Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 - Dan Shideler - Страница 29

RIFLE Sights of Iron AND THEIR MANAGEMENT

BY SAM FADALA

The tang sight on this muzzleloading rifle illustrates another type of “peep” sight. The tang sight allows use of open iron sights on this rifle.

The British soldier was well-trained and immensely brave, willing to march through flames for his stalwart commanders. Then why is it that the mighty redcoats of the then greatest army in the world were slaughtered by American citizen-soldiers at the Battle of New Orleans in January of 1815? Sir Edward Michael Pakenham was one of the Queen’s best, the leader of 8,000 crack men, while our own Andrew Jackson had 3,500 to 4,000 under him. Statistics vary, but they do not depart far from 385 Brits killed, 1,186 wounded and 484 captured, while the Americans suffered 13 dead, 58 wounded and 30 captured. You may read that the British soldier fought in rank and file while Jackson’s boys sniped from trees and behind rocks. Not so, according to best records.

This blade type front sight is mounted in a dovetail slot. Drifting this sight to the right will move bullet impact to the left and vice versa. To raise point of impact, the sight is filed down. To lower point of impact, a taller front sight must be installed.

The Americans did have heavy artillery established in earthworks (bulwarks) called “Line Jackson” after the Major-General of the Tennessee Militia. That 32-pound gun, along with one 18-pounder, three 12s, three 6s, and one 6-inch howitzer, had to have a telling effect. However, the Brits knocked out several of these. Detailed specifics of the battle remain obscured in time’s dark shadow, but General Pakenham’s death by a volley of grape shot had to affect troop morale.

Regardless, I submit that the arrival of Tennessee Sharpshooters from Kentucky bode strong in the rout. These lads carried rifles with iron sights. The original Brown Bess musket I once fired weighed 11 pounds and was pole vault long, with a lump of metal at the end of the barrel pretending to be a front sight with no true rear sight for alignment.

Smoothbores had their advantages: faster to load in the heat of battle and easier to clean than rifled long guns. And the 75-caliber round ball from the Brown Bess was vicious – when that big hunk of lead found the mark. But putting that spherical bullet exactly on target was more wishful thinking than reality. The 19th century American rifle, on the other hand, “barked” tree squirrels for supper and pricked the enemy “a way off yonder.” Rifling caused round bullets to spin on their axes, promoting equalization of discrepancies as well as stabilizing conical projectiles. But without good sights, the rifle would prove no more effective than smoothbore musket. Knowing this, early rifle makers developed a multitude of iron sight designs. W.W. Greener, in the 1910 Ninth Edition of his famous book, The Gun and its Development, illustrated several.

Greener writes of one example: “A favourite back-sight with South African sportsmen is the combined leaf, and tangent sight, for it is suitable both for game-shooting and target practice.” This Cape Sight had two folding leaves along with a standard plate for ranges up to 300 yards plus an adjustable slide for shooting up to 1,000 yards.

Our own Lyman Company had a big hand in viable early iron sights, including a popular double-leaf model. Both leaves were regulated for the same elevation. But one was open V while the other was straight bar with ivory reference triangle. Lyman’s Sporting Tang Sight was joined by the company’s No. 1 aperture or “peep.” Lyman continues to offer precision micrometer aperture sights, such as the Model 66-A, friendly on the Model 94 Winchester with quarter-minute “clicks.” The dizzying variety of iron sight choices that lay before the 19th century shooter continues today.

Match rifles of the early 1900s were privy to countless options, including the Orthoptic Back-sight with Vernier Scale and Lyman’s Disc Peep for Match Shooting. Greener had his own Orthoptic Wind-gauge aperture sight plus a Miniature Cadet Sight. He also introduced a front sight that flipped to combine barleycorn and bead, barleycorn being a thick upside down V. My mentor Jack O’Connor, writing on the subject, corralled iron sights into four categories. Rear sights he noted as a notch in V or U shape “cut in a piece of iron.” Jack included the hole or peep sight, adding a flat un-notched bar with white centerline stripe (rare). Finally, he applauded the Patridge sight – not the first-day-of-Christmas bird in the pear tree but named for E.E. Patridge who developed the design in the 1880s for exhibition shooting—a square rear notch optically matched to a flat-topped blade front sight.

The simple V or U notch, still popular, works better than its simplicity suggests. Countless tons of prime game meat have been brought to table with rifles sporting this sight. I have seen O’Connor’s flat bar with white line in Africa. It is intended for close encounters of the Cape buffalo kind. It is simple and fast for bullet placement at very close range when a hunter’s starched shorts are at risk of being sullied and the target is a broad skull or hearty shoulder. The Patridge is much more precise when it has a frame of reference, as explained below, especially effective with the six o’clock hold.

Taking nothing away from any of these open sights, it is the peep (aperture) that rules the world of rifle iron sights when precise bullet placement is called for.

