A beady eyed examination of beads....

Dave McC

Staff In Memoriam
A couple of questions asked of me recently convince me there's some confusion going on, so hopefully this will clear up more confusion that it generates....

Ask 10 shotgunners what front sight is best, and you'll get at least 10 opinions. Here's mine...

On a wingshooting shotgun, good work has been done w/o a bead or other front sight. Charles Askins wrote of a Southern Sheriff who managed to blow off the muzzle of his Model 97 by letting it get packed with mud. The doughty Sheriff hacksawed off the damage, did not mount a new bead, and continued to decimate the quail just as before.

I had the Bradley bead on my 870TB part company with me during a doubles round last year, and I think I shot about as well as I did the round before, 37 and 35,IIRC.BTW, I have no idea just WHEN in that round the bead went AWOL.

Zutz tells a similar tale of a skeet shooter who ran the last 25 of a 100 straight sans sight.

Here's the deal. When wingshooting or moving at a fast moving ground target, one should focus on the target, not the sight. This is why excellent rifle and handgun shooters often have trouble doing well with shotguns.It runs counter to their training. And, this is why folks who shoot longbows and recurves Robin Hood style oft are excellent wingshots.They're used to focussing on the target, not the sights, because there are none.

On a pure wingshooting gun, I'm not advocating removal of the bead, but I prefer a small, unobtrusive one. No fiber optics, no Testor's enamel, nothing that can distract me from the target. All these folks, including members of the Geezer League who add the "Green Worm" sights are going in the wrong direction, IMO. The double bead setup usually seen in days past on trap guns now crops up on every kind of shotgun. For trap and premounted games,they're a way of checking alignment, but the focus MUST shift to the target if one wants to hit it.

Now, the Green worms come into their own for turkey, deer,etc. They're also good for "Serious" work, especially when used with adjustable open or peep sights to fine tune the hit. But, these are aimed, not pointed.

So, you've got one shotgun(Hopefully an 870) and one bbl. You're planning on using same for everything from casual clays to HD.Your bbl has a bead sight. What next?

Remember,we focus on the target when wingshooting, on the sights when it's "Serious", or hunting deer. I doubt the most highly trained of us will recall, during a life threatening crisis, whether we should focus on the sights, or the threat.

There's a coupla options here.

First, get a second bbl with sights, or another shotgun of identical make/model, set up for the Serious" stuff. This is the option I chose, then pursued it to the point of diminishing returns.

Second, Williams, and maybe others, make F/O sights that clip onto a vent rib nicely. Either just a Green Worm front or a set with F/O or plain rear. These are inexpensive compared to another shotgun, and can be installed for H/D, removed for clays or birds, and so on.

Third, use what you have and get used to it for everything. Surprisingly, lots of folks can and do switch, tho I'm sure some are not shooting to their potential.

I hope this is explained satisfactorily, sing out if not...
 
Q.....What front sight do you like on your target shotgun ?

A......Whatever doesn't get in the way. (distract)

Good read Dave.

Sam
 
Thank you Dave. I have thought about putting an AO Express tritium on my one 870 all-rounder. I think they make one that goes over the existing front bead. Any thoughts or experiences?
 
No experience, but I cannot recall hearing one gripe about AO stuff, any of it. Quality seems top notch.

As for Tritium, some quiet, studious, unobtrusive and deadly folks I've known use Tritium sights, mostly the older Trijicon(sp?) stuff. They had some latitude in picking their equipment.
 
Well, I for one actually like a fiber optic worm and shoot much better with one on than without. In fact I discovered I shot moving targets better with both a front and rear sight than with just a small bead.

I probably shoot roughly the same way you guys do. What I found, was that when I focus on my target I'm shooting instead of the sight, I lose track of where the end of my barrel is. So even though you guys think they distract you, I much prefer to have something that I can easily see in my perifial vision as where exactly the gun is pointing while I'm following the target. Otherwise I'd miss easy shots because I'd either do as you are supposed to and shoot without taking your eye of the target and be all over the place, or I'd miss because I'd look at the bead before I shot and adjust it correctly but that delay would make me shoot behind the target. Even with both front and rear of where I would completely focus on sights and not the target I can hit more than having nothing there.

