How good are you with iron sights?

M

MrDontPlay

New member
I was just wondering what you can hit at how far with iron sights. One of my goals for 2012 is to get good with iron sights on a rifle. When I bought my first rifle about a year ago, I put a scope on it shortly after, now it has a reflex sight mounted. My newest rifle, a 223 bolt action, doesn't even have sights on it. It almost seems to me that shooting with plain ol' iron sights is becoming a lost art. I'm thinking about buying a plain Jane 10/22 and putting the optics away for a while. What are your guy's thoughts on this topic?
 
i tend to shoot better with just iron sights because it helps me not move as much and over correct. i highly recommend a 10/22 with tech2000 sights!!! extremely good combination!!
 
There are a lot of factors that go into that one. How old are you? How good is your vision? For me, as with many others, as age goes up vision degrades. I now need reading glasses so seeing the tiny rear V notches on my 100+ year old rifles is getting harder every year. Time was I hit deer out around 200 yards no problem with my Swedish Mauser and it has a minimum sight adjustment of 300 meters. Peep sights I still do OK with, buckhorm sight on the .30-30 has never been super accurate for me but was great for "minute of venison" shots at around 100 yards. I did High Power matches with my M1 Garand at 200 yards and did OK. I could still probably hit out to 200 yards with iron sights but I don't usually have access to a range that long...

Consider this, the military qualifies troops at 500-600 yards with off-the-rack rifles year in and year out.
 
iron sights

friday i took a m1a loaded to range with iron sights could hit bowling pins at 200 yards pretty easily did the same with ar 15 18'' stainless barrel 223wylde .
 
I am getting up there and I could not make out the front sight. Turns out I had cataracts. I had them removed and I do O.K. now. You older guys should look into that. Anyway, I have a lot of 99 Savage rifles and shoot them better with open sights than a scope. The rifle just "Fits" better. That has a lot to do with it. If you have to move your face around on the stock to get a good sight picture, the accuracy usually goes way down.
 
It's been a long time since I've fired a long gun with iron sights. Last one was probably an old Ithaca sliding barrel 12ga with a ring on the back and a dot on the front. It was my fathers gun and I hunted deer with it from about 1991 until 1996-ish. I never shot groups with it but never missed a deer.
 
Terrible. That's why I use scopes.

Actually I grew up shooting with iron sights. The difference is I can do so much better when I can see my target good and how much I'm moving (so I can settle down).
 
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I practice shooting iron sights.

I picked up a Marlin Model 25 with iron sights for shooting silhouette targets. I put out the targets at 40, 60, 80, and 100 yards. I'm hitting around 80% offhand. Depends on target distance. :D


I shoot my AR15s with iron sights.

I have some pretty good groups at 50 and 100 yards with my AR. And I'm close to 100% hits at the 12x12 cold steel target at 260 yards lately.:)
 
I keep a couple of my rifles unscoped (if that's a word) and use the iron sights. I grew up using iron sights so it's kind of like an old favorite when I shoot one. I'm fairly good with them but not nearly as good as a marine I used to shoot with. Those guys are masters with iron sights. I really like irons for brush hunting or shots within 100 yards, especially with my .30-30, and tend to hit right where I aim. But on my 06' and .270 I use scopes so that I'm able to take advantage of the longer ranges. I have good eyes but really can't make those precise long range shots with iron sights as reliably as I can with a scope. I think iron sights are becoming a lost art.
 
irons

I have quite a few scoped rifles....but I prefer iron sights. What I have done as I have aged (65 now) is have shooting glasses made up in which the lens for my dominant right eye is ground to focus on an object (front sight) held at arms length...works just fine for rifle sights.
Benching the iron sighted rifles, I can usually shoot 100/200 yard MOA groups and sometimes better.
I can generally keep my standing Service rifle scores in the mid 80s (not great but...).
Pete
 
With a good peep sight or diopter sight I'm much better than I am with a scope out to 300 yards...after that it's about equal. The problem is I shoot so rarely with a scope than when I do use one, the first ten rounds so or I shoot can be embarrassing to me.
I have very good farsighted vision, so as long as I do I plan on using iron sights more often while I still can. For me using the smallest possible target I can see helped me a lot with iron sights. For example when I have to use an indoor 50 yard range, I'll use a 25' pistol target, TQ-6. That little 1.5" black circle is hard to see that far...but it's taught me to shoot some really tight groups.
 
I shoot more with scopes than with iron sights. I took the scope off my M1A to learn how to use the iron sights.

I probably will not put the scope back on. The steel popper at the 300 yard line is 10 inches across and I can hit that just about every time from a first shot of the day until the last.

The sights on the M1A really are pretty good. Everything else I shoot has scopes only with the exception of a Marlin 39A and I have never shot the iron sights on that rifle.

Geetarman:D
 
Just a reminder, that a scope doesn't help you shoot, it helps you see. If you can see the target with iron sights, you should be able to hit it just as well with irons as a scope.

This was 10 shots with my NM AR at 100 yards:
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That target is really easy to see though, the aiming black is 6 MOA, roughly the same width as the front sight post, and with a 6:00 hold pretty precise.

My eyes are not what they once were, but I can still hit the 300 and 400 yard gongs at my local range with (relatively crappy) Mauser irons, and out to 500 yards with (the excellent) 1903A3 irons. I can't see the 600 yard gong well enough with irons to even try.
 
I have a xs ghost ring sight on my rifle and even though I dont really like a scope on a lever gun I going to Cableas tonight to get one Burris fAST FIRE. 50 YARDS SEEM FAR 100 IS REALLY TO FAR!!!!.:eek:
 
Furthest i've attempted with iron sights is 300m with an m4. "Ivan" target (slightly smaller than a Type-E shillouette). I can hit it reliably(90%).

An m4 is good for this range, but an m16 is tighter.

Scored hits with my m4 at 450m (which i'd doubted the weapon's capability to do until I tried) using an army ACOG (tritium fiberoptic reticle w 5.56NATO drop compensator hashes, which i'll attest to the reliability of)

That's prone. standing, i've hit 100m, but that doesnt really count because I was using my EOTech, and you cant miss with that.
 
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