Target recommendations for 100 yard Skinner, brass bead front.

[huntinlever]

My son and I went out today for the maiden voyage of his 30-30 and the skinner on board. The front sight is a brass bead. It shot really well at 50, and will take practice at 100 (of course). I prefer a 6:00 hold, but I'm used to a post up front. He's still figuring out what hold he would like to use.

We use sight-in targets:

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I've never worked a peep out to 100 yards and while 50 yards was easy to see (even with just my readers), 100 was difficult to make out the hold-point on the target. Any particular recommendations for targets to use with the aperture setup?

[Larry Gibson]

Try a 6" pistol or rifle bullseye. Or the close to 6" Shoot-n-See target.

[1Papalote]

Black square on white paper. Once adjusted, clay targets on the 100 yd berm. All my centerfires that I shoot open sights have post front sights. I am anti bead front.

[Hick]

I put Lyman globe sights on front for mine. They come with a selection of different inserts. I use the aperture inserts. With apertures on both the front and rear you lust line up the two holes and put the target in the middle of the front hole.

[stubshaft]

I like a 4" Diamond like the center of your target, round targets at long range just merge into a fuzzy ball for me.

[725]

Contrast & clarity make for the best targets, especially with open sights. Scopes make up the difference by way of the optical advantage of needing only one focal plane. Open sights, however, require you to take into consideration three different focal planes (rear sight, front sight & target.). When sighting in an open sighted gun, I usually make my own targets. I'll either take a bright poster board of yellow, florescent green, or blaze orange (bright yellow is the best) and spray paint a black center dot. I use a cut away can to spray inside to create distinct edges. Wal-Mart sells poster board in the stationary / art section. If I don't have poster board, I spray a piece of cardboard bright yellow and follow up when dry with the black paint can stencil. Mostly I use regular targets for the bulk of my shooting, but when I need to sight in or do some serious distance shooting, I roll my own.

[georgerkahn]

My son and I went out today for the maiden voyage of his 30-30 and the skinner on board. The front sight is a brass bead. It shot really well at 50, and will take practice at 100 (of course). I prefer a 6:00 hold, but I'm used to a post up front. He's still figuring out what hold he would like to use.

We use sight-in targets:

312313

I've never worked a peep out to 100 yards and while 50 yards was easy to see (even with just my readers), 100 was difficult to make out the hold-point on the target. Any particular recommendations for targets to use with the aperture setup?

Bion, a while back I found ".30-caliber Sight-in Targets" which are on paper maybe 11 inches wide and 24" in height. Basically a black vertical line with cross-lines, horizontal, every two inches from top to bottom -- with a large "X" at the center line ends. After we used them up, replacements seemed waaaay too costly, BUT, "our" replacements were most easily made with a magic marker guided on a yardstick. Imho, there is tooo much on most commercial targets I've seen and used.
This is a real KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!) target. The vertical line only addresses windage -- duh! -- and you may use your sight to focus on the centre horizontal line (marked with the x's at each end -- easily seen) to hold on -- then readily viewing where the bullets fall. IF you are mathematically inclined, instead of the twoinch spacing of horizontal lines you can increase/decrease spacing to correspond with clicks on your adjustable sight. Back in the 1980s, we did this empirically -- no math :) -- just shoot a group, measure; move sight one click, and repeat -- on U S M1 Garands.
The price is right; and, imho -- they work!
geo

[JoeJames]

I worked my own up. Combination pistol bull and British Tin Hat type. It works well with my 70 year old eyes.

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[mnewcomb59]

If you wanna shoot small groups with iron sights you need a large target. Large as in 1 foot at 100 yards, 2 foot at 200 and a trashcan lid at 300. I prefer a flat top post and a target that is as wide as my front sight post. That lets me use a 6 o'clock hold or hold in the middle of a large circle or square target.

You will never shoot a good group at 100 yards at a 1" orange sticker because it forces you to abandon your fundamentals and look at the target. You should never focus on the target, you should focus on your front sight. If your target is too small it disappears when you focus on the front sight, then you abandon your fundamentals and start looking at the stupid little sticker.

