Sights on a short barreled rifle

[conquerordie]

My current project has a short barrel. Would you make a front sight that is thinner than the typical ones you can buy? My thought is that since the sight is closer to the eye I could use a thinner sight and maybe get a little more accurate sight picture. What do you guys think? The barrel is about 21.5 inches long. Thanks
Greg

[Hungry Horse]

If you are going to put the sight close to your eye, you will find the sight out of focus, and rather worthless. in your situation I would go with a peep sight mounted on the tang of the barrel. I hope this barrel is of fairly small caliber. A large caliber muzzleloader, with that short barrel is going to be problematic I suspect.

   Hungry Horse

[PPatch]

Temporarily affix the sights to the barrel and play with them, see what you like.

[rich pierce]

I believe the question is about the thickness of the front sight.  1) make your own.  2) file an existing sight.

[FDR]

The thin front sight will be difficult to see except in perfect lighting conditions.  I find a thicker front with a square notch easier to see in all lighting conditions especially when in the woods hunting.

Fred

[conquerordie]

I'll start out with the,common thickness and work my way down until I loose the sight picture quality.  I'll even run these tests in the woods so the lighting is similar to hunting conditions. Great ideas everyone!

[EC121]

With a 21" barrel and barrel mounted sights you will have the sight radius of a long-barreled pistol.  Look at the sight size of some of the pistols. 

[Turtle]

 I'd use a standard width  ft. sight and a wider rear notch. I did some experiments an found a wider rear sight notch surprisingly didn't hurt accuracy. I maker my rear notched wide enough to appear twice the width of a pretty wide  front sight. This helped me especially hunting. Thin front sights are also real fragile.
                                                              Turtle

[Acer Saccharum]

Look at modern pistol sights. Wide front, square notch rear. You want to see light on either side of the front sight when viewing thru the rear sight. This light will help you balance the sight in the notch.


Make up some false sights out of black electric tape, and trim with scissors/knife until you get the sight picture you like. Then replicate the widths in metal.

[Hungry Horse]

Theodore Roosevelt was an internationally recognized good shot. He also had world class poor eyesight. He experimented with all types of iron sights, trying to discover one that allowed him to get a clear sight picture. The sight he use exclusively was a small barley corn front sight, mated to a low rear sight,with a gradual V, culminating in a round bottomed notch.
 Don't you think, with the Roosevelt fortune behind him, if there was a better sight for poor eyesight he would have found it? For years Iused what at the time was called the California, or Patridge sight. It is a big shark fin front sight, that is quite wide. It is mated to a high rear sight with a deep, wide, square notch.
I only wish I had read Teddy's views on iron sight earlier.

    Hungry Horse

[conquerordie]

More great ideas! The only catch is I want the sights to be historically correct as we'll. I should be able to use a standard front sight cut down with a larger notch in the rear.  I plan on the rear sight having two leafs. Looking at my pistols and even my AR carbine, the sight radius is close. To what will be on this rifle. This is gonna be fun! Thanks again everyone.