I need to replace the front sight on a 30-06. I will be using a rear peep sight and am interested in opinions on the use of gold or white front bead. Also pros and cons of 1/16 or 3/32 inch bead. I enjoy this forum. Thanks, BruceB

Have you looked at the new colored fiber optic front sights offered through Brownells? These are excellent at gathering light and work great with peep sights. Give them a look at <www.brownells.com>

Malm

Bruce,

I use ghost ring aperture sights in conjunction with post front sights for hunting. Just stick the top of the post where you want the shot to go, and squeeze.

I have been of the opinion that the bead front sight worked best with the shallow vee open rear sight.

I would like to read what others think on this too.

jim dodd

To me it depends on the use of the rifle. In the woods at dusk a white bead is nice to have, but if you don't plan to do a lot of shooting in twilight the gold would probably be better. Beads work quite well with aperture sights but use it as a bead and not a post- I like having the bead cover the POI rather than a post, which I like to have under the POI.

I have over the years found the bead difficult the older the eye the worse ,they tend to shoot-away from or opposite of the light,being rounded difficult to be very precise on elevation.My vote goes to the sourdough or post,if the aperture is the main sighting device one might consider the merit disc for verying light.I just recently tried a shallow v and large bead on a close range gun A.O. sights seemed okay if it's real close,but ghost ring covers up less and is just as fast if not faster.a last thought thre post or sourdough is a lot sturdier,beads get bent and or mashed down-Rawhider

If using an aperature rear and a bead front, use a hood over the bead that is sized so that the bead is dead center of the hood. That way when you look through the aperature, you will be placing a circle within a circle, with the bead centered on point-of-impact. It is very fast and effective, even if the bead itself fades out.

Thanks for the replies. Brownells has the beads. I also saw the colored ones. I did not notice any posts listed. The gun is a Winchester model 54 in 30 06 caliber. I'll probably use it mostly at the range with some boar hunting.

Take a long look at Williams new fire sights. Fiber optic in the front sight makes it glow. Just got one for my wifes '96 Ruger. I like it, I think i'm going to get some more.
http://www.williamsgunsight.com/rifle.htm

[ 10-20-2002, 13:04: Message edited by: John Y Cannuck ]

In the FWIW dept: Many moons ago, I used to shoot in local pistol competitions. The targets were steel plates, ranging in size from 10" squares, to 6" circles. All shooting was done standing from 50yds. My pistol was a standard Ruger Redhawk .44 Mag(8" bbl). I found that the standard square notch/post sight was hard to use. Converted to a vee notch/gold dot (standard Ruger replacements, at the time) and was much improved. Shooting off a bench was a different story, just the opposite, in fact... Using the "vee/dot" setup, sights were adjusted so the bullet impact was the "dot", rather than "sitting on top of the post".