Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Open sights on client DGR rifle- cosmetic or necessity?

D'Arcy Echols installs what I think are the best irons out there, a see through "V" arrangement combined with fiberoptics that appear to be bomb-proof. Tried them a few years ago on one of his legends and they were perfect. Maybe John55 will chime in, he has a set on his Echols. jorge

FWIW, my rifles get a pretty hard time of it (not so much nowadays though) and the fibre optic foresights usually last a couple of years..... and I keep a spare in the stock of my rifle.

They only take a minute to change over.

Jorge,

Those are the sights on my .375. NECG makes 'em. D'Arcy showed them to me a few years ago, I believe when they first came out, so I sent him .375 to put 'em on. He was nice enough to install the rear sight far enough forward that I can even kinda see it....

I first went to Africa almost 40 years ago, when the choice of dangerous game rifles was far smaller than it is now. There were plenty of DG rifles around in Africa and elsewhere, but very little ammunition, nor any prospect of any more being produced. Kynoch had ceased production of all African cartridges and was selling just what it had in stock. For this reason, it made sense to use a rifle which shot available ammunition.

In my case, my promary DG rifle was a much modified P14 Enfield chambered for the .460 Weatherby case, shortened to 2.5" and necked up to .505". 90 grains of 4064 propelled a 570 grain Kynoch bullet at 2150 fps, just like the .500 NE.

This rifle was equipped with a Lyman 48 rear sight with target knobs and a Williams ramp with a Redfield sourdough front sight.

My second rifle was my Krieghoff O/U .458 Wincheser Magnum double rifle, with interchangeable barrels in .375 H&H Magnum and 20 gauge/3" Magnum. The rifle barrels had shallow vee express sights and 2 1/2X and 3X scopes respectively, fitted with claw mounts.

My third rifle was a pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .300 H&H caliber with the standard Winchester open sights and a 4X scope in Weaver mounts.

Over the years I have taken around 90 head of African game with that battery, including a black rhino, four elephants, five Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, eland , greater and lesser kudu, brindled wildebeest, warthog, waterbuck (both common and DeFassa), oryx (both common and fringe eared), sable, bushbuck, impala, Grants, Roberts, and Thomson's gazelle, gerenuk and klipspringer.

Once, while hunting on fenced in private land, I had the opportunity to shoot up a pack of Cape hunting dogs, who were just finishing a meal. I killed four dogs with five shots, only the first one being a stationary target, with my .300 H&H.

Part of my success in the hunting field was due to my experience as a Marine Corps team shooter, which made me intimately familiar with the workings of the aperture receiver sight, but much more was due to constant practice, which enables me even today to pick up a rifle, scoped or otherwise, select a small object (doorknob or light switch) across the room, then mount the rifle and find my front sight or crosshairs centered on what I was looking at.

I followed this up with hours of practice in the field, using reduced charge lead bullet loads and shooting at targets of opportunity: fence posts, trees, rocks, as I walked around my farm.

This comes from hours of dry firing with an empty rifle, from hours spent on the skeet field, shooting from the low gun position, and from having rifles stocked to fit me perform that very feat.

My Krieghoff was stocked using the measurements I obtained from shooting a try-gun at the Holland & Holland shooting school. My bolt gun much the same.

I tried shoting skeet with my Krieghoff .458, using .410 shells, which bulged badly, but otherwise worked quite well. I found I could hit both with and without the scope.

I used my scope mounted .458 for one elephant and one buffalo. The buffalo was 100 yards away, in the middle of an open field, almost like a pasture, and staring directly at me. There was no way I could get closer, so I assumed a steady sitting position and downed him with one shot through the chest.

The elephant was perhaps 40 yards away, hidden, all but his head, behind a large bush. He had his head tilted back, reaching for a high branch on a tree when I shot him, using the scope. The shot missed the brain, but knocked him down, where it took several more shots to prevent his arising again, all the time keeping a lookout for his companion (askari), a young bull which was accompanying him and was making a dreadful racket and trying to locate us.

Otherwise, my shots on elephant and buffalo have all been with iron sights, and I have to say that such sights discourage the shooter from merely shooting "into the brown", which with either an elephant or a rhino, let alone a buffalo, can have most unpleasant consequences.

My conclusion is that the kind of sight used is not as important as being totally familiar and at ease with the rifle you intend to use. My PH told me of a magnificent kudu and a "super" leopard an acquaintance of mine had missed BECAUSE HE COULDN'T LOCATE THEM IN THE SCOPE. This is the kind of thing which leads PH's to an early grave.

My recommendation: pick whatever sight you're most comfortable with, make sure you have an alternative or backup sight, then practice, practice, practice.

I think some folks, probably folks that have not shot a buffalo at 5 or 10 feet, forget that the scope will place the bullet too high at that crucial point in your life and may very well end up in your demise...

I first noticed this as a youngster when I tried to put the coup de grace in some deer and kept missing the spine or shooting a horn off, or missing the whole damn deer at 5 yards. Remember the scope plane and the muzzle plane are a couple of inches off up real close...irons are not and you besides can point shoot an iron sighted rifle very easily, but not so a scoped rifle..I have never aimed persay at a close charging animal, I have always just point shot him and to date I am still on this side of the dirt! What better option can beat that.:)

Shakari,

Why the six o clock hold vs. pointing directly at the intended point of impact?

Because it allows you to see more of the animal as it's coming for you.

The more you can see of what's going on at those moments, the better.

Sharari,

Where does you POI lie compared with the top of you bead or blade at, say, 25yds or 50yds.

Oviously, a six o'clock hold for a buff heart using the bottom of the chest won't work for an impala or an elephant ... So trying to visualize what your using.

Personally, I like POI to be right at the top of the filed bead at 50yds. POI it isn't different at 25yds. And really, drop isn't too much at even 100yds.

JPK

Either way suits me fine..but I prefer the POI to be about and inch or two high at 50 yards, it will also be the same at 100 yds. All my guns are set up this way. At point blank you can still hold dead on anyway as it won't be high at under 25 anyway. BTW, always KNOW your POI at 10, 15, 25 and 50..just to be sure. Shoot your gun at those ranges before you go hunting for DG..

There are two schools of thought, some want the bead to cover the POI, some want it on top or over of the bead...

Either one suits me just fine as long as I know how its impacting, and I will know that in every case with any rifle.

I suppose I should add that in my case I will point shoot at under 25 yards and will not use the sights..It's very natural to me and I have been shooting instinctively for many years both in practice and in the field, but only at shorter ranges. I practice up to 50 yards..You can become quite accurate at short ranges shooting instinctively..I still know where my sights shoot however, I may want to shoot the head off a Tanzania chicken!