Several months ago there was some discussion on having sights on custom rifles. My question is: How many people actually use them? Or are they just for looks? Most new rifles do not have sights installed and are set up for scope use.

Would you pay extra for a gunsmith to install a nice looking, quality sights? What sights would you use?

Aaron

I would not personally pay extra for a set of iron sights that were intended solely to make the rifle "look" nice, even though I certainly wouldn't take them off if the rifle already had them.

On the other hand, I definitely WOULD pay extra to have a nice pair of front sights mounted (gold bead for daytime, large white fold up bead for evening shooting), together with a good quality steel micrometer rear sight with removable and/or interchangeable aperture disks.

One can never tell when a scope or mount will fail, and I have done enough competitive shooting out to 1,200 yards with iron sights to have an appreciation of just how accurate receiver sights can be clear out to that distance.

Once you've learned to hit a 12" bullseye at 1,000 yards with iron sights, you should have a fair chance at an 18" elk chest/shoulder shot at 400 or 500 yards, though I don't take shots that long at living, feeling, animals.

Still it would be nice to have the sights to give you the confidence you COULD take the shot if some desparate circumstance made it absolutely necessary to do so.

I can count on two fingers the number of big game animals I have shot with open sights. If I were having a custom deer/elk rifle built it would not have sights. I had sights put on my 404J, but it wears a scope on qd rings as well. I do think a custom Mauser in the old English style would look naked without sights though. And while I admire pretty guns, I would never build one to hunt with. I like my rifles practical, and open sights are not for my style of hunting.

I enjoy using iron sights (partly because I feel like it's becoming something of a lost art), but I only have iron sights on guns that I've set up to use with irons.

I usually remove the iron sights on a rifle when I put a scope on it, because I mount my scopes as low as possible and I don't like being able to see the ghost of the iron sights in the scope.

I guess my answer is that I would only pay a smith to put sights on a custom gun I was having built with the intention of using the iron sights and not scoping it. Right now, I'm building a sporter on a Yugo m48 barreled action that will have a Williams FP rear sight and a blade front sight (haven't decided which one yet).

I have very distinct personal views on what constitutes a 'custom' rifle as do most on here I imagine. I don't believe a rifle,custom or not is complete without iron sights, period. I have only comissioned two (2) rifles to be built in my life up to this time and I imagine I won't have anymore built after this time as I am 77 years of age . The two rifles I had built were built by friends of long standing. The first is a 1909 Mauser based 7x57 and the second is a totally moded Mdl 70 Classic action in 257 Roberts. The 7x57 has a Leupold VXII 3-9 in Talley rings on custom bases by the builder and the 257 has a Big Zeiss on it in Talley rings and bases. The 7x57 has a neat pedastal base rear sight with one folding leaf made by the builder and the front ramp sight is a neat patridge balde with ivory face that actually retracts into the base also made by the builder. The 257 has an ERA pedastal rear with full adjustments and the front is their Masterpiece banded ramp with H&H style fold down night sight. Neither set of iron sights is particularly inexpensive by any standards and on a 7x57 and a 257 Roberts are very likely to ever be used. Do they work -- you bet your booty they do. I just felt they were needed to complete the rifles. I own bolt rifles from .17 thru 416 Rigby and all are scoped with one single exception and that was a rifle I bought that had been built for another and the workmanship is so nice I just never got around to having irons installed. It may yet happen as I think everytime I take it out of the safe that it NEEDS them to compleyte it. And it was the rifle I usually carried to Africa as my plains game rifle. People have weird ideas about 'custom' guns.

I personally prefer iron sights on all my rifles just in case I'm on a hunt and I fall or drop my rifle and the scope is questionable. I also prefer quick detach mounts as well. I haven't taken count, but I've taken as many if not more big game animals with open sights as with a scope, and at short range (out to 50 yards) I am confident I'm more accurate with iron sights than with a scope.

I have to consider that I haven't been in a tree stand in 26 years, so hunting from the ground, I get more off-hand and tree-rest shots than ones where I can rest my rifle to take a steady aim using a scope. That's probably why I shoot better with open sights at shorter ranges.

It all has to do with the type of hunting you do. If you drive your 4 wheeler to within 50 yards of your tree stand or shooting house, then iron sights are useless. But if you stalk hunt, still hunt, or spot/stalk, iron sights might come in handy.

Open/Iron/Express sights are just plain fun.

I have them fitted on the rifles I use overseas or on paid hunts for the reasons mdstewart stated. I used them on the last days of my last African hunt.

In this age though with current scope and mount technology I doubt they will ever be needed.

I have iron sights on some of my rifles. But never use them.

Scopes for me and mine they are faster allows one to be more accurate in bullet placement better in at dawn dusk and cloudy days.

I would not own a hunting rifle without iron sights and QD mounts.

I have had to resort to irons in some bad weather, and from scope malfunction on more than a few ocassions..

I always use iron sights on African dangerous game, and If I need the scope to shoot a far away Kudu I stick the scope on it for that perhaps..In the bush I always prefer irons.

I would never shoot a double rifle with a scope on it, you have to be a pervert to do such a foul thing as that!

Most of todays hunters have never bothered to learn to use irons, if they did they would be very surprise how effective they can be even at extended ranges. For thoes poor souls that have not hunted with irons I suggest you learn to shoot them and give them a try..

I actually prefer irons for running shots and close in shooting up to about 200 yards, and definately for follow up buffalo or whatever is lurking in the bush and waiting to chew on me.

This is a thread that I don't really understand but to each his own.