and the only other rifle I had sighted in was this .50 cal TC Hawken... killed at 40 yards with a patched round ball.

PB170070 by [/url], on [bleep]


I was gifted this beat up old Lee Enfield by my father in law. Its stamped as being made in 1916, and I used it to kill this moose in 2016 while hunting with my wife. This moose was also tracked, and shot at about 40 yards as he got out of his bed.


[url=https://flic.kr/p/CijNKA]PA110230 by [url=https://www.[bleep].com/photos/153108294N08/][/url], on [bleep]

I've shot a few. With a 44 Redhawk, my CMP Garand, 45 T/C Hawken rifle, Remington shotguns.

Just one……so far



KC