I have a new browning 71 in 348 winchester. I havn't shot open sights for a while. It seems that my vision starts working at about 3 inches past the front sight. I have been lookong at fire sights and the marble sights. Any body have any other ideas for open sights.

You colud always add a peep sight. I like the willaims foolproof. But there are several available for a 71.

Dont know but the B-71 tang might be too short for a tang sight. Besides I'm not sure I'd want something that close to my eye on a rifle that recoils.

Lyman make a 66WB that will fit but I'm not a big fan. They are made out of aluminium and arent as strong as the older ones made out of steel - probably OK on a 348 though. The other issue with them is the ones I've seen are fitted with target knobs which may be easy to knock out of zero.

The Williams unit is much stronger. There's also Skinner and XS peep sights. The latter two are very strong and designed for rough use but require additional fitting.

If you are patient and prepared to pay up you could watch the auction sights for a vintage Lyman or Redfield peep sight. Either of these are the best in my view.

Although it looks a little unusual, an easy way to sharpen the rear sight for those of us in the reading-glasses set is to reverse the sight in its dovetail so that the body of the sight projects toward the muzzle. This shortens the sight radius by a few inches (depending upon the length of the sight body) but increases the distance from the eye by the same amount. Of course, you still focus on the front sight, but this way the rear is not so blurry as to be invisible.

Depending on the taper of the dovetails on the gun and sight, you might have to file a bit on the sight dovetail to get it to fit, and if so a set screw drilled down through the sight will tighten in back up.

This is all cheap DIY tinkering that will, at most, alter your sight without any modifications to your gun.

John

Being a member of the reading glasses set (who needs 2.50x cheaters to read with) I simply use a pair of cheap 1.00x cheaters when shooting with open sights. They provide good focus for seeing both of the barrel mounted sights and plenty good focus of the target also. Not perfect, but it keeps me in the game.

Thanks for the ideas. I think I am going to try a reciever peep, take off the hood, and put a green fiber optics front sight on.