Sights and light

[Canute Rex]

I was looking at a previous discussion about the effects of lighting on sight picture and I have a question.

How much?

I understand that bright light on a shiny sight (say it ten times fast) makes the sight seem taller, pushing POI down. Ok, but by how much at what range? Are we talking inches or quarter inches?

I ask because I am shooting at gongs at the primitive biathlons this winter. Sometimes it is overcast and sometimes there is sunlight on snow. I'm not trying for 10x, but somewhere on a gong. Can I ignore this factor at 35 to 50 yards?

Some of the gongs are quite small at the short ranges - playing card size or smaller.

[Daryl]

I think different people see light differently on the sights and therefore make allowances differently than others.  Due to all these variables, there is no forumla.  There may be systems that work - best one is sight black - give it a squirt and the sight is bold and jet black. A wipe of the thumb and it's gathering light as needed in the shadows. Sometimes I forget it.  Wide felt pen can also work well - the dry-errase ones are best as they were dull, non refletive - at least the one I had was. Teh permenent felts are shiny and sometimes don't help much, but usually hep some.  Accourterments like felt pens, ball screws, spare sights and files along with cameras and a can of sight black are why some of us carry a canvas bag on the left side with the possibles bag on the right.  The soot from burning masking tape below the sight (barrel upsidedown of course) will give an incredibly dull black to the sights. I used that on handgun sights, years ago.

I find bright light on a blade makes me shoot higher as the light makes the top of the front sight disappear, so the tendency is to raise it in the notch until one can 'see' it.

Oh yes - sun can play havok even at close ranges of 50yards and closer yet on really small gongs, targets like strings, straws and splitting playing cards even closer yet.  The lighting is what made me miss the dog chain at 50yards on Sunday, while both Len and Taylor hit it - that's my story/excuse. I shot second just after the sun birghtened then it went behind a cloud again so Len could hit the chain next. YUP.

[smylee grouch]

When I shoot in the bright sun I too have a tendency to shoot into the sun just like Daryl. If the sun is high and to my right side I will usualy shoot high and to the right. On a barlycorn style sight the top of the blade is thinner so it will disapear some what and like Daryl says you take more sight and shoot into the sun. Thats my take on it anyway but I have no scale or formula as to how much.   Smylee

[Daryl]

One trick comes to mind when shooting with bright light from the rear or sides with glaring light on the blade or bead. Oft times I'm too lazy to blacken the sight, so I drop the muzzle to get the right sight picture, then raise it up onto the gong, stop the rifle and fire right away, before my mind has be changing anything. It works & I'd like to say it works every time, but I don't hit every time most of the time - just sometimes most of the time .

I've not had much luck with windage problems when using barelycorn sights. The rounded rear surface makes shooting off to one side or the other much more prevelent & difficult to correct. I like a flat rear surface, angled up to catch the light in the forest, but sharp edged so there is very much reduced side glare. That side glare makes missing quite easy on narrow targets. A sharp edged blade of bear helps reduce shots left or right.

[Pete G.]

The old rule in match shooting is "Light up Sight up"

[Canute Rex]

I just fired off 10 shots with my sights blackened and it dropped my POI by about 2" at 40 yards. Wow.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'm going to go with dark sights as long as we've got sun and snow cover up here.