finally got my skinner sight

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I just got my skinner sight installed and roughly bore sighted, will shoot it and sight it in tomorrow. I just wanted to ask from someone with more experience with aperatures about tchniques. do I just put the post on the target , ignore the rear sight, and trust my brain to auto-center it? or, for sighting in, should I keep an eye one centering it in the rear sight since I am going to be sighting it in.any advice would be helpful. also when I am focused on the front post the rear aperature is fuzzy, is that normal or my eyes? with my contacts in my dominant/shooting eye is 20-25, so its not perfect. but I do good with regular sights. also, do I keep both eyes open? thank you,
Travis

[TXGunNut]

Focus on the front sight, I prefer a 6 o'clock hold on a 4" bull or diamond. If you have multiple inserts remember to use small apertures for target shooting on sunny days. For quick shots (hunting) and/or low light use a larger aperture.

[Muskrat Mike]

In my experience a good front sight is important. One that you see well is what I mean by that. I sight mine in with the aperture but screw them out for hunting. You look through the the rear aperture or ghost ring not at it! You concentrate on the front sight and the target and forget the rear sight. That is the big advantage of receiver or peep sights. You will be amazed how quick you can get on target and how accurate they are. You will like your Skinner sight once you get it sighted in and get used to it. If you are aware of the rear sight being fuzzing you are looking at it and need to look through it and trust your eyes to center the front sight in it. Remember concentrate on the front sight and target!

[wills]

Ignore the rear sight. Concentrate on the front sight.

[TXGunNut]

Once you get to the range it will be obvious. If you try to see the rear sight you won't be able see the target and the front sight will be blurry. If you focus on the target you won't see the front sight very well. Somehow the aperture (peep) sight makes the front sight sharper, especially for old eyes. It you can still use open sights this may not mean much to you. When you begin to suffer from presbyopia you'll understand. I wasted the best rifle-shooting years my eyes had to offer gazing thru scopes. :-( I did a fair bit of pistol shooting then but didn't learn to appreciate open or peep sights on a rifle until recently.

[Hick]

I have the Skinner on my 32 WS-- the advice above is right on. In my case, I have artificial lenses (from cataract surgery) that make it almost impossible for me to focus the aperture anyway-- but the eye will naturally center-- so just look at that front sight and the target.

[Scharfschuetze]

The human eye can only focus at one point in space at a time, much like a camera lens.

When using iron sights (apertures included) you need to understand the difference between sight alignment and sight picture. In a nutshell, sight alignment is the key to accurate shooting as an error here causes an angular error in boolit impact that increases with range. Sight picture, assuming perfect sight alignment, will not cause an angular error, but will place the boolit at your final point of aim on the target when the rifle fires no matter what the range if zeroed for that range. By learning to call your shot the instant your rifle fires, you'll know where that boolit went right away.

The fix? Focus on that front sight to reduce any error in sight alignment. Your brain will generally center the bead or the top of a post in the center of the aperture, but you can confirm that by thinking about it and making sure you focus on that front sight. As the aperture acts as a primitive lens; you can, when the light is right, see a bright spot in the center of the aperture. Place your bead or the top of the post in that bright spot and you'll be good to go.

As noted earlier, the aperture will be fuzzy and your target will be fuzzy or out of focus too because, as noted earlier, your eye can only focus on one thing at a time when using iron sights. I prefer a post or blade front sight as that gives me a military sight picture which gives me the best repeatability in shot placement on a target or perfect boolit placement on game animal.

Good luck with those new sights! We hope to see a range report soon.

[TrashcanDan]

Just out of curiosity, what did you mount the sight to?

[Hick]

Skinner makes a peep that mounts in the rear dovetail. It would seem like that's too far from the eye-- but they size the aperture a little larger and it is very comfortable to use

[Oklahoma Rebel]

mine screws to the rear twoscope mount holes, it is an marlin, new last year, 1895 45-70. it is what got me serious in casting. there is something magical about pouring a shiny hot liquid into the mold and when you open it, it has transformed into something precise and useful. not to mention pretty and shiny too,lol! anyways went too deep there. I'm pretty sure I get it, I think my app. is .096? or the one they send with the most basic model. I would like to get maybe 1 size down from the largest available, for hunting.oh, and as for my load, 31gr imr4198-lee 405gr-.457rnfp@1400+/ (imr4198-lee405gr-.457rnfp@1400+/)- this is my hunting load so im sighting in with it, for target I use 27gr imr4198. any success stories about hunting with the skinner and or 1895? thanks for all the help,
Travis

[flint45]

front site -hold center- boom!

[Blackwater]

Don't mean to highjack this thread, but I too have been looking hard at the Skinner sights, but have a question some of you may be able to answer. Will the available Merit Iris apertures fit these sights as well as the Lyman and Williams peep sights? I ask because I've found that particularly in bright light, those iris apertures make a significant difference in how I'm able to see and use the front sights clearly. Just wondering, and maybe some might find these useful for their shooting with them too.

[Sasquach]

Yes, just ordered one today from Andy. He has them on his site.

[lightload]

I have the Merit aperture from Skinner, and it works as stated. His website also lists the Merit site if you require more info.

[Scharfschuetze]

I use variable apertures on many of my rifles, particularly match rifles. The Merits work just like an old SLR camera's iris aperture. A simpler type is a rotating wheel that can be turned to the diameter needed for the light conditions or the eye's distance from the sight.

Here is a link to Merit's home page.

https://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html

A Parker Hale wheel type and a Merit type aperture.

[bearcove]

Aperture size is also dependent on how close it is to your eye. Front sight is also a factor. A post or bead for hunting, inserts for targets...

With the right match it is very accurate on targets, Always my favorite for hunting. Have a 35 Whelen I acquired with a 3x9 Redfield Has the front sight and off comes the scope on goes the peep.

Now its a real rifle. Dependable.

[Suo Gan]

When sighting it in, if you can sand bag or weight it and have the aperture as far away from your eye so as to make it as small as possible. Then practice your snap shooting and other typical hunting shots after you get it sighted in.

[10mmShooter]

I have two Henrys a .357 and a .44, I just installed the Skinner on the .357, love it, now I'm gonna get one for the .44 too. I did find that I need a smaller aperture, than the standard one that ships with the Skinner. I shoot much better with the aperture, than the buckhorn sight.