front sight width..54.5 yr old eyes any suggestions?

[WaterFowl]

Ringing out a new to me 40 cal. 32" GM barrel..shooting at 40 yards
filed the front sight thin enough that it will fit inside a black 1.5" center target dot
The 1" target  dot goes fuzzy on me...using.rear sight tang peep..
How can I get the 1"dot focus back?

Any suggestions ..wearing prescription shooting glasses now.(for distance)

front sight..brass lined back..


peep...



rear peep

[Paul Griffith]

How can I get the 1"dot focus back?

All I can say is "welcome to our world" You might want to see if you can find that Ponce De Leon fellar & his fountain thingy.

Seriously I would make the front sight large enough so you can see it decent & the shooting will be better than trying to shoot a set of sights that you could see with youthful eyes but may never see good again.

[James Wilson Everett]

Also, welcome to the club.  Personally, I have given up on the rear sight ( just looks like a brown cotton ball ).  Smoothbores are great - no rear sight - and you always have an excuse when you miss!!!!

Jim

[ohidan]

Try a pair of cheap reading glasses. Works for me !

[4ster]

Second the reading glasses.  I wear prescription glasses.  If I didn't wear glasses I would try to get a set of readers where the front sight and the target are in reasonable focus.  That is how my glasses focus.  For me the back sight is a blur, but defined enough that I can line both sights up consistently, depending on the amount of light. 

[Al Lapp]

I bought a pair of cheap reading glasses at the dollar store for a buck. Works for me.   Al

[Jerry V Lape]

Might help you  to use a large bead instead of the blade?  I know that with my peep sighted rifles the round bead centered in the rear aperture and also centered over a round target dot gives the best alignment with my 72 year old eyes.  Make the front bead as large as you can with the target dot you are using.  It works on game too by centering the bead on the spot I wish to hit - versus the bottom hold.   Fuzzy aperture is normal, focus on the bead. 

[SCLoyalist]

To add to the 'cheap reading glasses' theme:  Dollar store reading glasses usually go from 1.00 diopter up to 2.50 diopter.    Over the years I've become more or less far-sighted, and to see the sights wthout blurring the front sight and target too much, I had to go to a weaker diopter.   If you do a google search on 'computer glasses' or 'low power reading glasses' you'll find some sources like 'eyefatique.com' or 'speert.com' that sell .25, .50, and .75 diopter glasses for $25 and under.    They work for some folks,  don't work for others, but are probably worth a try if you can't get a sight picture with anything else.

[Chris Treichel]

Doing some research lately... in many German shooting catalogues (also online) they have rifle "diopters" with perscription lenses built in. 

[Long Ears]

Welcome to the old guy club. Won't work for a peep sights but move the rear sight out to 14" from the breech or try one of these:
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2008/07/diopter-devices-aid-old-eyes/

[ottawa]

sounds like you are loosing what is called pin hole vision .the ability to focus Thur an aperture site is harder at longer ranges then it used to be I have the same problem and cant see the 300 meter target when shooting for the army. V or notch sites don't bother me . i have tryed putting an aperture site on at the same spot as regular sites ( way forward) and it worked also buckhorn sites used as an aperture

[Harnic]

You're already half way there Waterfowl!  Put a Lyman series 17 front globe sight on & you'll never complain about sights again!  I have one on my 45 Sharps with a vernier tang peep on the rear & I don't use glasses at all with that combo.  Unfortunately in these parts you're looked on like dirt if you use anything "non-traditional" on muzzle loaders.

[Dave Faletti]

try different size aperatures(larger) in addition to other size/type front sights.  I have wanted to setup a 22rimfire with a way to temporarily attach sights to try out different styles but never got around to it.

[Daryl]

If you are going to use a modern peep sight, you might as well do as Harry noted and put an aperture front sight one as well.  That will allow definition of the circular aiming point as no other sight will do.

If you were going to use an open sight, I'd suggest a wide V, to be used with a bead.  To see a small target bud, you'd have to aim at it's "6".

