HUNTING WITH OPEN SIGHTS Taking aim the old fashioned way
….by getting really close
MOST boys who grow up on a farm learn to shoot before their tenth birthday, usually with the family air rifle (in my case a pre-1920 BSA underlever), then progressing to Dad’s .22 (a Brno) and finally graduating to a centre-fire hunting rifle for their first ‘big game’ (Uncle Keith’s 7x57 Musgrave on a blesbuck). In most cases though, the lessons learnt while shooting starlings and mouse-birds in the orchard with an open-sighted air rifle, are soon forgotten once you get a taste for telescopic sights.
For those fortunate enough to have been involved with school Bisley-style target shooting, the reliance on telescopic sights might have been delayed for a while, but eventually nearly all the biltong hunters you’ll meet around campfires, at shooting ranges, or hanging about in gun shops, hunt with scopes. Nowadays, most out-of-the-box rifles don’t even have iron sights fitted. They get in the way of the telescopic sights that will inevitably cost as much, if not more, than the rifle. Scopes are to hunting rifles what microwave ovens are to kitchens, not absolutely necessary, but a modern ‘must have’. This article is about why you should consider hunting the old-fashioned way with open sights, and how to do so.
Firstly, telescopic sights don’t make a rifle any more accurate, nor do they make you shoot or hunt any better. All they do is enlarge the image and place the target and reticle on one focal plane. A scope does help you to better see your target for more accurate shot placement and helps old eyes focus on one plane.
Hunting with open sights forces you to really hunt – to get close enough to your quarry to see it clearly with your naked eye. If you can get close enough to see it clearly, then that’s close enough to shoot it with open sights.
One of the biggest disadvantages of the telescopic sight is momentarily ‘losing’ your target after squeezing the trigger due to the rifle’s recoil. With open sights you won’t lose sight of the target and, in most cases, you’ll see the puff of dust where the bullet hits the shoulder or the fine red mist that follows the bullet’s exit from the animal.
How many times have you lost sight of your prey at that critical moment, not knowing whether it dropped instantly into the long grass or ran off? Worse than that, how often have you or one of your hunting buddies lost confidence in your scope’s setting, mounts or parallax adjustment? Was it bumped during the long (potholed) journey to the game farm? Was it accidentally knocked off zero by one of your mates on the back of the bakkie? Iron sights are a lot harder to knock off zero. When hunting, confidence in your rifle and your ability to place the shot where you aim, every time, is most important.
If you can get close enough to see it clearly, then that’s close enough to shoot it with open sights.
My favourite game to hunt is pig; bushpig, warthog, introduced European wild boar or feral pigs, and getting them in your sights quickly is often imperative for success. I can pick up the target a lot faster with open sights than with telescopic sights and this has often made the difference between a freezer full of tasty smoked warthog sausage and a freezer full of mixed veg. As a firearm collector and black powder enthusiast, being able to hunt with open sights has also brought many of my beloved old rifles to life.
So how do you focus on the rear sight, the front sight and the target at the same time? Well, you don’t. In fact you can’t. What you have to do first, is focus on the rear sight to make sure that it is aligned to your eye, that your grip is firm and your cheek spot-welds to the stock correctly. Then you focus on the front sight. The rear sight will be blurred. What is important is that the front sight sits properly in the ‘V’ or ‘U’ (or ghost ring) of the rear sight.
I prefer a thin upright, squared-off front sight post in a rear sight ‘U’ (think SMLE sights) or ghost ring (think Lee Enfield No4), to a bead or inverted ‘V’ front sight in a ‘V’ rear sight (think old BSA air rifle or military Mauser). With the post and ‘U’ it is easier to centre the front sight in the rear sight and to get the top of the front sight exactly the same height as the rear sight.
Don’t try to “mik fyn” and place the front sight in the bottom of the ‘V’ with just the tip of the front sight visible. In different light conditions the visible tip could appear bigger or smaller and you’ll struggle to focus on the front sight, which is the sight that must be crystal clear.
With express sights, the front sight is a bead that sits at the bottom of a broad, shallow ‘V’, with the point of aim just above the bead. This works well for very quick shots at close range but for medium to longer ranges, I prefer the post and ‘U’ or, post and ghost ring.
