lee blackman Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I have a NM .040" hooded rear peep on my AR. I understand the concept is like a pin hole camera. The peep hole acts as an aperture, but its soooo dark. Am I supposed to let my eye focus at the peep, or try to see thru the peep at the front sight? Is .040 to small for Tac-Irons? Any general advice or correction would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 The hole size is a personal thing and different applications and light conditions dictate different sizes as well. For me 0.040" is way too small for anything! I drill most of mine out to 0.060" to 0.075". A good rule of thumb for AR Iron sight shooters...nose to the charging handle. That gives you a good view through the peep and offers a repeatable cheek weld and eye location to improve consistency in bullet placement. http://www.shootingillustrated.com/index.php/15546/the-power-of-one/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArturoJ Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 See thru the peep, focus on the tip of the front sight. Do not "try" to center the front sight in the aperture window. A .040 aperture is too small for me, especially in less than optimal light conditions, shade, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
co-exprs Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) These are actually good questions to ask and I'll take a stab at an answer. Those with more experience feel free to correct me if I am wrong. The smaller the hole in the rear aperture the more precise the sighting system will be, the trade off is speed. The smaller the hole the longer it will take you to find the target and front sight. My personal preference is a .070" rear aperture for longer shots and .200" for CQB (I use an unusual dual rear sight set up). If you can only have one rear aperture then .070" is a happy medium between speed and precision. When you line up the sights, look through the rear sight at the target. Put the target in the center of the rear ring. The rear sight will be blurry, but your brain does a pretty good job of lining it up anyways. Next bring the front sight up and place the tip either on the center of the target or at the base of it (depending on your preference) and shift your focus to the front sight, same as a pistol. The rear sight should be blurry and the target should be blurry. I am still a grasshopper in the iron sight game. On hard targets I often need to shift my focus back to the target and then again to the front sight to verify my sight picture before I fire. Some of the more experienced can do this right the first time every time and in their sleep. I often do dry fire practice at home. For rifle practice one of the things I like to work on is simply shifting focal plane back and forth, back and forth to try and speed up the process. I am becoming far sighted and the front post is pretty close to the edge of my focus ability. It's now taking me a second or two longer to pull in that front sight than it used to. Edited March 7, 2014 by co-exprs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArturoJ Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 This link http://www.biathlon.net/Aperture_Sight.pdf has some good information on aperture sights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee blackman Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 Thanks for info, and links. You guys definitely clarified a lot for me. That article also answered a bunch of questions I was going to ask. You guys ROCK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
co-exprs Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Wow! What a great article! I had not seen that before, but have often wondered how much error is introduced by not having everything perfectly centered. There have been times when I fired and then was surprised that I actually hit the 450yd target, observing that while on target, I was slightly misaligned with the rear sight. I chaulked it up to luck and took the hit. Very enlightening. Thank you, this was helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Which article are you referring too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArturoJ Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Your Kung Foo is best Patrick. I will defer to Co-Expers on what he was talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
co-exprs Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Which article are you referring too? The article ArturoJ tagged in post #5. Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee blackman Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 Kelley, your article was awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
co-exprs Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Kelley, your article was awesome! +1. Pat, I've read your article about 30 times. Excellent starting point for any iron sight shooter. It was my starting point for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArturoJ Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I think it is also best to use glasses with the least amount of tint. That is to say, pick a shade that will allow the most light through, without the need to squint. I like light bronze or vermillion. I think Brian mentioned this about glasses, somewhere at some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pasley Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 One of the above articles mentioned this but didn't emphasize it enough for those of us with crapped out old man vision. A small rear aperture is not necessary for precise aiming so much as it is for bringing the front sight and target into focus. For me this is relatable to shooting an iron sighted rifle on a bullseye target, maybe completely irrelevant for whatever "tac-irons" is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRUBL Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 (edited) For tac iron......the rear peep on the standard A2 is really all you need. As you are 'looking thru' it.......mainly the larger aperture, possible going to the smaller one for long distance (personal preference). your eyes pretty much center the front sight in the rear....like magic. And like Pat said.....Key in on touching your nose to the charge handle for the best consistency. For precision shooting? aperture is paramount.....but then you will have a globe front sight and shooting at a round target. At that point it's all about 'halo'......even the insert in the globe is an open circle for a certain size bulls eye at a given distance. Getting a crisp halo of light between the front globe and rear aperture can change depending on the light conditions. For that.....lots of shooters go to an adjustable aperture made by this company: http://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html . Been around for ever....cause their product works....for that certain application. Set up properly and with good eyes and a consistent eye placement relative to the rear sight......precision irons will mimic a scope for accuracy at any given distance. Edited March 13, 2014 by TRUBL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sterling White Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 What if you don't have a charging handle, ie., JP-SCR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 (edited) I hate nose to charging handle and have never done it. I feel that it gets your eye way too close to the rear aperture and I have seen some poor guys get this advice and scratch the hell out of their expensive shooting glasses. It also causes folks to hunch over the rifle instead of mount it naturally, but that's a whole different topic. Aperture size is almost immaterial out to 300+ yards, big, small almost same group sizes! Shoot what allows you a good definition of the front sight with no dimming!. I am lucky in the fact the A2 aperture works great for my eyes as does the standard M-14 G.I. sight.....none better in my opinion. And while we are on it, I hear a bunch of folks continually say things like if I had perfect eye sight like you, it would be easy, or you just don't understand how older eyes are. Well let me give you all a clue about that, my shooting glasses aren't that thick for safety, I Am 55 years old and have most the problems related to eyes you "young guys" do. The key is to work with your prescription untill you get a clear sharp front sight, and the longer the sight radius the better! Edited March 13, 2014 by kurtm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 With all due respect to my friend Kurt, that is how I was taught by a "Double Distinguished" all guard team coach. I don't know any different and even with that "handicap" I shoot OK. I WILL however refrain from offering that tip without the admonishment that one's glasses may get scratched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbrowndog Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 As a former Military weapons inst. the whole nose to charging handle thing is done simply to provide a reference for the "SAME" cheek weld everytime, which is vewy vewy important when dealing with irons. I use it, and always have but that is because I had to teach it that way and now its ingrained in me, Kurt is right it does cause you to crane your neck forward or tilt your head forward, I use a rear sight that I can move forward a notch or two to eliminate scratching my glasses that I use for the same reason that Kurt does, I'm old!! I also do this when I shoot my 308's, and of course I get questioned about bloody noses, it doesn't happen. The best point Kurt made was the one about picking an aperture size that doesn't DIM the amount of light around you, Too small and it can cause a perfectly visible target from out of the sights to be invisible once behind your sights. Trapr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSnSC Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Is there a lens tint that is better for shooting irons? I have a set of Randolph RX Rangers that have a very light yellow tint, and a set of orange over lenses I used for shooting clays. The yellow is great for overcast but too intense for bright days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I don't doubt thatt you were taught nose to charging handle, but you must understand that I have never shot an AR across the course, and if you shot nose to charging handle with the rifle I did shoot across the course you would need rhinoplasty to fix it :-) . I might also mention that it was a real rifle, not a carbine, an the consistency of stock weld was up to the shooter, not in some gimmicky handle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbrowndog Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Kurt and I routinely change lens tint depending on the daylight conditions, for me what ever the lightest tint allows me to see without squinting. My tints are clear, brownish yellow, brownish caramel in color Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now