[northmn]

I do pretty much as Daryl suggested and use a 1/8" front bead.  The small fine sights I used to use just don't work any more and the bead lets me see the top of the sight.  Also the blade sights can glare to make you shoot off to one side.  Never liked them. 
Another option for a rear sight is to widen the V or U so there is a slight gap around the front sight.  Some then cut a narrow slit to the base of the rear sight to permit more light.
DP

[WaterFowl]

Gentleman...Thank you for the advice..will try the glasses will try the larger bead will try the target front sight...will go back to the 6 o'clock hold with the square bead will try the open rear sight.

My goal is head shots on squirrels., Man I miss young eyes!...Thanks....dan

[Fred_Dwyer]

I've always used pistol style sights on my MLs. Through 1/2 century my sight-picture hasn't changed noticeably, while my eyes definitely changed.  Front sight width 3/16" and rear sight notch 3/32". There's a standard small-bore target that matches that front sight-picture width at 50 yards. I have never, even when my eyes were good, had good results with a front blade; it just wasn't enough "stuff" and disappeared into the black of a target.

[The other DWS]

sights and aging eyes can be a real problem.  you have to factor in your own visual issues, the type of target you are shooting and the lighting conditions, in addition to both the front and the back sight.

If you are using a Lyman/Marbles style tang sight you might look at the Merit or the Parker-Hale replacement discs that have a selection of rear aperture holes.  Hooded front sights, including those that use a selection of inserts can help, if they are permitted/tolerated (though for squirrel hunting, only the squirrels might have a relevant opinion).  I have several sets that include both circle/apertures in a number of diameters and thicknesses  as well as various cross-"hair" and post combinations.  I personally find the square notch and square post competition pistol type set-up combined with a 6 o'clock hold works best, but as I have gotten older I find that it works better for me if I open the notch up a bit more to show more daylight on each side of the post

 Hunting sights can present a different problem from more formal target sights since game does not always provide a nice red or black dot to aim at.  And squirrels against tree bark in a wooded environment conditions can be hard enough to see, even without factoring in sights.

 The English developed sights for their hunting rifles that were designed for quick shots and in varying light conditions.  One which was widely used "over there" (anywhere in the far-flung british empire) was sold as the Beach/Beech sight as well as in the US. It was a small hooded sight that could be flipped to show a dark square post or a post with a small ivory bead or angled square insert.  It was often used with a wide shallow Vee open sight with a small half-round notch, gold, or platinum indicator line at the bottom point of the Vee.  This was especially good for a quick snap shot at moving or charging game.  Something similar might do well for those man-eating squirrels

 The brass or gold beads or inserts proved to be too reflective for accurate quick shooting----especially when hunting dangerous game.   I believe both Marbles and Lyman offered version in the early years in this country.  Several sources are selling modern repros of the Beech/Beach sight.

Several of my German/swiss stalking and target rifles have a shallow dovetail rib machined into the top flat of the breech end of the barrel.  IT was designed to use a very finely made adjustable open rear sight that clamped to the rib.  this allows the shooter about a foot of fore-and-aft adjustment to tune the rear sight placement for his personal vision needs.  Their precision rear "diopter" rear tang sights have interchangeable or adjustable discs to allow for the same with the sight at a fixed distance from the eye.

For a contemplated hunting ML project I have been considering a Beach/Beech ivory bead sight for a front sight and having a slight shallow dovetail cut milled in the rear foot or so on each side of the top flat for a slide-adjustable rear open sight with the shallow-vee-notch.

[Daryl]

These are two more that can work as peep sights, but fit many rules as open, iron sights. - at least here. Taylor tried one as in the first picture, the full buckhorn and it worked very well.  The size of the hole can be made whatever you want - here, as long as the top is open, it bucks the  no-aperture or peep sight rule. As a hunting sight, they allow much more vision downrange than the style of tang mounted aperture sight you have mounted on your rifle.

[4ster]

I am thankful that we shoot "longrifles" - the long barrel gets the front sight out far enough for me that my old(ish) eyes can focus on it and the target.   But I am lucky that is how my eyes are aging.

