Cross hair sights for small bore prone

[Cumbrian]

I'm thinking of trying a foresight with cross hairs, partly to get rid of the bubble level that I have long used, partly to improve my focus. Would anyone with experience of such a sight recommend it or advise against it? The one I have in mind is the Gehmann 528.

[marky-d]

I'm no expert, but my advice would be: try it and see what happens! Everyone is a little different, and although it seems like the concentric-circles of a more traditional sight would be better for round targets, you never know.

marky-d

[Cumbrian]

I'm no expert, but my advice would be: try it and see what happens! Everyone is a little different, and although it seems like the concentric-circles of a more traditional sight would be better for round targets, you never know.

marky-d

Mark,

Thank you. Perhaps I should have explained that the Gehmann 528 keeps the normal round aperture in the centre, with varying widths available, but has cross hairs (actually not hairs at all as they are 2mm thick) leading to the aperture. It's not like the cross hairs you would find on a scope on a hunting rifle.

Centra also offer similar, optional cross hairs on their Vario foresight and on an iris for the foresight, but I was advised that the Gehmann was superior in quality.

I am hoping to try it this week and will report back if I have anything useful to say.

Roger

[marky-d]

Ah, gotcha -- yeah I did use those types of inserts for a while. Here are my amateurish observations, from what I remember:

1. Theoretically I think the linear elements ("crosshairs") should help level the rifle, but I never really felt they were long/thin enough to do it very well. Maybe three's something subconsciously going on, but the ones I used were pretty blocky and didn't give a very good horizontal or vertical reference.

2. I think the biggest drawback for me (again, rather subjective, and no evidence it hurt anything) was that I felt the 'clear' apertures gave a brighter sight picture and made the bull stand out better. For me, without the crossbars, it's easier to instinctively tell when the bull is centered because there is a wide, radially-symmetric bright area to contrast with.

With that being said, I still go back to my first comment: it's pretty cheap to try, so might as well see what happens.

marky-d

[Cumbrian]

Mark (forgive me if I have your name wrong)

Thank you again. Good points, I would say. 2mm bars are quite thick, I agree, and could indeed affect the accuracy of how one sees the light around the bull. I am experimenting also with a Duplex, if you know that device, in the rearsight. A level on top of the foresight badly messes up the image within the Duplex circle, hence my wish to see how I get on with horizontal bars instead. And I thought I might as well try out the full cross hairs at the same time. The Gehmann, like the Centra, allows you to have horizontal bars only or full cross hairs.

Roger

[greentangerine]

I use a Centra Level II on a Centra Duo Glass foresight with the optional horizontal hairs removed. I also have a variable duplex on a Spy rear sight.

I found the horizontal hairs added nothing at longer than 25 yds whilst the level works well at any distance. The internal level doesn't mess up the duplex at all.

[Cumbrian]

I use a Centra Level II on a Centra Duo Glass foresight with the optional horizontal hairs removed. I also have a variable duplex on a Spy rear sight.

I found the horizontal hairs added nothing at longer than 25 yds whilst the level works well at any distance. The internal level doesn't mess up the duplex at all.

Thank you, that's very useful information. I must try the Centra II.

I shot with the Gehmann 528 on cross hairs last night and found it made the foresight a little crowded and dark.

Roger

[ShootingSight]

If you want help focusing on the front sight, the solution is to use a mild diopter of +0.50 diopters above any distance vision correction you need. Reading glasses are a similar concept, but much too strong.

[Cumbrian]

If you want help focusing on the front sight, the solution is to use a mild diopter of +0.50 diopters above any distance vision correction you need. Reading glasses are a similar concept, but much too strong.

Thank you. Since I currently have a 0.5 eagle eye on the foresight, which I find very helpful with my ageing eyes, would you recommend that I take this off and use 0.5 diopter on the rearsight? I am not allowed two magnifiers even under our English NSRA rules, which are more lenient than those of the ISSF.

Roger