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“Old eyes”

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ditto1958
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“Old eyes”

Post by ditto1958 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:02 pm

I periodically post rants about eyesight and sights/optics. A pet peeve of mine is people who justify buying scope because their “old eyes” can’t cut it any more with iron sights. I don’t believe that, and I wish people would stop trying to justify using a scope because of supposed declining vision.

My friend Ruben is probably the best shooter at our range. He’s in his early 80’s and wears glasses for both distance and reading. The other day, he borrowed an Egyptian rifle (FN-49?) from another shooter, a military surplus 308 rifle with aperture sights, and shot a 3 shot cloverleaf group from a bench at 100 yards.

This was not a cherry-picked group. Those were the only shots he took with the rifle. He handed it right back to the owner.

Scopes are wonderful. I have them and use them. Iron sights, though, still work just fine, and just as well as they did when our forefathers had to use them to put meat on the table. Don’t ever underestimate how well you can shoot with them. If you can legally drive to the range you can see plenty well enough to shoot.
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PT7
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by PT7 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:07 pm

ditto1958 wrote:
Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:02 pm
Iron sights, though, still work just fine, and just as well as they did when our forefathers had to use them to put meat on the table. Don’t ever underestimate how well you can shoot with them.
Pretty significant that families were fed when game was harvested only using iron sights. Plus I'd bet they were skilled at shooting with so much riding on their hunts.

Iron was the best they had. Kind of fun to imagine how their minds would be boggled today with a walk through a Cabelas optics department!

The other day I was flipping through some Traditions web pages of cab & ball rifles. Lots of sharp-looking muzzleloaders made by this company, a lot like the cool-looking Uberti replica revolvers and rifles. The one I found was a Deerhunter, and it was used in the early 1800s. In the original historical period, it had iron sights on it, which were rear buckhorns and a front steel blade. Nowadays this rifle is only built by Traditions with Williams Fiber Optic sights. The rear is two green dots on either side of a u-shaped slot, the front is an orange standard tube optic. They looked odd to me sitting above the barrel pin and the ramrod. Nothing like the pictures I've seen of early cap & ball rifles. C'est la vie.

Kind of 8-) that Henry has chosen to maintain the tradition of iron sights on their rifles. Important to this company.

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Last edited by PT7 on Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mags
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by Mags » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:12 pm

.
And I respectfully have to disagree.
ditto1958 wrote:
Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:02 pm
I periodically post rants about eyesight and sights/optics. A pet peeve of mine is people who justify buying scope because their “old eyes” can’t cut it any more with iron sights. I don’t believe that, and I wish people would stop trying to justify using a scope because of supposed declining vision.

My friend Ruben is probably the best shooter at our range. He’s in his early 80’s and wears glasses for both distance and reading. The other day, he borrowed an Egyptian rifle (FN-49?) from another shooter, a military surplus 308 rifle with aperture sights, and shot a 3 shot cloverleaf group from a bench at 100 yards.

This was not a cherry-picked group. Those were the only shots he took with the rifle. He handed it right back to the owner.

Scopes are wonderful. I have them and use them. Iron sights, though, still work just fine, and just as well as they did when our forefathers had to use them to put meat on the table. Don’t ever underestimate how well you can shoot with them. If you can legally drive to the range you can see plenty well enough to shoot.
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Shakey Jake
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by Shakey Jake » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:17 pm

I'm not sure where I stand on the issue especially now with the eye problems I'm having. If this retinal vein occlusion doesn't get completely better I'll have to use a scope, no doubt.
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RanchRoper
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by RanchRoper » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:35 pm

I have never had the opportunity to try a scope, so iron sights is all I know. I like 'em. I am not doing cloverleaf groups at 100 yds by any stretch but I can usually hit what I aim at.
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JEBar
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by JEBar » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:36 pm

not being willing or able to speak for anyone else, to be effective without my glasses at more than a few yards, I'd need a 12 ga .. :? .. when it comes to firearm sights, I've used most of the types on the market .... surgeries on both eyes have helped but at 72 my eyes aren't anywhere near as sharp as they were when I was 27 .... personally, most of the time my preference is to use a scope
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Jdl447
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by Jdl447 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:46 pm

I find longer barrels work better for me with peep sights than shorter.
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markiver54
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by markiver54 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 4:09 pm

I wear 3 way transitional eyeglasses, but still prefer a scope. With iron sights, trying to get a clear picture of the rear, the front blade and my target, ( all three at once ), ain't hapenin. Through the scope, all I have to do is put the cross hairs on the target and shoot. One picture without eye strain.
I CAN shoot relatively well with iron, but don't care to frustrate myself if I don't have to.
IMO...old eyes ARE an issue!
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North Country Gal
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by North Country Gal » Sat Sep 07, 2019 4:38 pm

I've never had great eyesight. Started wearing glasses, full-time, in 4th grade and have been wearing them ever since. Nor are things as sharp as they'd to be and my prescriptions over the years show it. I've never let that stop me, though, and in that sense ditto is right. It's a myth that you have to have great eyesight to do well at shooting, just likes it's a myth that you have to have some special "steadiness" to be a good shooter. I'm a shaky old granny, now, with strong progressive lenses in my glasses and I can still shoot some nice groups.

And, hey, I love iron sights, too, and I always will. I learned how to shoot with iron sights and will always do some of my shooting with iron sights.

I use scopes, too, because it's an indisputable fact that scopes will let me shoot smaller targets at greater distances than I can hit with iron sights. Part of this is my upbringing in the wide open spaces of the west, shooting at targets that I could barely see without a scope and even when I could see them, they'd get covered up with iron sights. Try shooting something as small as a prairie dog at 300 or 400 yards with iron sights, then tell me how great iron sights are. If that's not something you've experienced, then try shooting those little paste on orange dots the size of a nickel at 100 yards with iron sights on a dark day or even a sunny day .. if you can even see them. I do shoot them all the time with a good scope at 100 yards, sometimes even at 200 yards, often keeping five shots touching the orange. That's a job for a scope, folks, not iron sights.

The bottom line is that the sights on your rifle or handgun, whether iron or optical, are tools for doing specific jobs. I don't know many folks that try fishing for everything from bluegills to tarpon with just one rod or people who golf with just one club, so I don't try to handicap myself with just one kind of sight for all my shooting. I mostly use the best sight for the job, but not always. Sometimes I deliberately handicap myself to add a bit of challenge to my shooting and sometimes I'll drag out a rifle with those old open sights just for the love of tradition and to get a taste of doing it the old way. That's a lot of fun, too, but I'm not about to limit myself to those sights.

Each to their own, as always.
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markiver54
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Re: “Old eyes”

Post by markiver54 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 4:47 pm

Very well put NCG! great perspective, comparison and insight...no pun intended☺
Thank you!
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