Aperture Sights

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Dumbear

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
51
For those that shoot an aperture rear sight. Do you focus on the target and let eye center front sight as with a rifle or do you focus on front sight.
 

snakeeyes4445

Single-Sixer
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
110
Location
Dubuque IA USA
Retired optometrist here who has tried a number of them....they are terrible with a round front sight as too much of the target is blocked. There is no problem centering the front sight either if you use a flat topped blade, preferably with a vertical white line. Less of the target is obscured if you are hunting. If you are shooting at a bulls eye, you can center the ring of the aperture around the bull, and then put the center of the blade on the X. Longer barrels allow more peel around the blade and are generally advantageous for other reasons.
They are not as good as sharp clean target sights which will always print smaller groups.
I do have a 6.5 OM .41 Blackhawk with a pink plastic front ramp and a large aperture rear which is great in the woods for fast acquisition and hitting moving deer. I tend to watch the deer's head ears and body language while waiting for a gap in the twigs to fire. That gun has a slick action and I believe it was done at Magnaport who also made the pink ramp.
I just killed one buck at twenty yards with that system and I haven't changed it.
 

Rodfac

Blackhawk
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
691
Location
Kentucky
They are not as good as sharp clean target sights which will always print smaller groups.
'Bout says it all....aperature sights belong on a rifle, as the aperature needs to be close to the eye to be of benefit. In a cpl words, they're slower than traditional open sights and not as accurate....Rod
 

Three44s

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
Messages
304
Location
The better half of Wa. State
If your eyes are good, there is not much better that a square rear notch and a flat top front partridge sight.

If you are getting longer in the tooth and your eyes are falling off the proverbial cliff, then you need something else.

I traded off my 9.5" SRH in 44 for a 480 SRH but the traded revolver wore a One Ragged Hole Rae (their smallest appetite) and the front sight was a Ruger gold front bead that I kept painted black with a laundry pen.


The blackened gold bead on the 9.5" barrel combined with the appeture rear sight was a real treat.


Three44s
 

woodsy

Blackhawk
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
958
Location
Seymour, CT
'Way back in the day, my birth family had a Luger, a 1911, a K98 sniper rifle w/scope, a 1903/A3 with scope, and a M1Carbine. The M1 had "peep" sights. When I finally got to shoot that thing it was a world away from all the others, being so easy to aim and hit the target accurately. My research came up with the U.S.Army's development of the aperture sight for use on combat rifles, and why it is so effective and easy to use. I also found that its use on handguns is just about abysmal, because the aperture is too far away from the eye. The "peep" must be as close to the eye as possible (without being hit during recoil), because the human eye automatically centers in the aperture, and easily centers the front sight. On a handgun the peep is much too far away from the eye to gain the full benefits of the setup. But, aside from that, the rule of thumb ALWAYS is: focus on the front sight.
 
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