Rear aperture sight on 11-87 ?

[StealthyBlagga]

Right now my Rem 11-87 has a vent rib with a fiber optic bead at the muzzle. I like the speed of acquisition with this setup, but I am concerned at my persistent tendancy to lift my head a tad and thus shoot over some targets (particularly with slugs). I'm thinking about augmenting the existing VR/bead with a receiver-mounted ghost-ring aperture sight. What's a good rear sight to try ? So far, I'm thinking the Williams might be a good choice (with their big aperture, of course). What do you guys think of this ? Fast to use ? Will it adjust low enough to work with the existing bead ?

Edited June 4, 2007 by StealthyBlagga

[Larry White]

Dont lift your head.-------------Larry

[wsimpso1]

I put a Williams rear sight on my M1100, and a Williams Firesight front in the factory base. I pulled the aperture, so now it is a ghost ring rear sight. Works great. Now if we could do something about the nut behind the buttplate...

Billski

[REDHORSE]

I use a William fiber optic (FireSight) bead front sight on my 11-87. I found the rear FireSight blade, a little too distracting. I kept on trying to align the three fiber optic dots, every time I shouldered the shotgun. It slowed my quick short range target shots.

I swapped out the Williams rear FireSight blade for an XS Express shotgun rear sight blade.

For up close targets, I just use the front FireSight (the XS rear blade is easy to ignore). When I need long range slug accuracy, lining up the both sights is easy, fast, and accurate.

[StealthyBlagga]

OK, so I tried the Williams aperture, but it will not adjust low enough to align with the fiber optic bead on my rib. However, the ghost ring concept seems very unobtrusive, and I don't think it would slow me down. As I do not want to go to a higher front sight, I'm going to try making a ghost ring that sits low enough. I'll post pics if it works out.

[Chills1994]

I have an 1100 and have the Williams (tall as B-52 tail) FO FS clamped onto the rib. I bought this rear to go with it:

I got the idea from a guy who shoots an 11-87 set up the same way.

They have two versions. One that will clamp onto a (picatinny/weaver?) rail and one that is strictly a drill, tap, and screw (up?) your receiver model.

The sights are built like tanks and weigh about the same.

Here's the link:

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/pro...x?p=9220&s=

[Intel6]

Another option is to put a smaller middle bead on your rib. I started using them on Skeet guns and found they act as a "rear" sight because I line them up like sights.

Neal in AZ

[StealthyBlagga]

UPDATE: I decided on the Williams receiver aperture sight, with the peep insert removed to create a ghost ring (I figure I can reinstall the insert for slug-only stages). As the Williams sight sits quite high on the receiver, I also fabricated a platform for the fiber optic bead to sit on. After using it for several months, I find this configuration works really well for me, even for clays (it has not degraded my sporting clays scores at all compared with the traditional vent rib I used before). Here are some photos:

[wsimpso1]

I would actually do a little accuracy testing to compare the ghost ring and a smaller aperture. I would almost bet that you could not tell the difference with groups on paper.

The really important point with irons is being able to see the sight well. The ghost ring will almost always let in enough light, even on a dim day. After that, sight alignment matters, and the ghost ring does not really hurt you much there. You will center up your eye on a rear aperture naturally, no matter the size. You will also tend to center up the front sight within the rear sight naturally. After that, you need to put the sights on the target. The brighter the target, the quicker and more precisely you can do that too.

Yeah, I would test first. Do an A-B-A comparison, shooting a little slower than match pace, and then see if you can really tell the difference (by looking at holes in paper) between the small aperature and the ghost ring.

Billski