hunting sights ?

[RedRiver]

Hi I have a very early Montana Rough Rider with a 26" barrel in 45/70. I would like to make it into a deep woods bambi blaster , I am thinking of changing the front sight to a MVA combination sight. The orig sight is a blade with a full buckhorn rear.
Now the rifle will be used in the general rifle season here in Manitoba for our Whitetail season in November. Most times we have snow on the ground , hunting trough boreal forest areas ,spruce trees , willow, Poplar . Longest shot maybe 100yds. I will try walking game trails , and posting along open fields. Any input on sight choice??

[Don McDowell]

As with most everything it comes down to personal choice. I would suggest before you go to changing the front sights, try widening the rear sight notch with a jewelers file or a fine saw blade. That wider slot will help acquire the front blade.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

What Don said,

Plus replace the front blade with a old copper Penny.(a real one).

KW

[Marathonman]

Might be nothing wrong with what you have already. Some like to change sights thinking that equates into a higher success rate when hunting big game. The truth of the matter is hunting at 100 yards there's probably not much in the way of changing sights that can change the outcome of the hunt by much. What works is to pre-season scout the area you are planning to hunt and set up some cheap paper plate targets and practice. That's assuming its legal to do so. Forget all the fancy stuff just learn how far you can hit a paper plate reliably and that's your range for hunting. If you can do that with the sights you have you're only out a few cents worth of paper plates.

[jdb3]

Just put a Skinner sight on mine. Looks like it will work, aperture sights always work better for me. Jim

[Gussy]

Hi I have a very early Montana Rough Rider with a 26" barrel in 45/70. I would like to make it into a deep woods bambi blaster , I am thinking of changing the front sight to a MVA combination sight. The orig sight is a blade with a full buckhorn rear.
Now the rifle will be used in the general rifle season here in Manitoba for our Whitetail season in November. Most times we have snow on the ground , hunting trough boreal forest areas ,spruce trees , willow, Poplar . Longest shot maybe 100yds. I will try walking game trails , and posting along open fields. Any input on sight choice??

Just got the MVA combo sight and it is SMALL. And, I got the heavy pin model. It's not installed yet and I'm not sure it will be.

[RedRiver]

Thanks for all the input, I think I will try changing the front blade to a old silver quarter, the full buckhorn i would like to change out to a half buckhorn.

[Marathonman]

If you're set on changing you might consider what Kenny said about the copper penny and what Don said about opening up the rear sight. The copper penny is what I prefer for a front sight blade. I like the full buckhorn as well as the semi buckhorn you just have to use them differently. As an experiment try taping an older copper penny to your barrel and take it outside and compare what you see with a quarter etc. I think you'll like the penny better. If you choose the penny all you have to do is pull out the existing sight blade and press fit the penny back in. You don't have to drift the sight base out with a punch and then drift it back in again.

Good luck to you whatever you decide!

[Dan O]

Before you start changing sights check out what you have after sunset. Can you see the front sight? Most sights look great in the daylight but once you get into low light conditions you start to have a hard time picking up the front sight. This is where the penny "shines" is visible better than most. Opening the rear sight some is also helpful but you still have to be able to see the front sight in all conditions.
THEN practice in the late evening and you will find your limitations maybe it will be a 100 yards or 50yards or over 100 yards. The conditions will dictate the range. I tried the silver blade, MVA beech combo, MVA 113 with a post and now have the penny and it just works for me, plus it's cheaper than the others And it is durable and that is very important. Try the others and keep a open mind and see what works for you.
Dan

[ironramrod]

RR,
Ditto to what the others have said re: the copper penny front sight, and widening the slot in your full buckhorn rear sight. This kind of set-up will be outstanding in the type of cover you describe. Another tip is when cutting out your blade front, cut it so the rear viewing surface is tilted forward about 10* or so from vertical. This will really help the viewing surface gather the light, and brighten your sight picture significantly. Also cut your viewing surface straight so you get uniform brightness from the bottom to the top. Additionally, it is very important that the very top of the viewing surface is sharp and crisp w/ no part of the blade farther forward visible to your eyes, when you are buttoned down on the stock for a shot. The reason is that your eye needs to clearly see the very top to line up your desired point of bullet impact exactly w/ no interference from farther forward on the blade.

BTW ya got my vote on the bambi-burgers.

Regards

[deerhuntsheatmeup]

Ok fella, I got plenty of woods time with a 74 using all. Types of sights.

Without a doubt, what works best for me, in all hunting conditions, is barrel sights and a old copper penny blade front.

Here down south, your best opportunity for a good buck is just at dusk dark. At least hunting fields it is. 3 years ago I was hunting with my buddy Lee down at Fayette, Ms. The wheat field was 4-500 acres. I had seen many deer that evening and all were too far for my weapon of choice. While in the stand I had marked off yardages in my mind so if one came in around a 100 or so, we would try to take a either sex deer. Shore nuff right at dark, here 2 does come, and they stopped and fed close to where I had guessed was 100 yards. I am telling you I never thought I could have seen the crosshairs in a good scope, much less the copper penny, but I raised the rifle, and shore nuff, that penny stood out like diamond. Walking to the stand that day I reached down and picked up some sandy dirt and scuffed the penny a little. Dead deer, and just so I would know, the next day we lasered the distance I had guessed, 108 yards. I got lucky......

Anyway, you have been given some good advice in this thread, advice it would take many trips afield, and many hard learned lessons to figure out on your own. I hope your hunting season is a success!

Good luck, Barvid

[WHO CARES]

At one time I thought that the MVA combo sight would be a great improvement too. While the aperature was great with my tang sight, the blade did not want to work well with the barrel sight. I found the tang aperature combo was not very usefull in the woods. I've since settled on the old penny with the buckhorn as being just fine with me. I did open up the notch in the buckhorn just a bit so I could comforably see light on both sides in the woods. I am on at 100 and 3" high at 50.

I do pretty well by flipping up the buckhorn's ladder and using that zero for 150 or 200. If I am going to be shooting farther I install the MVA 130 tang sight and use it with the penny but my hunting leaves the tang sight off.

ward