Last season, partly for the SCI meat donation program, I hunted big game exclusively with my Marlin 336T Texan .30-30 carbine, the one closely resembling Winchester’s famous Model 94. The original open iron sight missed nothing, only one second shot required on an antelope buck taking a bullet on angle. And yet, the open iron and bead front on that carbine are now replaced with a White Stripe front matched to a Ghost Ring aperture (peep) from XS Sight Systems. The promise of an extra margin of bullet placement was fulfilled with this peep sight. Groups proved the .30-30’s potential as a mid-range cartridge, as evidenced by Hornady’s LeverEvolution ammo and my own handloads (160- to 165-grain bullets at 2,450 feet per second from 20-inch barrel, a blip faster out of the 24-inch tunnel.

Nineteenth century iron sights proved so useful that they remain with us today. Consider the Marble Arms threesome of full buckhorn, semi-buckhorn, and flat-top rear sights. Dovetailed into the barrel, these open irons are adjusted for windage by drifting left or right, elevation accomplished via a double step elevator (ladder). You drift the front sight left to hit right, right to hit left, rear sight up for higher, down for lower bullet impact. Simple and effective. All three have white enamel diamonds for center reference with reversible U- or V-notches. The Marble open rear sight is a prime example of the family. But there are scores of others on new rifles as well as myriad after-market choices.

A good look at an elevator bar, also called a ladder, beneath an open iron sight. The notches are used to change the height of the sight, going up to hit higher, down to hit lower. The notches do not have a specific value.

The justly-renowned receiver-mounted Lyman Peep Sight.

Rifle iron sight variation over time is an interesting study. But management of these sights is imperative for in-the-field results. The glass sight magnifies the image, which in turn increases perceived rifle movement. The rifleman immediately discovers that if he or she wants to hit that target, a better stance with greater control is demanded — sitting, kneeling, prone, hasty sling (carry strap or sling slipped through arm) or, better, a solid rest, be it the top strut of a packframe or over a log or boulder. The iron sight can give a false sense of rifle steadiness because it lacks magnification, leading the shooter to “hold sloppy.” I once found a dandy Marlin half-magazine 336 in .32 Winchester Special. Groups were OK with original irons. Adding a Lyman micrometer “peep” provided honest 1.5-inch and smaller patterns at 100 yards.

As a young firefighter on the Arizona/Mexico border I met two old miners who loved to show off their .30-30 skills. They were good. Both said they never “saw” their sights. They relied on “snap-shooting.” Fact is, the bullet can only go where the sights are “looking.” These two marksmen, experts through years of practice, were certainly seeing their sights. They also knew that if their carbines fell prey to wagging this way and that way, the result would be an errant bullet. Even offhand, they respected the equation of “shaky equals miss – steady equals hit.” The iron-sighted rifle must be treated to the same control rules as the scoped rifle. This is the rule: best possible rifle control followed by clear and precise sight picture, and finally the same careful trigger squeeze given the scoped rifle.

Here is the Ghost Ring Rear sight mounted on an older Model 336 Marlin Texan .30-30. It is a highly effective and very fast iron sight option.

Proper sight picture means a bold contrast between the front sight and the target — be that target a bull’s eye or bull moose. The front sight must be clearly distinguishable, not blended into the target. Two types of sight picture are six o-clock and dead-center. Six o’clock has top of front sight optically “sitting” directly below the intended point of impact. Dead-center has front sight optically right on top of the target. I prefer six o’clock with peep, dead-center with open irons.

Front sight coloration can be important for contrast. Colors include gold (copper alloy), white, ivory, and black, along with every imaginable hue from orange to red, blue, yellow, and pink. Bead size is also important. Prevalent dimensions are 1/16-, 3/32-, and 1/8-inch, the latter fast at very close range, but too coarse for distance because it covers too much target.

An example of front sight color importance is the White Stripe from SX Sight Systems, which is visible against all backgrounds: from plains, tundra, thickets, black timber, mountain canyons, swamps to the treeless tops of sheep country. Lighted from behind, the white stripe stands out. Lighted from the front, the whole sight appears solid black. The sight picture of this peep/ post combination prints point of impact two to three inches above the top of the post at 100 yards for .30-30-class muzzle velocities. Place the top of the post mid-chest on deer-sized game at 100 yards and the bullet strikes a little high, but well within the vitals. At 200 yards, given modern .30-30 ballistics, the flying missile falls a hand-width below the top of the post, but again within the chest region. While today’s marksmen consistently hit targets at 1,000 yards and beyond with iron-sighted rifles, as witnessed at any blackpowder cartridge match, my personal outside limit is about 200 yards with irons on big game, rangefinder verified when practical.

The open iron demands triple “visual accommodation,” the eye focusing on three planes: rear sight, front sight and target. Smart shooters learn to clearly focus on only two of the three: front sight/target. Of course the front sight must be optically centered in the notch of the rear sight for alignment. But with training and practice, the shooter learns to deal with a slightly blurred rear sight while maintaining a sharp front sight on target picture. When a SWAT team commander trained me to be a better marksman, he had me repeat “front sight-target; front sight-target; front sight-target” as the key to precise bullet delivery with open iron sights. Frame of reference is important. If the front sight optically overfills the rear sight notch, it is impossible to align it properly. It’s best to have a glint of light, if ever so minute, on either side of the front sight as it appears in the notch in order to assure that it is centered.