Use a pizza box as a target backer and spray paint a paper plate black. Put the black circle in the middle of the white square. That would be the minimim size target needed for me to shoot MOA with irons at 100 yards. Bucket lid at 200. Trash can lid at 300. Round bale at 600. Give up on the idea of having 8 different bullseyes on a sheet of computer paper. You need large targets to center the irons while focusing your front sight. You can only have one aiming point in the middle, not 5 bullseyes on a round bale at 600.

With a large enough target like a steel ram, I can hold a 6 inch group at 200 yards with a 6 inch revolver. 3 MOA. When shooting at 1 inch stickers with the same revolver I can only hold 3 MOA out to maybe 50 yards because the stupid little stickers disappear when you do the right thing and focus on the front sight.

Since you have a bead I recommend round targets that are large enough that you can see a whole ring of target around the edges of your front bead. It would be very easy to center a round bead on a larger round target. Doesn't matter if the target is 1 foot or 6 foot wide, you can easily find the center of a circle when you overlay your round bead on it but if it is too small you will never see it to line it up.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I use red or green printer paper 8.5x11 or 8.5x14 from the office supply (Amazon). Cut into squares, 8.5x8.5 for 'fat' bead front sights, other sizes based on cutting square. Staple to white background. Using the green or red, you can see the bullet holes through many scopes.

[ascast]

I like a black spot. about 6inch. Made a zillion back when I had a shirt&tie job, manager, unlimited access to big copier. I prefer a post. The bead is supposed to cover your target. Fine on standing paper but trickier on running whitetail. And re: the brass-that's nice for about 10 minutes either side of dark, but might cause grouping issues in bright sun. I don't like aperature sights for hunting, I think it takes too long to get it all lined up and follow a walking buck. "U" notch and post for me.

[farmbif]

its been years since I bought a target but if sighting something in I use an old pizza box with a coat of white paint if it is too dark with a big x over the whole box with big black marker and a yard stick
save those pizza boxes and big pieces of cardboard and when there's nothing to do on a nice sunny day get out the white paint and get em prepped.

[beemer]

I went to Sam's Club and bought a large roll of butcher paper. The roll is 18 in. wide and over 8 in. across, don't remember the length but it will last a long time. Make a card board stencil for whatever I need. For 100 yds. I use a 6 in. circle and usually red paint. The red seem to make it easier to contrast with the sight and spot holes. I just refuse to buy targets, save that money for components.

I think I am going to try the half circle that JoeJames posted, looks it might work well with my 70 yr old eyes as well.

[Texas by God]

A standard size plain white paper plate has worked for me with a bead front sight at 100 yards. I also prefer a blade front sight but that wasn’t the question.


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[huntinlever]

Alright, this is really helpful, thanks guys. Mnewwcomb59, that's exactly what happened. I see the front bead perfectly but paradoxically the "finer" aim point of the sight-in targets, I now realize, brought me to lose the whole point of peep aiming, and I was trying to line up precisely as I would with the scope picture. I can see now, from all of your ideas, how this is a mistake and probably inherent in trying to peep these types of targets. Lots of great and simple solutions, thanks.

On the bead v. post. I mentioned I have a post on board my gg, as I once had the Alaskan on board too. I had to file it down quite a bit to give the Skinner some room to play. Back then, my eyes were failing me and I did nothing about it - abandoned the Skinner to remount my Leu 2.5 x 20. I do remember, though, that it also took some getting used to having so much of the sight picture taken up with the flat post. Weirdly, a buckhorn is something I'm used to I guess and so that kind of picture is something that doesn't seem to bother me too much.

However, since my gunsmith mounted the brass bead - the rifle's front ramp was missing and we had to drill and tap for a new ramp, and this low bead worked - the fineness of the bead and its supporting post gives a very nice, open picture that personally I'm enjoying. I'm strongly considering trying a Skinner on my gg (this would be like the 3rd time trying, I think), so I'll get to see what it's like with the Alaskan, my existing partridge, and the weak readers that seem to work, much to my pleasant surprise.

Much appreciated.

[HWooldridge]

I stick two pieces of black electrical tape in the shape of a "V" onto a 10" white paper plate and staple that to my backer board. The front sight tends to settle just under the point of the "V" - aim small, miss small...

[huntinlever]

I stick two pieces of black electrical tape in the shape of a "V" onto a 10" white paper plate and staple that to my backer board. The front sight tends to settle just under the point of the "V" - aim small, miss small...