I have a couple of shorter lever actions where that is not the case.  Its hard to get the front sight and the target to true up in the fuzz.  I am going to suggest something that is heresy.  If you can't make anything else work and if you can put up with the groans, think about this:

I installed a fiber-optic (the plastic, bright colored rod that glows in sunlight) front sight in the front dovetail on my shortest lever gun and was amazed at how much the sight picture improved.  I liked it so much that I wanted to do that to the other  lever gun.  The problem was that the front sight on it is part of the front barrel/magazine support rings and there is no dovetail to fit a different sight.  

I found bulk fiber-optic stock at Brownell's.  It comes in different diameters, I purchased the smallest diameter because my front sight blade is thin to start with.   I was able to drill a small hole in the blade for the plastic rod and create a "skylight" for the rod with a file without altering the profile of the sight picture.  Only now a bright red dot shines in the top, center of the front sight, making it easy to find.  

So you might be able to have a front sight that looks "mostly" period correct with just a touch of late 20th century.  

[Daryl]

The two sights I pictured, sharpen the front sight, just as any peep does.

You are indeed lucky your eyes are aging such that you can see both the sight AND the target in sharp relief.  Normally it's one or the other, although with most people, the target is still very good when the front sight is sharp. Anyone with firearms training will tell you that the front sight is the important sight to have sharp, while the rear and target are somewhat fuzzy.  Having to wear a 1/2 of full diopter to sharpen the front sight as some of the guys are having to do past 40 yrs. old, usually makes the target even blurrier, but it's better than having all 3 blurry or not being able to shoot at all without magnifying glass as in a scope.  One friend who had diabetes and who is now deceased, had to have at least 4 X magnification to see 100yards.

Most or at least many smoothbore round ball shooters are in the eye's-getting-bad stage.  Only having the front to contend with, makes aiming easier for them. On gong targets, many of Rendezvous BC's smoothbore shooters always score higher than most rifle shooters. In other words, to beat all of them, one must just about "ace" every trail. All are doable, but having fun the night before, usually takes a toll.

[Dave Faletti]

XS  Sight Systems has an express sight for a lever gun that would work on a octagon muzzleloader barrel.  Their sights are easy to see and use though not great for precision. I like some of the ideas Daryl and others mentioned better in some ways.  Another idea to look at though.

[Vomitus]

  SMOOTHBORE!...perfect for us blind fun lovers,sorry Dan,LOL! Off the bags, my (now Taylor's) .62 with 5 shots would group just outside of 3 inches @50yds.. Not too shabby for O twist in 46 inches!

[Vomitus]

You're already half way there Waterfowl!  Put a Lyman series 17 front globe sight on & you'll never complain about sights again!  I have one on my 45 Sharps with a vernier tang peep on the rear & I don't use glasses at all with that combo.  Unfortunately in these parts you're looked on like dirt if you use anything "non-traditional" on muzzle loaders.

Harry, if we didn't have this rule,we'd have the "rule benders" shooting scopes and peeps,fiber optic bubble sights and the likes.How much fun would that be? Then again,we could host "non-traditional" shoots and then you could compete with the scoped pill popping bolt action Jim Shockey type thingees.

added: It's like separating modern from primitive. Yes, I have several modern contraption guns,...and still use them....But, when I pick up my flint rifle and smooth gun, I bury ALL that is modern(within reason,I don't ride my mule to rondy's) and take on my "traditional" guns entrapment's and have fun. If my school of rifle has this or that kind of sight, I use it to the best I can, allowing for some adjustment,of course. Same with the new fowler, I like the French turtle, but not appropriate on an American English influenced fowling piece. So I'm going with the traditional front sight.( I'm snooping around for a "Spider" type)
 Harry, not trying to be anal with the first paragraph, just my thoughts on mixing the two.(maybe i am anal,lol) Try running 24" Apes on your new Yamaha!

[WaterFowl]

Leatherbelly.   ".if it weren't for the squirrel head shots "
 Don't think I have shot a deer with bp that was further away than 65 yards..Just the conditions I hunt..
.You SB shooters have way to much fun!
 Every year I creep Little closer to front sight only!

 Now where are my keys and glasses?.......dan

Topic update..shot the larger hole peep...group opened up i inch....next step thicker front sight with 6 O-clock hold.