Sights or scope

[jaycee]

Iron sights are fine, but! a scope allows you to pick a particular spot [small] on the animal [ not the whole animal ] and therefore you are more accurate.

[bellerivercrossbowhunter]

My CVA Wolf came with a cheap tasco 3x9 scope. Surprisingly it has been good to me for the last 4 years...I am waiting for it to break or have the crosshairs jump so I can buy a nice 2x7 Bushnell Legend...

I hope it doesn't fail when you have that buck of a lifetime in front of you...

Maybe change it before you regret it...

[bellerivercrossbowhunter]

A good friend always told me to buy the best optics that you can afford. Beware of the high cost of low dollar optics. They will fail at the worst times. If you are like me & you get very few chances to hunt the last thing you want is for your optics to fail...

[Fox]

Iron sights are fine, but! a scope allows you to pick a particular spot [small] on the animal [ not the whole animal ] and therefore you are more accurate.

I have never once aimed at a whole animal once with my irons, it is all about practice. Look at all the animals that fell before scopes were invented, they hit where they were aiming, from the Buffalo to the squirrel, all shot with irons.

Practice with whatever gun and sighting system you have and become proficient.

The only thing that optics helps you with is low light, long range and old eyes.

[Big Jack]

I have never once aimed at a whole animal once with my irons, it is all about practice. Look at all the animals that fell before scopes were invented, they hit where they were aiming, from the Buffalo to the squirrel, all shot with irons.

Practice with whatever gun and sighting system you have and become proficient.

The only thing that optics helps you with is low light, long range and old eyes.

I don't know about that. Short range irons are fine to pick your shot but at some point that front sight covers a whole lot of animal....

Not saying they aren't effective but once you get out 100 plus yards scopes make it so you pick your spot as Jaycee said.

Personally I don't do well with irons because I'm near sighted.

[MikePal]

Personally I don't do well with irons because I'm near sighted.

Moi Aussie...can't see both well enough anymore so it's scopes or trying to sight in with progressive lens...not the best solution.

My 8mm Mauser still has iron sights and the problem is the front post totally blocks out the 10" Black center at 100yds . I can hit the Black, but there is no way to be more precise than that.

But as we discussed on the thread 'Pie Plate Accuracy" a 10" area over the vitals will kill the deer, so really, in terms of hunting (or killing an enemy for what it was designed for) it's still a kill shot.....just won't win any shooting contests

[Fox]

I don't know about that. Short range irons are fine to pick your shot but at some point that front sight covers a whole lot of animal....

Not saying they aren't effective but once you get out 100 plus yards scopes make it so you pick your spot as Jaycee said.

Personally I don't do well with irons because I'm near sighted.

Bad eyes and it becomes a problem but the tin soup cans at 100 yards with a WWII Cooey trainer never was too hard to hit, a deer is a heck of a lot bigger than a soup can. Remember when we talk open sights that we should be considering a peep sight as well, very fast and by unscrewing the aperture for low light (or in some cases 2 apertures on a tip up system) that you can have a ghost ring for low light.

I like scopes, don't get me wrong, but open sights have their place and are not as bad as everyone seems to make them out to be.

I bought a little kid gun at the gun show, brought it out to the range and the guy who was running it was laughing saying that a 22LR at 75 yards with open sights is impossible, smoked the balloon on the first shot with a 16 1/4" barrel and 12ish LOP, essentially a long pistol with a peep.

We had tons of people who had no clue how to use an aperture sight and said it was impossible to hit anything, they just have never used them.

When deer hunting at close range and especially with moving animals or flighty ones we tend to be way too fine, we try to pick out one strand of hair and squeeze, by that time the deer is already gone. I snap shot with irons in the vitals is fast, really fast, if you know what you are doing, a scope is most rarely quick, even the 1.5x, it is just tougher to acquire the target.

Scope or open sights, they are both great for their applications, sitting and standing/walking animals would be a scope, tight quarters and potentially moving open sights all the way.

[Fox]

My 8mm Mauser still has iron sights and the problem is the front post totally blocks out the 10" Black center at 100yds . I can hit the Black, but there is no way to be more precise than that.

6 o'clock hold can be used for that too, although military sight adjustment can be a pain.

[jaycee]

Anyone that does a lot of hunting, not just shooting, knows that sun, shade, shadows , low light, bright light, can and does play havoc with open sights now matter what type they are, peep sights are better but still are not as accurate as a scope.
My eyes at my age are still good , I do not wear glasses, can still read a newspaper under good light conditions, but when it comes to hunting with a rifle I will take a scoped one any day over metallic sights because I want to make sure I get in a good killing shot.
When it comes to just fun target shooting , i do still use metallic sights and am good at it, after 60 years of shooting and hunting, have shot handgun competitions for almost 40 years all with open metallic sights, think I have had enough and more than most practice and still enjoy it.

[MikePal]

I should add that I had good results using those Reflex sights on my ML shotgun for turkey. They're only 1x but very fast for target acquisition.

As are Red Dots....again pin point accuracy and fast acquisition.