That's a great idea. Thanks. 👍

[mnewcomb59]

Alright, this is really helpful, thanks guys. Mnewwcomb59, that's exactly what happened. I see the front bead perfectly but paradoxically the "finer" aim point of the sight-in targets, I now realize, brought me to lose the whole point of peep aiming, and I was trying to line up precisely as I would with the scope picture.

Keep in mind the center of a 6 foot circle is the same size as the center of a 1 inch round sticker- a point the size of a pin. You can still shoot tiny groups on a large target, but you can't shoot 5 different tiny groups on a piece of computer paper at 200 yards like you can with a 12x scoe.

[huntinlever]

Keep in mind the center of a 6 foot circle is the same size as the center of a 1 inch round sticker- a point the size of a pin. You can still shoot tiny groups on a large target, but you can't shoot 5 different tiny groups on a piece of computer paper at 200 yards like you can with a 12x scoe.

Thanks. I started out liking the bead but more and more, I have to say, I think I'm missing a kind of inherent precision with the Patridge. It's my son's gun, so it'll ultimately up to him, but I think I'll get a .5" tall Patridge from Andy and drift it in for comparison's sake. Heading out tomorrow to test a Hogdon LVR series with 1.5X safety readers, and the standard 6" bullseye with red center. Wish me luck.

[elmacgyver0]

Paper plates make great targets!
For someone like me a large screen TV box, like 85 inch works better if I want to keep my shots on the target.[smilie=l:

[huntinlever]

Paper plates make great targets!
For someone like me a large screen TV box, like 85 inch works better if I want to keep my shots on the target.[smilie=l:

Aim huge, hit...somethin': Underpromise and overdeliver guaranteed. :Fire:

:bigsmyl2:

[Castaway]

Any color other than black “bleeds” around the edges and is hard to get good definition at the target end. I’d swap the bead for a flat front sight post and then use a 6 o’clock hold. It’s much easier to see the contrast that way between the post and the bull The size of the target is properly dictated by the front sight post. Ideally, the post will subtend the bull you’re aiming at. That way, not only can you get a more consistent vertical hold, the horizontal is easier to see if your post wanders laterally

[huntinlever]

Any color other than black “bleeds” around the edges and is hard to get good definition at the target end. I’d swap the bead for a flat front sight post and then use a 6 o’clock hold. It’s much easier to see the contrast that way between the post and the bull The size of the target is properly dictated by the front sight post. Ideally, the post will subtend the bull you’re aiming at. That way, not only can you get a more consistent vertical hold, the horizontal is easier to see if your post wanders laterally

Thanks. Yes, I've tried a 6 o'clock hold with the bead, but it's impossible with either the sight-in target's red diamond, or the 6" bullseye's red center so went to center-on and I'm basically blocking up the red center. The Skinner is shooting way high right now, but I was surprised to see a decent grouping (note this is 50 yards, not 100), especially given how poorly I was getting a sight-picture.

Andy had told me the bead is inherently less accurate because everyone has to basically do a dead-on hold and especially given your comment on the red (or other color) v. black, I can see why it's not the way to go if we stay with the Skinner and not an optic. (I'd told him I'd do a 6 O'clock with the bead. I was wrong, can't make it out at all at range). I'll be ordering a 1/2" tall post. By the way, for my gg, I put the sloped front sight to join the Skinner Alaskan. Do you or anyone have comments on the sloped front v. his "True Patridge" (non-sloped) front sights?

[Rapier]

My lever gun factory sights are really poor. You really need to take a look at a target at 100-200 yards before you assume the sights work for anything smaller than a locomotive. Had to change mine out so I could even see a target around the huge front bead. The post and notch would work better, but the receiver sight rear and a small brass bead front might be better. Best for me is a low power scope.

[FergusonTO35]

I just use yellow carbon copy paper, I have an unlimited supply of it from the recycle bin at work. For rifle use I don't put any sort of target or bullseye on it since deer don't have them either. I try to split the middle of the paper with the top edge of the front sight.

[Cast10]

Been testing 38-55 loads and have found a 8” black circle works great.

Take a standard round paper plate. Cute the bottom out and you should get around 8”. Get a can of flat black spray paint and some blank paper. You can figure the rest.