The peep sight requires only two points of visual concentration: front sight/target. Newcomers to the aperture sight work hard trying to optically locate the front sight in the center of the hole. This conscious level of aiming with the peep tramples on its simplicity and effectiveness. The human eye naturally seeks out the point of brightest light, pinpointing the front sight in the hole “automatically.” Ghost Ring rear sights come with a 191-inch and .230-inch inside diameter apertures. These are big. But as O’Connor pointed out, he removed the disc from his Lyman peep sights entirely, leaving a huge hole with negligible diminishment of group size. The name, Ghost Ring, tells it all. The rear sight (aperture) becomes nothing more than a halo to be ignored. It is supposed to look fuzzy. Simply line up that front sight on the target and squeeze off the shot. Work hard, and you lose. Let your natural eyesight take over, and you win.

The famous Lyman folding rear sight is standard on many factory rifles.

A good example of a semi-buckhorn sight on an old-time Model 94 Winchester. The horns almost make it to full buckhorn status, but not quite.

When sighting in, even when going for the dead-center hold, I begin with six o-clock because it offers a more specific aiming point: a bull’s eye sitting on top of a front sight. For dead-center sighting, the group falls just below the bull’s eye. Sighting in to zero at the base of the bull, the rifle will be sighted in for the dead-center hold. The true six o’clock hold, with bull’s eye optically “sitting right on top of” the front sight, the bullet strikes just above the aiming point. This allows the target to remain visible, rather than be covered by the front sight. Aperture sights on my Marlin rifles in .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, and .38-55 are sighted to group about three inches above the front sight at 100 yards, which provides a hold-on for deer-sized game out to 200 yards.

So everyone should immediately abandon the glass sight and go iron? Not in a millennium! The premier sight of all times is the scope. My PH rifle for Africa, a Marlin .45-70 with big bullets going faster than the old warhorse’s originators imagined in their wildest dreams, wears a Leupold 1.75-6X scope. My Marlin XLR .35 Remington is dressed with the same glass sight. My Morrison .30-06 is graced with the super high-tech Swarovski X6i 2X-12X with lighted reticule. I go iron for only four reasons, but they are good ones. First is the challenge. I have to get a little closer to that buck, bull, or boar with irons. (It’s called stalking.) Second is success. In those wonderful whitetail haunts where the shot normally comes no farther than three first downs to boot toe, the simpler iron sight works just fine. Third is appropriateness. My lever-action carbines wear iron sights that promote fast-handling at brush and timber ranges. Fourth is maintaining the simple lines of simple rifles, especially those “cowboy” lever actions.

The famous Springfield Model of 1903 went to war with essentially a Patridge type sight system: square post with U-notch, ideal for six o’clock hold with flat blade level at top of notch. The M-1 Garand (pronounced Gare´-end, not Gah-rand´, by the way) had an aperture sight adjustable to 1,200 yards. Most gunners today still learn with iron sights. The modern shooter is smart to add iron sight savvy to his or her body of knowledge because, geriatric as they may be, irons are here to stay. They are effective, light in weight, rugged, reliable, and they retain the sleek lines of rifles when that is important cosmetically or for rattlesnake speed in tight spots.

The Ghost Ring front sight is usually, but not always, coupled with a White Stripe front sight from the same manufacturer.

This Ghost Ring rear sight is provided with a large aperture to give the “ghost image” picture of sharp front sight on target with “ghostly” image in the aperture.

The dovetail slot into which a rear sight would be placed. The dovetail slot allows the drifting of a rear sight from right to left for changing bullet impact on the target from right to left.

Buy a new rifle today and you may very well find it outfitted with iron sights. All my short- to medium-range rifles are iron-sighted. But not those long-range rascals. They wear scope sights. You bet.

IRON RIFLE SIGHTS OVER TIME

In the late 19th century, as an 1895 catalog reveals, all Winchester Models 1873, 1875, 1886, plus .22s and the Winchester Single Shot, came with open iron sights. Likewise Marlin’s Model 1891 and 1893. In the 1920s, open irons continued to rule. Same in the ‘30s. By 1940, the Model 70 Winchester could be purchased with Lyman 48WJS and 57W micrometer receiver sights, the Model 71 with optional 98A peep. The Model 94 continued with open irons.

The standard Savage 99 wore open iron sights in this time frame, while the 99K had a tang peep, the 99-RS a Lyman aperture sight. Marlin’s 36, forerunner of today’s 336, came with open irons in the ‘40s. Today, Marlin lever-actions continue with factory open iron sights, as does the Browning’s Lightning, while Remington, Winchester, Savage, and Ruger offer both open and aperture sights, factory-wise. And sometimes scope-ready, too, with no sights at all.