Watch: How to Sight in With Iron Sights
Kevin Felts 10.13.17
In an age dominated by optics, it is nice to see someone talking about iron sights. Not too long ago, more people used open sights than optics. Then, slowly over time, it seemed everything got an optic put on it, even handguns, and folks didn’t learn how to sight in with iron sights..
Call me old-fashioned, but I feel people should learn how to shoot with open sights before they shoot a rifle with optics. Notice I said rifle, and not firearms in general. Once a person is proficient with open sights, only then should they move on to an optic.
A lot of people will disagree with that statement. A while back I was watching a YouTube video where the guy was talking about how reliable modern optics are. With optics that almost never fail, who needs iron sights?
In September 2017, I bought a Marlin 336 that was made in 1976. The rifle never had an optic mounted on it. How do I know this? The screws were still in the receiver, and the screws showed no signs of ever being removed.
Couple of things about iron sights:
- There are no batteries that can go dead.
- They rarely, if ever, break.
It was nice to scroll through my YouTube video subscriptions and see a video posted by Tactical Rifleman talking about how to zero iron sights on an AR-15.
To me, it is nice to see someone who knows how to use a rifle with sights.
Personally, I get tired of watching videos of people with optics so expensive I would never be able to afford one. Well, maybe if I took out a loan on my house I could afford one.
Just about anyone can put a red dot scope on a rifle and hit paper at 100 yards, but it takes a marksman to accurately group at one hundred yards with open sights. I find this rather sad, because shooting like that use to be common.
