How good are you with iron sights?

Today, 11:08 AM #35
MrDontPlay
Senior Member

Join Date: December 25, 2010
Posts: 341
Old people tell me that when they were kids they would wake up in the morning, grab their 22 and disappear until dark. These days not many kids just leave the house alone and shoot all day, and I didn't even get a gun til I was 24. It seems like rifle marksmanship used to be almost a basic life skill, and that's disappearing.
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Yup, I am 53 and we spent almost all of our time outdoors as kids growing up in Alaska. When we were 5 or 6, we started with BB guns, then graduated to pellet guns that took down rabbits and other small game, even ducks and geese when we were up in Nome. When I was in my teen years in Maine, my friends and I would run all over the place with our shotguns.

I bought my first 12 ga shotgun when I was 16 with my own money from working. Prior to that, I had run around in the woods with my dad's single shot .410 he got up in Alaska. No one ever said a word to you walking down the road with a shotgun slung over your shoulder. Man, times have changed and in only one generation. In our back yard in ME, there was about 100 acres of wooded land that remained in the center of a block of houses. We would go out there and shoot up the landscape. No one ever called the cops or said we couldn't do that. Man, times have changed probably even in that town.
 
I am much better with irons now so far since I had lasik. Since the operation, shooting an iron sighted AR or FAL is far easier and more accurate. It hasnt been long enough since the surgery to know if it will hold up, but so far its been a huge change. Before using glasses it kept getting steadily more difficult over time. I generally have no problem now with a solid repeatable group with an AR or FAL up to 250 yards, which is the longest my range has right now.
 
I shoot squirrels in the head at the top of huge beech trees with the Henry.

When I was a kid me and my cousin would spend every weekend shooting our 22s at any and everything lol. We would go through a brick of 500 in a few hours. Good memories.

I had a Marlin 983 22WMR that I shot walnuts off of fence posts at 100 paces with iron sights. Thieves stole it out of the trunk of my car while I was sleeping. I really loved that gun.
 
Old people tell me that when they were kids they would wake up in the morning, grab their 22 and disappear until dark.
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Well, I'm not that old (I'm 54) but when we were kids up here in Vermont, that was often the case. Grew up on a dairy farm, and I was the official woodchuck control officer (those piles of dirt around the holes do a number on farm machinery).

Like I said earlier, never used a scope and certainly never shot from a bench. Got pretty damned good with a .22 rifle, and moved on from there. Put a lot of wild game on the table.

Too bad so few kids ever get to experience this degree of freedom any more, but times have changed.
 
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#30
Dave P
Senior Member


Join Date: August 16, 1999
Location: North Florida
Posts: 889 Can I show off, too??

10 rounds at 100, bench.


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Now do that prone with no sand bags and I'll be impressed.
 
One time with iron sights on a 22 carbine I shot a black bird out of a tree from close to 150 yds.

I couldn't believe it either.
 
I believe you. I'll never forget a woodchuck I got from about that distance, clean head shot with a .22 from a standing position. It can be done with practice and a bit of luck. ;)
 
I love iron sights! I try to use them as much as possible and only recently tried a Tasco Red Dot on my 795. Anyway, I think it's great to switch off to iron sights for a while, I prefer them over a scope simply because you don't have to adjust, etc and you can adjust for drop and windage without screwing up your zero, although for long range, a scope is obviously better. To me, it's easier to judge with open sights.

Another thing to add is that the 795 is a sharpshooter anyway, considerably more accurate than a stock 10/22, but you lose out on extensive customization. It's definitely more accurate than I am.

There was this sniper... umm.. Simo Häyhä "The White Death". 505 confirmed kills with a rifle and 200 with a SMG, all with iron sights of course. 705+ kills. Around 750 with unconfirmed kills all in 100 days. I'm comparing apples and oranges here, but it goes to show iron sights can be useful!
 
I am hearing/reading a lot of stuff about what constitutes a "rifleman" and what doesn't.

Regardless how good you are prone, sitting, standing or bent over a barrel, the day WILL come when you realize those days are behind you.

Thank goodness for benches as they allow many of us to continue to shoot and enjoy the shooting sports.

There was, once upon a time, many years ago, a person just like me, who could get up in the face of the best of them. Sometimes I lost, sometimes I won.

Now that I am older and wiser, I just carry a .45.

Think of benchrests as an aid to being able to continue in the sport. . .like bi-focals. Sooner or later, you will probably use and need both.

Geetarman:D
 
I understand that some people have physical problems where bench shooting is all the shooting they can do. I also know some people have such poor eyesight they simply can't use iron sights.

But when I hear healthy adults with good eyes who never shoot unless they are on a 2,000lb concrete bench with sandbags and a scope talk about their "shooting skills" I have a laugh.

I see these people all the time shoot one tiny groups on their bench but take their bench away they can't even hit the berm.
 
Group with MIA

DaveP Thats one hell of a group for 10 shots. Its great to have access to a bench occaisionally to let you know what kind of accuracy your rifle is capable of giving you.

I shot a 5 shot prone group at 100 yesterday with my M1A that the 1st two shots were in an elongated hole the third made it just under a half inch group I was getting all excited with the way the gun was shooting and opened the group up to 1 1/2" with the next two shots. Great fun.

I have a target on the wall in the garage that is a 5 shot group at 1 oclock in the x-ring that I shot sitting at 100yds several years ago with an iron-sighted Colt HBAR that is a ragged hole. You can cover it with a dime.

Doesn't matter if you shoot offhand, sitting, prone or from a bench - keep shooting and take a non-shooter to the range with you and introduce them to the sport.
 
I thought I did pretty good shooting a 1.5 inch group with my Skinner Peep Sights at 100 yards, but it looks like I need a refresher course with the sounds of some of the folks here. Wow. Back to the practice range I go!!
 
I've shot 3/8" groups offhand at 50 feet, using a custom Rem 521 and front and rear aperture sights. It happened rarely, however. More often, groups were closer to 3/4" with occasional flyers.

Scope shooting offhand is where it's at, considering I'm closing in on 68 yrs.
 
With rifles I love peep sights. I build my own. I build my front sights, too. I might shoot better with a scope, in fact I know I could, but I like peeps. I do it for the fun of it.
 
I think beginners should start with iron sights. If you can learn to be accurate with them then a scope becomes easy. And if your scope fails you can use the "back up sights" easily.
With my old eyes iron sights become fairly useless past 80 yds, unless I just want to "hit" what I'm aiming at and am not real concerned about shot placement.
 
With in 100 yards or so i can hit well eneough to cleanly take a deer, but farther than that i will only shoot at siluet style targets. With my glasses on the front sight is clear.. But the back sight is blurred, with the glasses off its the oposite. And at 100 yards i cant see the circles on a standard 100 yard target. i just aim at the middle and manage to still hit accurately. I am the most comfortable when i shoot knealing. The appeture sights on my Remington 1903 A3 suit me the best with my vision
 
According to the day! some days I can and do MOA at 200+ yds sometimes couldn't buy a small group. Do not own a scoped rifle and I am older than most of you as I have passed seven decades and creeping up on eight. My far vision is still 20/20 after cataract surgery. If you have them do not put off getting them done it is as if someone rolled the clock back to 18. Now if someone would get me a new set of legs and a new back I would be good for 70 more.
 
I suck compared to you guys! :) This is front rested only,

ironsights100yardssightin.jpg


...and later, ran out of targets that day, trying to get the new adjustable Marbles rear sight dialed in on my CZ 527M carbine.

ironsights100yardsgroup.jpg


I like my scope, but I insist all of my rifles have irons as well, even if I'm not that good with them. :)
 
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