A question for "older" shooters re: iron sites!

[Hokkmike]

Took my Winchester .44 magnum Wrangler out last night. I bought it as a "back up" rifle and loaner for friends would might need an "emergency" gun to shoot. I also wanted a Winny since they are now historical.

It was darker than usual and overcast with a slow drizzle starting up at the range.

I used the .44 mag Leveroution ammo. (GREAT STUFF)

At 50 yards I printed 3 hits across the center of the target holding dead on.

But here's my problem. Because of being older and requiring reading glasses for up close work (otherwise my vision is perfect) I can see either the target (no glasses) or the gun sights (with glasses), but not both.

At 100 yards I hit all around my smallish (one of those "exploding green dot targets you get at Gander) target. Not really good enough for deer hunting in my opinion.

Is there a way of modifying my gun without mounting a scope that will make sighting any easier? Or, are there any other tricks you have learned to deal with this problem. I DO NOT want to put a scope on it.

Maybe I'm just out of luck and am limited to shorter ranges with this gun?

My friend who was with me had exactly the same problem.

[cptdco]

Have you tried a receiver (peep) sight? At the age of 57 I don't do well with standard rifle sights and, like you, I don't want scopes on my lever action rifles. I have a modest collection of Marlins and I have Williams receiver sights on all of them.

[Curmudgeon]

I have the same problem. I have decided that hitting the target is over-rated. Makes my range trips so very interesting for the other shooters. :-p

Seriously though, I'm noticing this morwe and more as the years go by. I suspect I'll be looking into my own solution in just a few years.

[Hokkmike]

Have you tried a receiver (peep) sight? At the age of 57 I don't do well with standard rifle sights and, like you, I don't want scopes on my lever action rifles. I have a modest collection of Marlins and I have Williams receiver sights on all of them.

Can these be installed without permanent modifications to the rifle, drilling, etc.?

[Hawk]

OK, heres the deal on "old eyes" and iron sight shooting. The bad news is that it gets worse, the good news is you can do somethings to compensate. Let me start off by lecturing you on proper sighting when using iron sights. If you don't focus only on the front sight when you pull the trigger, you won't shoot to your potential. It's impossible to focus on two different things at two different ranges at the same time. Focusing on the target will put the front sight out of focus and your accuracy will suffer. Many people claim they can focus simultaneously on the front sight and the target, but they are fooling themselves. They are actually switching focus quickly, they just don't notice it.

So, if you follow this "iron sight" front sight focus rule you need to get a prescription to allow you to focus at about arms length. Reading glasses/bifocals are designed for about a 15 inch focus. When you go to the optometrist tell him you want glasses for shooting and you want to be able to focus at about 30 inches. Get the glasses made as bifocals with the 30 inch focus prescription in the main (heads up) portion of the lens, and have him also put you reading portion as low as they can in the lens, just in case you need to read something while shooting. Putting it low in the lens will get it out of the way for shooting.

About peep sights for old farts. They are the cats meow! Looking through a small aperture has the effect of bringing close objects that were out of focus into focus (like your front sight) without the aide of glasses. At the same time they leave the focus of mid and distant objects alone. To test this: Take off your glasses, look at an object that's close and out of focus, punch a hole in a piece of paper with the tip of your pen, bring the piece of paper up close to your eye and look at that same object, It will be in focus now. Thats how a peep sights work on a rifle. I can go on an on about sights, focus, and old eyes but this will get you headed in the right direction.

[Pete D.]

Yes - peep sights (aperture sights) are the way to go. Yes, you can probably find a peep from The Williams Sight Co. that will fit your gun as it is. You can also buy apertures that fit onto your eyeglasses and work the same as a peep. The Merit Optical Disk is one and another is made by the Gehmann company.
There used to be a very inexpensive brand called the Farrsight. Myabe you can find one.
The use of a dedicated eyeglass for focus on the front sight is especially good for pistol shooting.
Pete

[Sandcut]

A cheap trick that I use may help you and may be cheaper than peep sights. I have a hard time w/ peep sights personally.

What I use is glo-in-the-dark flourescent paint on both my forward and rear sights. I find that flo-yellow and flo-pink both work pretty good. While they don't make your vision any more acute, they do provide some easy contrast which can be picked up in your peripheral vision more easily while focused on the target.

I just use a small dab from a tooth pick. A 1 - 2 oz. bottle is under $2. You can scape it off if you want to sell the rifle and is easy to replace if you wipe it off accidentally.

[kmrcstintn]

sandcut has the right idea; if you want to make the hi-viz sight thing more permanent, look into tru-glo, hi-viz, or williams firesights for your weapon; I have to get myself some white out or dedicated sight paint to make the very, very tiny front sight on my NEF Handi Rifle stand out better until I scope it for next year

[Watchman]

I hear ya! My eyes are getting bad and I've been adding scopes or red dots to everything I have.

I am also near sighted and have worn glasses since the 6th grade. I've been tempted to give this a try.

http://www.eabco.com/cgi-bin/shopper...on&key=110-010

[Willie D]

Another good iron sight option would be a peep + globe type front sight like olympic shooters use. (There's a reason almost all target shooters use this setup..)

You just center 3 rings.