Pennsylvania Game News - November 2015 - 61

sighted firearms.
For most hunters who can hold a steady
sight picture, these sights suffice for big
game out to about 150 yards, medium
game out to 100 yards, and small game
out to 50 yards.
When shooting at the range, however,
if the target is big enough and bright
enough - such as a 6-inch fluorescent
circle - and the butt and barrel are
benched, those sights can produce groups
2 inches or smaller at 100 yards.
Today, many similar sights have screws
to adjust for both windage and elevation.
Some barrels also are drilled and tapped
for a base that allows the rear sight to slide
on, and elevation and windage are marked
with yardage increments.
Both styles certainly are more accurate
than the "guesswork" drifting method of
using a hammer and punch.
Prior to scope popularity, open sights
were the mainstay and found on most
every rifle, even when a scope was being
used.
There were a great variety of styles.
I tend to find that even though fancier
sight styles, such as full buckhorns, look
great on a rifle, they tend to cover more
of the animal (depending on the distance)
and might take a little longer to settle the
sight picture.
For me, the simpler the better. And for
an open-sighted hunting arm, I like the
combination of a V-shaped rear sight and
a bead front sight. For the past 30 years
or so, these open sights have improved
with the use of color outlines and inserts
for quicker sight acquisition.
Colt, Sturm Ruger, Smith & Wesson
and others have made such sights standard
on many models.
Many companies also produce afterNOVEMBER 2015

market, fully adjustable sights in several
colors for rifles, pistols and shotguns.
Fiber-optic sights - plastic rods that
absorb light and reflect it to the ends - are
the latest trend in open sights.
They are more visible in any kind of
light.
Many shooters I know use different
colors for the front and rear sights. This
results in faster sight acquisition.
I find this combination allows me to
focus on the target and still line up the
sights properly, even though they are
blurred.
As popular and rugged as open sights
are, they do have their disadvantages.
First, a shooter can only focus on one
object at a time in the same line of sight
at different distances. So when using open
sights on a target, there will always be two
objects out of focus.
Second, many hunters commit an
inadvertent "sneak peek" when shooting at game with open sights. They will
look over their sights at the shot to see
the effect of the bullet, and tend to shoot
high as a result.
Depending on the distance, such a
shot could go right over the animal with
the hunter scratching his head afterward,
wondering how the shot could have
missed.
The secret is to follow through after
the shot by keeping your head down on
the sights until recovering from the recoil.
Third, the closer the front sight is to the
rear sight, the less the shooter will be able
to notice any variation of the sight picture
in that line of sight.
The opposite also is true.
The farther apart the sights are from
one another, the greater the shooter will
be aware of any change and able to com61
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - November 2015
