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Low light with open sights
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Booshway
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How do you all enhance your open sights for low light - I can't see my front sight much past 15 min after sunset where I hunt


"But I swear, a woman's breast is the hardest rock that the Almighty ever made on this earth, and I can find no sign on it." Bear Claw Chris Lapp
 
Posts: 516 | Location: Ft Parker/Ft Manuel Lisa | Registered: 15 April 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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I paint mine with fluorescent paint. Either green or red.
 
Posts: 127 | Registered: 10 October 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of roundball
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quote:
Originally posted by KHickam:
How do you all enhance your open sights for low light - I can't see my front sight much past 15 min after sunset where I hunt
For me, after trying several different colors and types...the one that I can pick up the quickest in the dark woods is Hi-Visibility White and settled on that...also found it best to contrast against the colored leaves of fall.
The good news is that once the leaves are off the trees like they are now where I hunt, I get the full 30 minutes reflected sky-light on that white front sight...noted just today that I could still see it at 5:32, which was 30 mins after official sunset of 5:02.
The bad news is there was no brown hair to contrast it against, LOL.


Flintlock Rifles & Smoothbores
Hunt Like The Settlers
 
Posts: 1867 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 28 January 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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I paint the backs of my front sights with flat white paint. It shows up really well in poor light.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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i file a smal notch in the front blade . in bright or dim light it shines like a bead
 
Posts: 687 | Location: Payette ,Idaho | Registered: 23 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I use a silver front sight blade. The problem for me is not the lack of seeing the front sight blade or the rear sight... As I am on the Northern side of a slope that starts down toward the North and goes from gentle to pretty steep before it hits the creek and the flood plain... the deer are not illuminated enough for me to pick out a good spot to place the sights upon. 10 minutes after sundown and I'm done.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of HardBall
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quote:
Originally posted by captchee:
i file a smal notch in the front blade . in bright or dim light it shines like a bead


Captchee,

Do you file the "notch" lengthwise, along the top of the sight or perpendicular to it?


Sean,

 
Posts: 17 | Location: NW Louisiana - Earth | Registered: 29 April 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of captchee
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quote:
Originally posted by HardBall:
quote:
Originally posted by captchee:
i file a smal notch in the front blade . in bright or dim light it shines like a bead


Captchee,

Do you file the "notch" lengthwise, along the top of the sight or perpendicular to it?


perpendicular.. just a slight step at the top edge . make the bottom flat and the a slight slope. dont make it to big or when it bright out you will end up tryig to look into a light bulb type of afair .
again just a little notch is all thats needed . wha t happens is that the light of the sky is mirrored . works very good if you standing out in the light but trying to shoot into a dark area
 
Posts: 687 | Location: Payette ,Idaho | Registered: 23 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Cap, that is an interesting solution. One that never even occurred to me. Thanks for sharing that.
 
Posts: 721 | Location: TriCities, WA | Registered: 25 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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My two favorite rifles have a silver blade and an ivory. Oddly, I really prefer a standard black patridge type. For me, the black provides a contrast that can be seen in all but total darkeness. When the quarry becomes to dark to see that is when it is time to quit.
Besides that, dragging a deer out, uphill (in the Ozarks 'out' is always uphill) over rocky, branch strewn ground in the dark ain't fun.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of HardBall
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quote:
Originally posted by captchee:
perpendicular.. just a slight step at the top edge .


Thanks Captchee, I think I understand now.


Sean,

 
Posts: 17 | Location: NW Louisiana - Earth | Registered: 29 April 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Pilgrim
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I use a touch of white-out correction fluid on the tip of the front sight. It shines out in even the lowest light, and it's water soluble in case you change your mind.


"Any day you wake up on the right side of the dirt is a good day"
 
Posts: 428 | Location: Northwestern California | Registered: 05 May 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Back in my 40's, I used white paint on my front sight. Then I ended up painting the rear sight. By the time I was 45, and missing several deer at close range, then finally hitting one high in it's center, right through it's back bone while I was aiming at the center of it's front shoulder, I realized the following. I wasn't able to see the front sight clear enough till it was actually well above the top of the rear sight, sending all of my off hand low light situation shots high.

The solution was having peep sights made for each my hunting rifles.

My old hunting partner who stopped hunting due to having a heart attack, and my nephew, both had peep sights mounted on their rifles.

As we age, open iron sights become very difficult for our aging eyes to focus on. The peep sights is a real improvement.

Most of the primitive doings don't allow the use of peep sights so keep one rifle with open iron sights. On the rifle you use for hunting, install a peep sight on it.

A peep sight really helps while hunting in those low light situations where your hunting under a dark canopy of evergreen trees during a dark and raining morning or evening. Been there, done that, bought the "T" shirt, and still using a peep sight on moth my hunting rifles.

I have both a caplock and a rocklock that I hunt with. When the rain starts coming down sideways, I carry the caplock. Lordy, I've had that caplock out in some rain soaked days where it wouldn't fire by the end of the day. That's hunting in the Pacific Northwest's Olympic Peninsula's rain forest.

Load fast and aim slow.
 
Posts: 1726 | Location: Pacific Northwest | Registered: 08 March 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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If you're interested in having peep sighs made for your hunting rifles, contact me off list.

I will also comment that most of the peep sights available on the open market have apertures that are quite small and only good for target shooting. That or they are large and take up lots of room on the rifle , becoming in the way, when trying to take fast shots.

The peep sights I'm using have an 1/8" aperture and though it appears big enough to drive a Mack truck through, they are perfect in the dark low light situations one finds themselves while hunting in the woods.

Load fast and aim slow.
 
Posts: 1726 | Location: Pacific Northwest | Registered: 08 March 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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