What’s the best sight system for your deer rifle? That’s a good question, so let’s discuss your options.
Some hunters swear by open sights, or also known as buckhorn sights. Many older hunters got used to them and are very good with buckhorn sights.
For the most part, shooters get excited at the sight of a deer and tend to look over the top of the front sight, thus shooting over the top of the deer. That makes buckhorn sights no good for most shooters; just OK for those that can use them well.
The next option is a receiver or peep sight. This setup is much more accurate and probably twice as quick to get on target as the buckhorn sights. All a shooter or hunter has to do is to place the middle of his front sight in the middle of the hole of the rear sight and out its intended target and squeeze. A good peep or receiver sight is like a miniature scope without the magnification of a scope.
The advantages of this type of sighting system are that they don’t get fogged up in damp weather, they’re exceptionally quick and very accurate at woods ranges, and I really like them. One of the fastest and deadliest rigs I ever used is a Remington model 760 pump carbine, equipped with a receiver sight and a fine ivory white bead.
Another fine choice is a “Red Dot” or “AimPoint.” These sights are usually not magnified like a scope and are much smaller in size and weight. They feature an exceptionally bright small dot in the middle of the sight that does not have to be centered which makes it very quick. The only downfall I can find with them is the width of their field of view. Most hunters that have them really like them.
Now lets talk scopes. I’ve heard a lot of hunters exclaim, “I can’t pick up a running deer in a scope, I hate ’em.” In most cases, these guys didn’t practice with their scope, and more than likely they had their optics turned up to 9-power thinking they could see better.
Wrong! While you are hunting in the woods a scope should never be turned up over 2-power. What this does is clear your sight picture and widens your field of view, thus making it a slightly magnified peep sight. Another problem is that some people don’t adjust their bell objective. To adjust this, just loosen the back ring of your scope, and then move your bell back or forward until your sight picture is perfectly clear.
A scope should be mounted so that when you shoulder that firearm, your sight picture should be full and clear with no black showing on either side of your optics. Once all of these things are done, for most hunting scenarios here in Maine, (with the exception of a rainy day) your best option is a low powered scope.
When the weather is good, I use my Leupold sight on 2-power, if it’s raining, out comes the peep sighted rifle and I’m OK with that, As for you, good luck with your personal choice, just remember to practice with it, opening day of the firearms season is less than 90 days away. As for my wife Lisa, she says she’ll stick to her buckhorn sights; they work very well for her.
Until next time
Hutch
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