Next, you should focus on the target. Bring the front sight up from below the target, keeping your rear and front sight alignment correct and place the front sight where you want to hit. Then retract your focus to just the front sight. The target can be blurred. The rear sight can be blurred. The front sight must be clear at the moment of squeezing the trigger.
Where do you place the front sight on the target and how? Your rifle should be sighted to hit the point on, or just above, the middle of the front sight e.g. for the perfect broadside shot, bring the front sight up the front legs, up a third of the body and stop. Don’t try to shoot “agter die blad” (behind the shoulder). You’ll invariably shoot too far behind the shoulder and spoil your meat with stomach juices, or worse, wound and lose your quarry. As long as your front sight is 1/3rd of the way up the body, above the front leg you’ll be fine. You’ll be surprised how quickly this can be achieved with practise. Familiarise yourself with your quarry’s anatomy – you won’t always be presented with the perfect broadside. A good book to own is The Perfect Shot by Kevin Robertson (Safari Press).
Practice, as for any sport, is all important, and that goes for telescopic sights too. Know your personal limit i.e. the maximum range at which you can comfortably get all your shots into a 3 to 4-inch group. If that range is only 30 metres, then you’ll have to do a lot of very quiet stalking, but most off-the-shelf military .303s, for example, will comfortably do that at 100 metres and this is fine for most bushveld conditions. With practice and a good rifle, 4-inch groups are achievable at well over 200m. For most hunters using scopes, if they’re honest, 200m is about the limit anyway.
Identifying male from female black wildebeest or trophy from non-trophy springbuck at over 100m without a scope can be hard, but that’s why we have binoculars. There are few things worse than someone glassing with a (potentially loaded) scoped rifle.
You do need to set, or adjust, your iron sights. First choose your ammunition. If you’re planning to use Grandad’s old military .303, you’ll most likely find that it shoots spot on at 100 yards with military MKVII ammo. Do not use these rounds for hunting! Find commercial hunting ammunition or handload good quality hunting bullets of the same
weight and to the same velocity as the original 174gr, 2 440fps rounds – you’ll probably find that you don’t have to adjust a thing.
The same rule applies to most ex-military rifles and their ammunition. If you stick to the original ballistics, then the rear sight increments for distance will remain accurate. Just remember though, that the 7x57 Boer Mauser rifle, for example, was zeroed at 400m and the Boer carbine was zeroed at 300m!
You’ll find rifles with a standing leaf sight for 100 yards, flip-up leaf sights out to 700 yards and a further flip-up sliding ladder sight out to 1 200 yards. Don’t believe for a second that the old-timers ever hunted at those distances. In most cases, the sights beyond 200 yards were to impress gullible buyers. Many old sporting rifles will be engraved “Proved and Sighted for the .303 Mark VII Cartridge” (or something similar) to give you a clue as to what ammo will work best. Between the internet and Frank Barnes’s Cartridges of the World, you should find the original ballistics for your calibre. Handload strictly within the propellant manufacturers’ guidelines.
Once you’ve worked out what ammo works (and groups) best, you need to adjust your iron sights which can get a bit trickier. To adjust windage (left and right) you have two options. Either you move the front sight left to shoot further right or you move the rear sight right to shoot further right and vice versa. Some rear sights are hand adjustable for windage. Failing that, you need to move the front sight left or right with a sight-adjusting clamp or a hammer and brass punch. Please don’t use a steel punch on your cased Rigby! If in any doubt consult a gunsmith that you trust.
To adjust elevation (up and down) you have two choices. To shoot higher you make the front sight shorter or the rear sight higher. To shoot lower you make the front sight taller or the rear sight shorter.
Many rear sights are hand adjustable. Most military armourers carried spare front sights of different heights (available today online) to adjust elevation, and many sporting rifles like some Brnos and Mausers, have easily replaceable front sights. Failing that, you might have to make a taller front sight or file down the rear sight. Again, please don’t attempt this unless you’re quite sure of what you’re doing. Front sights are often fixed into their dovetail with a sharp punch. The great thing is that when both front and rear sights are properly set, you’ll never have to set them again. Once you’ve got the sights zeroed don’t then go and change your ammo. Find ammunition that works and stick to it.
You’ll be amazed how much more you see and experience without a scope than with one, and hunting with open sights... that’s the really fun part.