..........Seems there are people who like Express sights and people who don,t ... Of those who do and have used them alot .....Is there any reason my rear sight needs to be veed ,,,,,So far it is makeing tight little groups out to 50 yards on my 416 ..... And it is printing 400 gr loads perfactly in front of the bead ........I like all the visibility ,,,,,,,, The rifle is really fast on target ....???

I don't know why they would be v'd, other than tradition -- I understand the desire on a long range/small target rifle... I prefer sights similar to those you described (my 375R Alaskan came w. some). All they need is some tritium inserts in them to match my XS sights on my pistols, and then I would truly be happy...

If not using the peep,
I prefer a flattop with a square notch, the notch is twice as wide as the apparent width of the big gold patridge/sourdough front sight. A fine white or platinum line leads to the center of the square notch.

I can make do with shallow V and bead just fine.
But it is not my druther.

I am pretty much with RIP here, the ones I have on rifles, three to date; I have left the leaves square (laziness) and just filed a small square notch to begin filing them in. Never got around to doing anything else.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

Under stress, the vee brings your eye to the center of the leaf faster than a flat top. It also allows for more of the target to be seen.

Neither matters as much when the shooting is slow-paced.

...........I have seen double rifles @ Great Northern Guns in Anchorage that had a flat top express rear sight , one of them , a 450 /400 3 1/4" had been used a good amount ,.........The rear on my 416 is as it came from the factory with the standing blade and the folding leaves not haveing any v at all in them ....My gunsmith told me he didn,t think I would need to file them very much .....compareing it to the standard CZ rear express sight there is greater visibility around the bead ......I have a flat express rear on a 375 H&H now Weatherby Ruger # 1 .....But when I had it built there wern,t different height front sights available ,,....I need to get a shorter bead fore sight for it and I will probably keep it flat as well ...It grouped pretty well but was 28 " low @ 100 yrds .......Didn,t know if many other people had or used these ....

I prefer a wide shallow V.
I do not use a very big bead either.

I shoot both fastest and bestest with a flat top rear sight with a round bottom "U" shape, and a medium sized bead up front. White is fastest for me, gold may be a little more precise, silver kinda splits the difference. I have shot A LOT, no, make that A WHOLE %$*^ LOT of aerial targets with a rifle with flat top rear and gold bead front sights.

But others hate that combo. Go with what you like. THe shallow V of express sights cover more of the target, but I think that is more of a theoretical disadvantage than a real one. I have one rifle with back up shallow V express sights and don't like them. If the sights on that rifle were for serious business, I would change them.

But I also love red headed women and Chevy trucks. Other opinions are just as valid as mine!

This is what I have on my Ruger 35 Whelen and it works really well for me. Quick and accurate. I have difficulty shooting the "V" rears very well.

Boxhead,
I like your rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Boxhead,
I like your rifle.

Thanks. It's just an old factory Ruger tang that I picked up in West Texas a number of years ago. It was beat and without sights so I did a little resto with the sights, a #1 barrel band, a bead blast reblue and bedded it in a beat up used Basner stock that I picked up for $30. A lot of work but I am pleased and it shoots the 225 gr TSX well. This fall it will head to the Muskwa area of northern BC for moose and elk, perhap mountain caribou and black bear too.

................Well it was alot of work ,, I had to go thru alot of pics to get 2 that were close.....................No wise cracks about not being a perfact sight pic please ........It,s one thing to pull a trigger its another to push the shutter on a camera that thinks for itself ..compare the 2 I couldn.t get the bead in the vee on the CZ factory sight in a pic , mayby if I took another hundred pics I would get it perfact.....But the point I was trying to bring up was how fast and how much visibility the flat top sight produces ......