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peep sight question

anderskandersk Member Posts: 3,627 ✭✭
The eyes are getting older, and I'm having trouble getting rear sight and front sight and the target all in focus on my .50 calibre Hawken long gun.

I've been told that adding a tang mounted peep sight will help me shoot more accurately. What's the scoop on that? How does that work?

Who sells them?

Comments

  • swearengineswearengine Member Posts: 1,308 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Look through the rear sight, focus on the target, let the front sight blur on the target. Simple.
  • perry shooterperry shooter Member Posts: 17,105 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You see a lot of Antique Rifles that have had the rear sight removed from original location and then installed UP the barrel to be closer to the front sight . Remove your rear sight and tape or glue it half way up the barrel and look at sights then both will be near the same as to focus If this looks good to you then have the rear sight installed in a new location
  • babunbabun Member Posts: 11,038 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The close to the eye rear peep site eliminates the need to have the rear site in focus. You are just looking thru a small hole.
    It is the idea behind every target shooter using iron sites, you can worry only about the front site on the target.
    All the old big bore sharpshooters used them, Lyman made a million of them. [;)]

    See this pic of a typical target shooter.
    1602.jpg

    and the dark site on the back of a Hawkkin.
    hqdefault.jpg

    and the site itself..
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thompson-Center-Tang-Sight-Hawken-Renegade-White-Mountain-Carbine-/231610486193?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ed0f8db1
  • anderskandersk Member Posts: 3,627 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Just wondering ... will a Williams receiver peep sight fit on the tang of a Hawken long gun?

    Do you need one with rails or can it be mounted down low?
  • pip5255pip5255 Member Posts: 1,625 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    if you decide to go with the TC tang sight I have a new one waiting for a new owner fits a TC Hawken I was going to use it but changed my mind.
    just because you could doesn't mean you should
  • Okie743Okie743 Member Posts: 2,700 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by andersk
    The eyes are getting older, and I'm having trouble getting rear sight and front sight and the target all in focus on my .50 calibre Hawken long gun.

    I've been told that adding a tang mounted peep sight will help me shoot more accurately. What's the scoop on that? How does that work?

    Who sells them?


    Just some thoughts about going to a peep.

    Ever try looking at a target thru your other eye?
    Might get a surprise looking at a target and when shooting from a rest at targets it don't take very much practice shooting with the other eye.
    I started practicing shooting with either right or left few years ago and found that I could actually shoot better and see target more clear left handed.

    Some of the tang peep sights are kinda expensive if going to the globe front type with interchangeable inserts. If you are a tinker You might try just rigging a visual peep indicator onto the gun and do a view of a target before going thru process of actually installing a purchased peep. You can re-search size of peeps, etc for viewing. Lyman at one time made a peep that fit over your eyeglasses and folded up out of the way for normal viewing with the shooting eye was advertised as helping focus when shooting target. A small peep hole was in front of your shooting eye. Do not know if they still offer such and I never tried it either but read about such.

    You can then play with size of peep hole and type of front sight if you tinker with your own homemade type just to run a visual test.

    T/C has some real good user friendly no drill and tap scope mounts reasonable on flea bay every once in awhile for the T/C guns. Here is one for a T/C Hawken barrel for $15. 161786368948 I'm not associated with this flea bay seller.
    This one is for a 1990 or later gun that the rear tang has a tapped hole, but easily installed on the older pre-1990 guns if not tapped at the rear because the real tapped hole is not in the hollow barrel section, it's in the solid part of the breech plug. 1990 and later Hawken come with the breech drilled and tapped and a hole plug installed so a their compatible scope base could be installed by removing the rear sight and using it's screw hole for the front screws. The original T/C prices just before they stopped making the scope bases was around $45 to $65 for the sidelocks.
    Scope if allowed is really way to go for weak eyes.

    Ronnie Milsap can shoot target with a scope.[;)]
  • anderskandersk Member Posts: 3,627 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm right handed, but for most of my life I've shot left handed because of being really left-eye dominant. So switching to right eye would mess me up big time! Our club does allow me to use a peep sight (over 65 I am) but not a scope. Thanks anyway.
  • anderskandersk Member Posts: 3,627 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I did pick up a Williams peep sight on a recent trip to the States. A friend (and part time gunsmith) mounted it for me and he took off the old rear sight.

    I had thought that you just left on the old rear sight. The idea of the peep sight was just to help focus vision on the existing rear and front sights. What say you?
  • PA ShootistPA Shootist Member Posts: 691 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have always removed, or folded down if possible, the normal "open" rear sight. I believe it just gets in the way. Your eye will naturally center the front sight into the completely out-of-focus "peep" or aperture rear sight. Don't worry about the peep being out of focus. Usually even older eyes can keep both the front sight and the target in relatively good focus. I am over 65+, and this is so for me, if the barrel is long enough and the front sight far enough away. Then, front sight in relation to target is close to a single sighting plane. That and the longer sighting radius, which can be close to double an open sight on the barrel to the front sight, can offer significantly better iron sight accuracy.
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