Remove fixed sights

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bighead46

New member
Some bolt action rifles come with fixed sights. The argument is that you are on a long hunting trip- the scope breaks- you can fall back on the fixed sights. In reality- probably never happen. In any event- do fixed sights reduce accuracy? In other words- if you use a scope, will removing the fixed sights yield better accuracy?
 
Probably not, but the only way to know for sure with any gun, would to be take them off and shoot to confirm.

If you change "something", you might change something else. Or not. :)
 
Why would it affect accuracy? :confused:

The biggest problem I've seen with the "if the scope breaks" scenario is that most people sight in their scope, but rarely make sure the sights are adjusted properly. You would have to sight in with the sights, then mount the scope and sight it in.... unless you are using a "see through" type mount, which puts the scope pretty high above the boreline. These were pretty popular on lever actions, for some reason.
 
We bring an extra rifle or two instead, and we have indeed had to use them. It's not all that unthinkable a scenario that you would drop your rifle and bust your scope or knock it off of zero. It happened to me once.

But I don't think they affect accuracy or point of impact. You could try it and see though, let us know.
 
Where many people live and where they hunt (back east and out of tree stands within spitting distance of a house) I see no need for back up iron sights. However out west here and for true hunters who travel perilous places on foot or horseback, the prospect of broken scopes is very real. When I was a guide in the rockies we traveled by foot, many times in far less than ideal conditions. At least one hunter per year actually broke his scope in a fall and at least 2 others damaged theirs. I would never hunt afoot in the field with out back up irons. I had a horse walk on my scoped rifle once, and the rifle was across my back at the time!
 
In my experience iron sights are just as likely to break or get knocked out of alignment as a quality scope. When I travel I either carry a spare rifle, or a spare scope pre-zeroed and ready to quickly mount in QD mounts.
 
I also have a spare scope already zeroed. Weaver-type top mounts are very repeatable; no loss of zero when changing scopes. A cheap scope is usually much better to hunt with than the best iron sights...a good one, even better.
 
Hello, bighead46. I think I understand what your saying...Most pure target bench-rest type rifles have no extra holes in barrel. On some sporters, there are either drilled holes or dove-tail cuts for front & rear sights. These can have a detrimental effect on accuracy..but here we are talking very small amounts..and rifle must be extreemly accurate to begin with. But in real life, on most sporting rifles, the fact there are irons mounted matters little.
 
Most pure target bench-rest type rifles have no extra holes in barrel. On some sporters, there are either drilled holes or dove-tail cuts for front & rear sights. These can have a detrimental effect on accuracy..but here we are talking very small amounts..and rifle must be extremely accurate to begin with. But in real life, on most sporting rifles, the fact there are irons mounted matters little.
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That's my opinion too. In addition, with the sights installed, the holes are filled. Removing what's filling the holes would probably be worse than leaving the screws/dovetails/etc. in place.

From a practical standpoint it's a non-issue.
 
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