Iron sight question

[ss4ludwig]

Okay. This is a pretty stupid question, but i have to ask it. Can you have just one iron sight, meaning a front or rear ONLY, and still use it as a sight? I thought for iron sights to be used, you had to line up both. Only reason i ask is because ive seen so many vids and pics of people with only one back up iron sight. Thanks.

 

[40Arpent]

Care to show us one of those "many" pics or videos? I'm thinking you're missing something.

 

[ss4ludwig]

Im probably missin somethin. I cant figure out how to attach pics and vids. Im on here with my phone.

 

[10mm and 45]

Possible to use a dot sight with a front sight as a co-witness.

 

[Acera]

There are some folks that will take off the rear sight because it snags. Seen the 1911 that a popular pawn shop owner on TV carries, and it has no rear sight on it, just an empty dovetail back there. For close up shooting, some think they are not necessary, kinda like shooting a shotgun with only the front bead. I am sure if you practice you can get quite proficient at hitting a man sized target in a normal sized room with just the front sight.

A lot will find this not advisable, and all my guns have both their sights and I have no plans to change that. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[M. Sage]

Yeah, depending on the gun and situation you can get by with one sight sometimes. Shotguns seem to do just fine with that lone little bead at the end of the barrel.

On the other hand, not everything is a shotgun...

 

[caleb7]

Yeah, depending on the gun and situation you can get by with one sight sometimes. Shotguns seem to do just fine with that lone little bead at the end of the barrel.

On the other hand, not everything is a shotgun...

No, but "The Judge" revolver does a good job of making you wonder.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[556.45.12]

My NAA .22LR mini revolver has no rear sight. The result: My groups from 20-30 feet away are always a perfectly straight 10-12" vertical string in the middle of the target. You're not talking about people with ARs that have a FSB are you? I have a few ARs configured with a fixed front sight and folding rear BUIS.

 

[CanTex]

Had a .22 single shot that for years did not have a rear sight. After a couple shots you figured it out. After using it for a box or two it was easy to pick up and hit what you were aiming for at about 30 ft or so ( distance from house to fence ). My dad could hit almost anything pointed out with one shot. So, with practice, and a good eye you can. However I suspect you are missing something in your pictures........

 

[Younggun]

The reference to BUIS made me think AR. If that's the case the OP may have been seeing vids of people who bought ARs with a front sight post who put optics on the rail with no intention of setting up the iron sights.

 

[MR2Aaron]

This is sort of apples to oranges, but I have a buddy who is a Olympic-team caliber recurve archer. He's significantly more accurate with a bow and arrow with only one sight than I think I could ever be with a rifle. The sight is positioned about 4" out from the front edge of the bow on a little arm thing, and has a little fiber optic tube, like a fiber optic sight on a pistol.

The trick to this, as I understand it, is consistency. Through years and years of training, he has taught himself to draw the bow exactly the same, touching exactly the same spot on his face with the string. This eliminates the need for a rear sight, as he already knows that the bow/arrow assembly (including the "front" sight) is properly aligned with his body.

I'd imagine that with sufficient training, something similar could be done with a firearm, although I expect it would be significantly easier with a rifle.

 

[Younggun]

I was more accurate with my now before I put the peep sight on also.

Not sure it applies as much though. There are many more reference points with a bow and the string itself actually functions as the rear sight.

 

[Acera]

Byron Ferguson seems to pull off some pretty good shots with a longbow and no sights whatsoever.

 

[40Arpent]

Possible to use a dot sight with a front sight as a co-witness.

Huh? You don't need ANY iron sights with an RDS. Co-witness just refers to where the iron sights are in relation to the dot....it's not a function of either.

 

[40Arpent]

The reference to BUIS made me think AR. If that's the case the OP may have been seeing vids of people who bought ARs with a front sight post who put optics on the rail with no intention of setting up the iron sights.

Thats kinda what I was thinking.

 

[M. Sage]

No, but "The Judge" revolver does a good job of making you wonder.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

We don't talk about that... thing.

Huh? You don't need ANY iron sights with an RDS. Co-witness just refers to where the iron sights are in relation to the dot....it's not a function of either.

Yep. It's nice to be able to dial in your red dot by looking through the co-witnessed sights, but trying to line it up with a sight to aim? Pointless.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

Long guns are a whole other story. You have 4 points of contact, with the rear of the gun supported against a relatively solid and perpendicular surface (chest/shoulder), so the degree with which the sights/bore may deviate from your line of sight is probably much smaller than with handguns.
With handguns, you have 1 or 2 points of contact, and what is supporting the rear of the gun (hand/palm) is directly connected to a fulcrum point (wrist). With a whole lot of practice and building up that myelin "muscle memory", a person can learn to become consistent in how they press the gun out to the target, achieving consistent positioning a significant amount of the time. In that case, at close range, that person may be able to get away with just a front sight. There are some people out there, with substantial repetition, that can even do so to a relatively consistent degree on dynamic targets and even at longer distances (25-50+yds) just with point shooting (usually indexing the slide of the gun). People that have done the sheer volume of repetitions to achieve that are the very VERY few percent of shooters.

The average person, if drawing and pressing the gun to the target at speed 50 different times, will likely have the sights come up at a slightly different position every time. For them, just a front sight would not be nearly enough feedback for placing an accurate shot on target. This, in my opinion, describes most shooters.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

To the OP - it all depends on the level of precision you're looking for.

 

[M. Sage]

Long guns are a whole other story. You have 4 points of contact, with the rear of the gun supported against a relatively solid and perpendicular surface (chest/shoulder), so the degree with which the sights/bore may deviate from your line of sight is probably much smaller than with handguns.
With handguns, you have 1 or 2 points of contact, and what is supporting the rear of the gun (hand/palm) is directly connected to a fulcrum point (wrist). With a whole lot of practice and building up that myelin "muscle memory", a person can learn to become consistent in how they press the gun out to the target, achieving consistent positioning a significant amount of the time. In that case, at close range, that person may be able to get away with just a front sight. There are some people out there, with substantial repetition, that can even do so to a relatively consistent degree on dynamic targets and even at longer distances (25-50+yds) just with point shooting (usually indexing the slide of the gun). People that have done the sheer volume of repetitions to achieve that are the very VERY few percent of shooters.

The average person, if drawing and pressing the gun to the target at speed 50 different times, will likely have the sights come up at a slightly different position every time. For them, just a front sight would not be nearly enough feedback for placing an accurate shot on target. This, in my opinion, describes most shooters.

Just the other day, I saw a video of Jerry Miculek doing a shooting demo at some range. One of the things he said makes me thing that even he isn't indexing all that consistently when he draws at speed. He said he prefers smooth grips on his handguns because as he's coming out on target, he can shift his hands around and get the handgun positioned properly as he goes from holster to target.

If a guy who shoots as much as that feels the need to adjust on the way to firing the first shot, I think the rest of us might be in trouble, hahaha.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

Just the other day, I saw a video of Jerry Miculek doing a shooting demo at some range. One of the things he said makes me thing that even he isn't indexing all that consistently when he draws at speed. He said he prefers smooth grips on his handguns because as he's coming out on target, he can shift his hands around and get the handgun positioned properly as he goes from holster to target.

If a guy who shoots as much as that feels the need to adjust on the way to firing the first shot, I think the rest of us might be in trouble, hahaha.

Most of the rest of us also aren't quite going at that speed. While we're driving "50mph" with our handguns, a guy like Jerry is driving 200mph. Certain things are just different at 200mph.