Open Sights long range i.e. 500-1000 yards.

[warren5421]

How many shooters today can remove their scope and still make shots at long range. I grew up using open sights for all shooting. I can't shoot like I did growing up but I'm 76. I still shoot BPCR .45-70 using tang sight and can walk them into a 1000 yard target but can't just step up and hit the target. A DZ scope on the rifle once set lets me scare the target if I don't hit it. So how many of you rifle guys and gals can take your scope off and still shot for the money???

 

[Mongo59]

500, yes. 1000, not so much.

Without my glasses I couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle...

 

[snapping turtle]

100-300 no issues
300-500 I can get their eventually and with rifles I have shot with open sights to that distance.
500-1000 no idea never had to without a scope.

 

[drm-hp]

A couple times last year I shot my A2 out to 600 yrds, never missed the target. I shoot my M14 across the course once or twice while my friend shoots his M1 Garand. At least once a year I shoot my M14 out to 1000 yrds in long range matches.
I must admit that at 800, 900, & 1000 yrds I am a very happy, grinning fool!

 

[55fairlane]

I have gone 600 yards with my A2 service rifle,no problem (thanks to national match irons!
my match rifle is even easier, (and yes the match rifle is commonly called a space gun)the irons on it are the same as my Palma rifle.........and, yes,, I am just starting down the Palma road, 800/900/1000 yards, irons & a sling.

no not your standard $29.99 Back up /flip up irons.

 

[natdscott]

I have done more than a little with the A2 at 1,000. I’m not great compared to the greats, but I’m good for 92-95% on a 20” circle. Bout the same with LPVO.

That said, I don’t know of ANY sane load that will fit in an A2 magazine, AND do 1,000 yards, unless you have a lot longer barrel. Actually, I’m not sure I know of a completely sane load even single shot.

I would never recommend such a thing to anybody. Unlike most reloading efforts, that is strictly “on your own, rifle by rifle”.

The biggest issue with the A2 was target visibility. Mirage can get so bad back there that you have to count targets to assure you perforate the right one. Well…if you get a wind shift, or for any reason take your eye off the target, then you have lost it, and have to recount.

SOME days, target numbers are legible. Some, they isn’t, and unlike with match globe irons, I have a giant gosh dern sight tower and post in the way.

A 4x scope was a lot easier, not because of the aiming, but because of target ID and the speed saved therefrom.

 

[natdscott]

Oh, and for casual observers, Mr. fairlane’s “Irons” there are worth more on target than almost any scope you can think of, and that set also costs more than most scopes.

They are WORTH more on target because I can literally MEASURE what his Centra moves, and if the bullets don’t go there, then there is 100% certain to be a problem with something else.

Scopes are wishy washy. Good irons are not.

 

[BigRed]

How many shooters today can remove their scope and still make shots at long range. I grew up using open sights for all shooting. I can't shoot like I did growing up but I'm 76. I still shoot BPCR .45-70 using tang sight and can walk them into a 1000 yard target but can't just step up and hit the target. A DZ scope on the rifle once set lets me scare the target if I don't hit it. So how many of you rifle guys and gals can take your scope off and still shot for the money???

I could...if I had a scope to take off!

Still shooting irons save for one rifle.

 

[indyjohn]

I didn't shoot a scoped rifle until I was into my 30s and I started shooting when I was 10.

Once upon a time at Atterbury's KD6 I took my NM M1A with a filed down front post and made paper and recorded a score for unlimited sighters and 20 rounds for record. I don't recall without going and looking at my scorebook but I am pretty sure it was a calm day and the elevation was maxed. That was probably around 1998 when I was shooting with the CIHPRS every other weekend. That was hard to stay on target as minor changes in cheek weld and butt placement changed POI by a factor of 10 on a gun that was barely MOA. I was lucky to get the windage right or it would have never happened.

Edit: Oh yeah, that was shooting with a sling. None of that bipod business.

