Iron sight tips for blind folks??

daven

Well-Known Member
Hey folks,
My 30.06 has a 6x42 scope that is just fine for the normal stand/waiting at 50+ meters use but is a little clumsy at closer ranges and (for me) probably useless on a drive hunt. Don't want to invest in another optic if I don't have to. Problem with the iron sights is, I need glasses to read/see things close and can't see distances with those glasses on so the back sight is blurred some (front is fine). Anyone else have/had this problem and found a work around?
Thanks for any tips.

Dave
 
Hey folks,
My 30.06 has a 6x42 scope that is just fine for the normal stand/waiting at 50+ meters use but is a little clumsy at closer ranges and (for me) probably useless on a drive hunt. Don't want to invest in another optic if I don't have to. Problem with the iron sights is, I need glasses to read/see things close and can't see distances with those glasses on so the back sight is blurred some (front is fine). Anyone else have/had this problem and found a work around?
Thanks for any tips.

Dave

Dave,

Why not "put" a white spot on the relevant part of the rear sight. You then align rear with fore and check out on a 25 metre range to see where POI is.

​Stan
 
I have found that if I coat the back of my fore sight with black marking ink and
like Smullery ignore the rear sight. Then I obtain good results.

Old Neilo
 
I was involved in ghost ring trials some years ago and while recognising the speed of sight picture acquisition, could not come to terms with the imprecision.

I think "it all depends" on what you want to achieve and the state of your individual eyesight.

I was going to suggest investing in a cheap set from Ebay - but they are not that cheap!

However, the essence of a ghost ring is the large rear aperture. Could you perhaps make something up from a piece of angle (Mecanno L bracket) and try a few dry passes to see if it might work for you?
 
I was involved in ghost ring trials some years ago and while recognising the speed of sight picture acquisition, could not come to terms with the imprecision.

I think "it all depends" on what you want to achieve and the state of your individual eyesight.

I was going to suggest investing in a cheap set from Ebay - but they are not that cheap!

However, the essence of a ghost ring is the large rear aperture. Could you perhaps make something up from a piece of angle (Mecanno L bracket) and try a few dry passes to see if it might work for you?

Was at the gun shop yesterday... This guy was only interested in selling me a doctor type sight for a bunch of bucks..... When he realized I wasn't buying the expensive stuff, he lost interest in helping...... Another customer said he had the same problem and showed me what he done to overcome... Just a triangle of florescent paint with the point on the sight groove and a dot on the frt sight bead. I'll try that before the other stuff..... I don't have a lot of faith in the ghost ring either, but need something...
Thanks, Dave
 
Using an iris on your glassed is well worth a try - The idea was commonly used by match pistol shooters to help focus on the open sights. As in a camera lens, looking through a small hole will increase your depth of field and make the sight a lot crisper.
It's easy to try and cost nothing. Just take a piece of self adhesive paper, something like a target patch or even a bit of plastic insulation tape, poke a nice round hole on it and stick it on your glasses. Experiment with different size holes - The results can be amazing.
If it works you can buy the pukka thing like THIS
 
I'm short sight. For my driven rifle I have a bolt action with a wide express V. I find I can resolve that fine and can shoot quite acceptably out to 100m with it.

Other thing I find is, paint the front sight orange and rear sight white. (If you use model paint you can remove easily!)
 
The wide Vee found on British rifles were graduated as to width. This is a No3 Vee:-

14051915.jpg


Despite the rifle having a fine bead even older people found they could pick up the sight quite easily. Seems the old gun makers knew a bit about iron sights ;) .

This is the iron rear sight on the P-H 1100 M (African magnum):-



Again a wide vee. The foresight on this has some red paint left on it.

This on the left is the rear sight on a 577/450 Sporting Martini with Battaue type sights:-

2993457.jpg


​Picked out in Ivory. The ivory has discoloured badly. On the left we see a tighter vee on the Lee Enfield sporting rifle.
 
+1 to Scrumbag's comments. That FN 98 of his has a vertical platinum bar under the vee. Seems quite difficult to miss with it. I would try something I have seen work, (Muir mustn't read this as it will upset him!) put a circular dot of white model paint on the reat of the blade of the front sit and a point up triangle at the base of the rear vee. Then you just pick up the rifle put the white blob where you want to shoot. If it works for you your eye will put the circle on top of the triangle without you even thinking about it. In fact thinking about it is not the way to go. If it doesn't work the paint pops off pretty easily.

Regards,

David.
 
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I should have mentioned that the 577/450 Swinburns patent Martini had a large ivory bead foresight. The whole blade and bead were made from a piece of ivory.
 
you may wish to consider a H&H style front sight with 2 overlay bead sizes, the large one might be just what you're after. In addition, you could install a williams rear sight that you set to the exact POI/Zero you wish to use for your iron sights. You 'could' also purchase a see through rear sight to go with the H&H front sight for quick acquisition,,also available via NECG of course.
 
Depending on which make rifle you have will determine just how easy a prper Sporting rear aperture sight is to get and fit. Something like this may well be your soloution:-



They have a removable "screw in" aperture which when removed leaves a "ghost Ring type" of aperture. Fully adjustable to zero with your choice of ammunition, robust, and with repeatable click adjustments in "Minutes". Now this is a simpler Parker_Hale type:-



​Notice the large aperture with the screw in one removed.

Compared to the target type of aperture rear sight the sporting version is smaller:-





Target type for comparison.

I believe that you will find that using a sporting aperture rear sight will take a little bit of getting used to so bear that in mind.
 
Daven,

If it helps - I have a set of mounts that have a gap under the scope mount section so that you can still use the iron sights, I bought these for use on a couple of winchester underlevers I have, but found I didn't really get on with the iron sights, they are not expensive mmounts and if it helps I am happy to send them to you so you can try them out for a few months and see if they work and then send them back, I also have a red dot sight (used on the same gun) and although its "ok" I am planning on putting a regular scope back on.

Regards,

Gixer
 
Hey folks,
My 30.06 has a 6x42 scope that is just fine for the normal stand/waiting at 50+ meters use but is a little clumsy at closer ranges and (for me) probably useless on a drive hunt. Don't want to invest in another optic if I don't have to. Problem with the iron sights is, I need glasses to read/see things close and can't see distances with those glasses on so the back sight is blurred some (front is fine). Anyone else have/had this problem and found a work around?
Thanks for any tips.

Dave

If you can focus on the front sight and the back sight at the same time then there is something wrong with your eyesight :D when you use open sights you should focus on the foresight with rear sight blurred but used to centre the foresight picture. Type of rear sight will be the clincher, most rifles fitted with open sights tend to have too narrow a V to be useful for shooting moving targets as you need something wide or even a buck horn type.

Red dot (holograph type) sights can work but you are very limited on range, their advantage is in being able to place the rifle on target when you have both eyes open as they offer no magnification but are not parallax sensitive so provided you can see the red dot it can be used as an aid to shot placement.

Best in my experience would be to get a low magnification, say 1-4x, scope with a heavy duplex reticle.

Hope you find something that works for you.
 
Thanks for the advise and offers... I got me a bottle of florescent orange fingernail polish and done some customizing:rolleyes:..... as suggested.. Going to the range next Tuesday to check the sight adjustment, but, as far as being able to see and align, I think I'll be fine. If not, before putting money into iron sights, red dots, etc.. I'll replace the 6x42 scope with a 1.5-12x56 I have been watching..... I just can't bring myself to shoot a gun with both eyes open like with a red dot....

sight.jpgsight1.jpgsight2.jpg
 
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