In my opinion a fiber optic front sight is worth it's weight in gold. I'd shoot about 75% tops before I got one, than after shooting with one for a couple weeks I'd hit 90% of the clay pigeons on a bad day.

Sincerely,
Adam
 
I'd shoot about 75% tops before I got one, than after shooting with one for a couple weeks I'd hit 90% of the clay pigeons on a bad day.

90% on a bad day? What clay discipline are we talking here?

I have been shooting competetive sporting clays and FITASC for 5 years, and it took me 4 years to make it to AA. I usually shoot in the high 80's / low 90s, and would love to call 90% and up "a bad day." I've never seen a tournament shooter use a shotgun with any type of rear sights, and your post has piqued my curiosity.
 
Nah, the rear sights came off after deer season and I stopped using them for slugs. I still shot with them on and did fairly well, but they were there for another purpose other than wing shooting.

And I only wish I had a competitive league to shoot in. The only shotgun range, a trap club, is open only 2 sundays a month. So my friend and I end up using our own pigeon throwers. We do a variety of other things to make it harder though, but I still have no clue how it compares to the real thing. We do things like putting the thrower outside of the shooters feild of view, so he can't tell if we are throwing a single, double or triple (2 piggybacked and one right behind them). Or we screw in our turkey chokes and make the shooter wait 3-4 seconds into the pigeons flight before he can even mount his gun to shoot. I'm not sure how range compares to that of real trap, but we shoot off a gentle slope and a single can fly about 80 meters before touching down on the ground. Sorry, should of clairified that one a bit.

All other thing being equal though I'd still say we are pretty good shots :).

Sincerely,
Adam
 
For birds, I use a vent rib with either a front bead or double (tirkeys) & cannot remember ever seeing that bead when shooting. The duble is nice for a good align for turjeys though & I do use it there.

As with rifle "snap-shooting," you look at the target, mount the shooter & the target is "just there" & where it should be ....
 
The problem with bead only barrels is that they don't always shoot to point of aim. Dave McC may disagree, but I have recieved calls from agents discussing the problems with some of their 14" 870s. It seems that many of them shoot either very high or very low at 75 yards with slugs. My comment was "You have to shoot slugs at 75 yards with a bead sighted barrel?" The answer is yes, they have to qualify with their 14" shotguns at that range. The only answer I have is ghost ring sights or a new 14" barrel with rifle sights. There are ways to adjust the point of impact on an 870, but they are risky.

Kentucky windage (or elevation) is not an option.
 
No disagreement at all, DML. I noted long ago that bead sighted riot bbls oft printed a foot higher with slugs than shot.

75 yard slug qualification with a bead sighted shorty? Oy vay!!!!...

With a standard bead bbl, 50 yards is about the practical limit for most folks and slugs, IMO.

I bet the sight radius on that shorty with open sights is about the same as a 6" bbled handgun. They should consider peep sights.

Adam, sounds like you're aiming rather than pointing. If it works for you, fine. IMO, you'd shoot closer to your potential by concentrating on the target, but do it whatever way you want to.
 
Having tried most of the various beads over the years including a short stint with no bead after it broke off my skeet gun, I've concluded there is no magic in any of them.

The "green worms" are not bad in the sustained lead games such as skeet but can be distracting in sporting clays. If you are looking back and forth between the target and the bead you might as well save the shell because it's almost certainly already a lost bird.

The bead and barrels should only be in your peripheral vision and your eyes firmly locked on the target. The human mind is an amazing tracking computer and if the gun is hitting where you are looking and you don't stop swinging you will hit the birds.

Slug guns and other applications don't apply. Consider them as short-barrelled, multi-projectile rifles. Put sight on target and fire as needed.

Paul
 
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