 

[Mongo59]

I have gone 600 yards with my A2 service rifle,no problem (thanks to national match irons!
my match rifle is even easier, (and yes the match rifle is commonly called a space gun)the irons on it are the same as my Palma rifle.........and, yes,, I am just starting down the Palma road, 800/900/1000 yards, irons & a sling.

no not your standard $29.99 Back up /flip up irons.
View attachment 181752 View attachment 181753 View attachment 181754

Where is your 1907 sling?

 

[rhslover]

I've shot a bit of NRA high power matches, so 600 isn't an issue with either my NMA4 AR or my NM M1A with irons.

 

[Leo]

Palma shooter with M1a Service rifle, and Palma regulation Bolt action rifle. Long Range Master classification with a 30-06, .260 REM, 6.5 X 284 and 7mm express. Unsupported belly shooting is a lot of fun. There is a 1000 yard "any sight" match at the Nationals where a scope is an option. I shot the same score as with my normal Iron sights, so I took the scope off. Reading the wind is a bigger factor than a clear focus on the sight. I never shot the little M16 round past 600. clearly it is possible with heavier bullets.

Once my eyes went bad, the iron sights were a struggle. The rules allow you to run one corrective lens in your iron sight eyepiece and that gave me a few more years.

 

[55fairlane]

Where is your 1907 sling?

Match rifle sling on this rifle, thank you

 

[Mongo59]

Match rifle sling on this rifle, thank you View attachment 181819

You know when to go full dog collar...

 

[natdscott]

You know when to go full dog collar...

I gotcha, bro.

 

[spencer rifle]

I have gone 600 yards with my A2 service rifle,no problem (thanks to national match irons!
my match rifle is even easier, (and yes the match rifle is commonly called a space gun)the irons on it are the same as my Palma rifle.........and, yes,, I am just starting down the Palma road, 800/900/1000 yards, irons & a sling.

no not your standard $29.99 Back up /flip up irons.
View attachment 181752 View attachment 181753 View attachment 181754

Is that Antwerp CC?

 

[76Too]

Conditions were VERY gusty in Taladega, Alabama...the very next day had tornadoes in the area. CMP Marksmanship Park is one of my favorite places on earth. All photos are from less than a month ago.

Finnish M39 VKT Mosin @600yds


Swiss K31 @600yds


Swiss Schmidt-Rubin K11 Karbine @600yds


Swiss Schmidt-Rubin 1911 (Long) @600yds

 

[mark40sw]

After shooting years out to 1k yards with optics, a friend and I started shooting with irons on AR's. Out to 600 with "mil spec" AR irons and mag length rounds. Then I assembled a national match style AR with White Oak parts to go out to 1k yards, single load rounds with a bobsled.

I don't think I will ever tire of shooting irons out at distance at what looks almost like a grain of salt sitting on the front sight. Then to hear the metal targets hit after the shot. Amazes me in a way that my bigger rifles with big scopes just don't.

I have talked to a shooter that regularly practiced with a 45-70 black powder and competed with open sights and with an old fashioned long narrow brass scope. I could not believe how far and accurate he was shooting something like that.

Also love to watch older wood and blue steel WW1/WW2 military rifles being shot out so far.

Looks like some very accomplished iron sight shooters in this thread.

 

[55fairlane]

Is that Antwerp CC?

Nope, Antwerp has 300 yards, but they have layed plans to go to 400 yards.
I shoot to 300 at Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver, we have a very wonderful high power program
I have shot to 600 at Perry & Atubury
I went to someplace in Ohio (I can't remember the name of the place) and shot Palma, friend of mine lent me his Palma rifle and coached me....I did later on the weekend figure out, that even my hottest load, goes subsonic right after 800 yards, so all the talk I heard about a 223 not being a Palma load, is believed in my book

 

[55fairlane]

I gotcha, bro. View attachment 181878

Is the "N M" for never mind or national match.....lol.....