45-70 Journey

I’ve had reasonably good success with my 1874 Sharps in 45-70. I can consistently keep 5 shots in a 7” circle at 300 yards and ring the occasional white 14” gong at 600 using a globe front sight. I don’t have a problem centering the globe ring around the white 14” gong but I have a problem using the globe at 600 on a black 17” target. All I see is a fuzzed gray blob, nothing distinct to use for “precision” shooting. Don’t know what to do. I could shoot a white circle but I want a standard target to shoot at. Next time I’m going to replace the globe with a crosshair, post or some other insert. What do others do? Can you see the bull through a globe that far?

For a long time I reverted to my service rifle experience a fairly wide front post in the globe an a 6 o clock hold.You also might experiment with larger ( more light) and smaller rear apertures.

Setting up in the shade and shooting into the light will make the pupil larger and improve vision also.

Hadley eye cup.

A 17" target is pretty small for 600 yards. That's just under the size of the 9 ring on the standard 600 yard NRA target, and a tough job with apertures.

Are you able to use the standard NRA 600 yard target? You'll probably find that it's easy for you to see with a circular aperture. The aiming black on the standard 600 yd target is 36".

Chris.

Get an insert card for your globe sight, to go with your Hadley eye cup. You can mix and match apertures to improve your sight picture.
I'm no expert but I don't care for post or crosshair sights when the targets are beyond 200 yards with metallic sights.

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Originally Posted by Drydock

Hadley eye cup.

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+1…it will help your eye focus.

Gunlaker, I think you nailed it. I didn’t know if my eyes just weren’t capable of discerning the sized bull I was using. To be honest, I never thought of a larger target since in my ignorance and lack of experience, I never saw a larger target used at 600 yards. In hindsight, it’s not a surprise since all of the 600 yard shooters use glass. To the others that responded, I’m using a Hadley eyecup and have sight inserts. 17” at 600 yards is tiny, 37” is a whole lot better. Thanks again

Yeah that target would be pretty tiny. We steel about that size at the ram line at our range, but I need to use my MVA 6x scope :-)

I'm going to go with JSnover. Use what we always called an "open cross hair" front aperture. They can be had with different size openings for different targets. My percentage of hits beyond 500 yards went up significantly....when I could see the target. You can't hit what you can't see.

The NRA mid range target used in high power matches 10 ring is around a foot in dia but the black goes out to the 7 or 8 ring which is around 36-40" in dia. Make it a shooting contest not a seeing contest. At 1000 yds the Long range targets black is almost 60" in dia the 5 ring is the left over corners.

Don'tcha kinda need to see to shoot?

Sir, a few years back I could no longer center the animals in my front sight. I found that the thin lined aperture made it impossible to focus on the as it was fuzzy. I learned to put a thick black heavy line aperture backing up the finer lined one and I instantly could center and see the animal (ram, turkey, pig etc.) clearly. Food for thought, Best wishes.

What size is your rear aperture? It needs to be 1mm or smaller to get the real diopter effect. It makes a big difference in focusing, when the diopter effect kicks in. If you don’t have a small enough aperture, consider putting something like wax over the present aperture hole and drilling a smaller hole in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diopter_sight

Greg, I have a Hadley Eyecup with adjustable aperture. Gunlaker was on the money with his advice to use a 600 yard target with its bigger, 37” bull

PopGun,

I hope you will educate me...
Would you be so kind to further define your post.., please..
"Heavy black line backing up the finer lined one."..

Anyone else understand what he means?

THX

Bob

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Originally Posted by popgunbpcr

Sir, a few years back I could no longer center the animals in my front sight. I found that the thin lined aperture made it impossible to focus on the as it was fuzzy. I learned to put a thick black heavy line aperture backing up the finer lined one and I instantly could center and see the animal (ram, turkey, pig etc.) clearly. Food for thought, Best wishes.

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I learned the hard way about adjustable apertures during a match. I was/am new to the long range stuff but did have the Hadley type eye cup on my MVA sight. I struggled with the pigs complaining that I couldn't see them clearly in the morning light. Hit the sighter and proceeded to fight to get 5 out of 10.Same with the turkeys, hit the sighter, miss ,miss and then I get the great idea to use the adjustable sight. Well it was like someone put spotlight on the targets after that and I rolled over 8 turkeys in a row .A good example of my inexperience but a hard learned lesson I don't think I will ever forget. A very useful option worth considering.

I'm thinking popgun is talking about doubling up the front sight insert as the fine wire crosshair was too difficult to see. Rather than just changing it out or possibly creating something of his own with two inserts.....?????

Found a workable solution. Although the a proper 600 yard bull is the right way to go, yesterday I went with a white, square target backer and used one of the sight inserts which until yesterday, I had no practical use. It was the insert with bold lines originating from the cardinal points and not converging in the center. I simply framed the target vertically and horizontally as if using a round front insert on a round bullseye. Thanks all for the replies

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Originally Posted by Castaway

Found a workable solution. Although the a proper 600 yard bull is the right way to go, yesterday I went with a white, square target backer and used one of the sight inserts which until yesterday, I had no practical use. It was the insert with bold lines originating from the cardinal points and not converging in the center. I simply framed the target vertically and horizontally as if using a round front insert on a round bullseye. Thanks all for the replies

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That is the insert I have been using and it helps a lot with my eyesight putting the white framed inside the black posts ...If I run into black silhouettes I will be in big trouble I fear ....