Semi Buckhorn sights in low light condition

[sewells1951]

New rifle owner here. Just bought a H024 30 30, the new model with both sidegate and tube loading. It's a gorgeous rifle and I like shooting it. But, I'm having some trouble developing the accuracy I want with the iron sights that come with the rifle.

I shoot at an outdoors public shooting complex near me that is a great facility but the shooting stations are under a roof. In that shadowed environment, I'm having trouble getting and keeping clear focus on the ivory pip of the front sight in the rear semi buckhorn. I didn't really know that was my problem until one day the range was busy and I got assigned a shooting station out in full daylight. Wow! The ivory pip "popped" in full light and I was able to focus on it far better with a concomitant increase in my accuracy.

I really want to keep the iron sights because I think they allow me to acquire a target faster than I could do with putting on a low power scope. I also like the idea of the semi buckhorn being something that, with experience, I will learn to adjust elevation by feel for shooting various distances.

So, I'd really like to learn to use the sights that came with the rifle the right way. I know the buckhorn sights have been around forever so I figure that there's a lot of people that have learned the ins and outs of dealing with them in less than ideal lighting conditions.

Hopefully someone out there has some tricks or tips that can help me out with getting clear focus on the front sight in lower light conditions.

Thanks in advance for any useful info.

[CT_Shooter]

Welcome to the forum from CT. Glad you joined us; there are lots of very helpful and knowledgeable folks here.

The lighting conditions most certainly do influence your aim. I eventually swapped the semi-buckhorn rear sights on my Henrys for Skinner peeps sights and discovered a noticeable difference in my ability to focus on the front sight. With more time shooting yours at that range, you may eventually adjust to the low light levels and become satisfied with your aim using the sights it came with.

Keep us posted.

New rifle owner here. Just bought a H024 30 30, the new model with both sidegate and tube loading.

[North Country Gal]

Our outdoor range also has an overhead roof at the rifle stations, so I have the same problem with lighting when shooting open sights. Can't do much about moving my shooting position out into the light, but one thing that does help for me is shooting on a day of good light for the sake of seeing the target, better.

As CT mentions, there are better sights for shooting when setup under a shadow, though. Much easier for me to see a sharp blade front sight than a small bead front sight under those conditions.

[JEBar]

first, welcome to our forum .... delighted to have you join us .... feel free to read/jump in and participate in ongoing conversations; as well as, to start more of your own .... one thing I've done in the past to help me see a front sight bead is to paint it with some high gloss, florescent nail polish .... with some, white worked best .... for others orange or green .... one advantage is, the paint is easy to remove .... there are aftermarket sources of high visibility sights and I'm sure some of our folks will come along with more info on them .... be sure to follow the link below to our How Many ? thread where you will be able to add your Henry rife to our community's total ....



http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 74#p115574

[220]

Just my 2c worth but I would look at increasing the light gap which means opening up the rear sight.
Without a decent light gap it is very hard to see how well the front sight is positioned in the rear sight in poor light.
It sounds counter intuitive that a larger gap around the front sight will increase accuracy but you only need to look at how much light gap there is with a peep arrangement to see that it does work.

[Mags]

.
Welcome from the TV, Oregon.

New rifle owner here...

[Rifletom]

Welcome to the forum. People here will help you figure things out you may have trouble with. 220's suggestion is some good advice. I've done the same, but, as I age with somewhat weaker eyes, I've had to resort to low magnification scopes: 1-3 or 1.5-4.5. Might be worth a try on what 220 mentioned. Good luck and again, welcome.

[Ernie]

Welcome to the forum. Like iron sights but with age I find peep sights help as CT mentions. Never have shot a rifle at an indoor range so I have no suggestions, sorry.

[markiver54]

Welcome to the forum. People here will help you figure things out you may have trouble with. 220's suggestion is some good advice. I've done the same, but, as I age with somewhat weaker eyes, I've had to resort to low magnification scopes: 1-3 or 1.5-4.5. Might be worth a try on what 220 mentioned. Good luck and again, welcome.

Makes sense to me!

[sewells1951]

Welcome to the forum. People here will help you figure things out you may have trouble with. 220's suggestion is some good advice. I've done the same, but, as I age with somewhat weaker eyes, I've had to resort to low magnification scopes: 1-3 or 1.5-4.5. Might be worth a try on what 220 mentioned. Good luck and again, welcome.

Well, I tried a scope. A good one. I wasn't much more accurate than I was with the iron sights. But it did tell me something that I couldn't see using the buckhorn sights. With the reticle on the bullseye at 3 X at 100 yards, I could see that I wobble. The reticle was moving around over the bullseye almost at random, like Brownian motion. That was translating into inaccuracy because I never quite knew where the actual aim point was when I hit the break point on the trigger. So, what I need to do I think is to focus on how to hold my aim steady.

I mounted the scope using rings that lifted the scope up enough that I can still use the buckhorn sights if I prefer to do that. But, I think I'll take the scope off. I really want to get better with the iron sights.

Or maybe I'm chasing a pipedream here. Basically, shooting Remington Core Lockt 150 grain .30 30 ammo I'm putting 5 shots within say a 7 inch square at 100 yards with iron sights. Maybe that's about as good as I can get unless I'm using some sort of gun rest that keeps things more stable.