Anyone ever try to shoot a match with open/iron sights? If so. what score?

Just curious on this matter. It seems like a appealing challenge to say the least.

We've had a copy of folks shoot open sights in our weekly matches and surprisingly they did fairly well considering. I believe it was in the high teens.

I've seen people shoot iron sights (micrometer sights) and I think the lighting conditions are the big factor. Our local range faces south and on a sunny day the targets are really hard to see with the naked eye. A couple of other ranges we shoot at face to the north and thus put the sun to one's back. This makes shooting open sights much more doable.

There's an "iron sights" class at Tacoma Sportsmen Club's monthly informal match. I think Mordecai on here has actually shot it once or twice at least. I've been thinking of taking my smallbore cowboy rifle down and trying it out one month... well, when they start having matches again, anyway.

I know of 2 guys who shoot military guns in HP comps and have seen them hit 11 - 13 animals

Ken

Bob Aberson shot a 27/40 one day down in Houston with his AR-15, peep sights on his Compass Lake upper and Wolf ammo. Normally he shoots 10-20 with the setup. Perfect conditions, white animals on a yellow background. He tried to shoot air rifle with peeps yesterday. Didn't do very well. I don't remember the score, but I think it was less than 10.

I have tried a few rounds at paper and was hitting around 15% of the rounds on target. It was with a Marlin 60 and the sights were not zeroed. I practice at the house and the lighting was pretty decent. The targets were scaled down and I was shooting at 50 yds.

Shot my Walther target rifle for a match. Did quite well until the targets got peppered and became hard to see. Dropped about six points from my usual high AAA score.

Occasionally, I shoot a Marlin 39A with iron sights and on my better days when I've got my settings worked out I typically shoot about 8-10 less than with a scoped 1712, but let me tell you - it's very draining and requires a lot more focus than a scoped rifle, which is why I do it from time to time, to keep my focus up.

You can have a lot of fun shooting open sights in SB and HP. I have done both and had a blast. I have a 1913 vintage 94 Winchester in .32 spl I have used twice to shoot HP. Once at a local match I shot a 13 and that was with 9 pigs. The other time I shot it at the Sierra Classic and shot 14. I have also shot my SB cowboy rifle a 61 Winchester pump in a few SB rifle matches. If the light isn't just right it is very difficult. I did shoot a 22 with it on a week night match with good light conditions. Like I said it is a lot of fun. Al Foust

Chattcatdaddy wrote:Anyone ever try to shoot a match with open/iron sights? If so. what score?

Just curious on this matter. It seems like a appealing challenge to say the least.

The Blackpowder Cartridge shooters do it regularly (shoot with iron sights). If you are fair with aperture sights, it works pretty well. Lighting is important since with a round aperture in the front, it somewhat becomes a game of color and contrast.

Gator

I believe that Robert Massey used an iron sighted rifle in last years Midsouth Classic and IIRC, he did fairly well. Maybe Frank or George will recall better than I.

Mr. Massey used an old iron sighted lever gun at HP nationals last year. He did not hit very many, but he had more fun than anyone else did.

I shoot a CZ 452 trainer in our iron sight matches. I have a 3/32 Brooks aperture in place of the rear sight blade. Best to date has been 26/40.
Usually finish high teens or low twenties.

I did shoot one match last fall with a gentleman shooting a Marlin 39 with a receiver sight. He shot 39/40. I'm not sure of his name, so I won't repeat it here.

Mike Patterson won the Kentucky State Hunter rifle shooting an Anschutz with iron sights, His score was 40/60. He was the 2007 BPCR National Silhouette Champion also. Needless to say, the man can shoot off of his hind legs !