TargetTalk

I have been having a little trouble seeing the front sight ring with the Anschutz 18mm clear fornt sights. I am using a 4.3 sight. I see that Neal Johnson offers some glass front sight inserts with a selection of ring widht. There is also another sight insert that has .1mm up to 4.1 then 4.3 and up are .2mm. I have used the metal sights and the ring is thick enough, but I like the clear front sights better.

So, How do you know how wide a ring to order, when you do not know the width of the ring on the clear front sights that you have?

I shoot 10 m pistol with a +1.25 or +1.50 depending on how tired my eyes are. After a day at the computer, I usually have to use the +1.50 I don't know if this relates to the rifle at all.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Respectfully,
Dan Hankins

I am the manufacturer of the inserts that Neal Johnson sells. He does not carry a selection of ring thicknesses [he does carry a wide variety of ring diameters] The most effective ring thickness is proven to be very narrow, at least for normal eyesight. The thickness of our ring subtends 3.5 m.o.a. at the target......much narrower than the metal inserts and much better. We do have a significant number of customers, however, [mostly the over 50 shooters] who prefer a thicker ring and we do make these in a limited quantity. If you give me a mailing address I'll send you a sample. Our equipment is fully adjustable so we can make any configuration on custom order, however the standard width is much prefered by most shooters. Good luck.

Ray,
Thanks for the information. I am one of those over 50 folks, and I'll bet not the only one that could benefit by the wider ring.

Thankd for the offer, you have mail.

Respectfully,
Dan Hankins

I got the clear front sight inserts from Mr. McDougall. He sent a standard 4.2 insert, and a thick ring 4.2.

The first thing I noticed is that the quality of the Slimline front sight inserts is the same as the more expensive Anschutz front sight inserts, that I have. At half the price, I was imperssed with the Slimline sight inserts.

I first tried the standard ring thickness sight. Just to see if there was any difference between his sight and the Anschutz. There was no difference. i was still having to devote too much attention to getting the ring to be visible, and maintain a stable circle from the sight.

Then I tried the thick ring sight. Bam, There was the sight picture. The wide ring is not so wide as to cause any light passage problems. In fact the sight ring is only slightly bigger than the standard ring, at least through my eyes.

I think that these ide ring sights might be of some assistance to some of us that have a little trouble getting a clear and stable front ring picture. Some of the old guys (like me) that shoot and the ones that collect the classic 10 m rifles might be able to shoot in the high Noon Competition.

Mr. McDougall will sell the Slimline (his brand name for the thick and thin ring sight inserts) sights through his company, R. McDougall Imports LTD. in Victoria, BC Canada. He sells them at a very reasonalb price for a set. with a holder.

I think that the more variables that can be removed from the shooting equasion the better. Trying to acquire a sight picture when the sight ring seems to change and even distort is something you should not have to put up with. Got enough other things to think about.

The sight inserts I ordered fit my RWS 75S TO-1 perfectly. I am informed that Mr. McDougha has chosen not to make the insert sets in the 22mm for the late model FWB rifles.

A big thanks to Ray McDougall for his help, advise and genuine concern to help resolve my percieved problem.

Respectfully,
Dan Hankins

Yes I have to agree. I have a set of Ray's inserts and think they are very nice. I also recently bought one of his little scoring guages which was a life saver at our last match. Truthfully i am not sure if it is legal to use in a match but I had some prone targets that had some tight groups that I would not have been able to reasonably score any other way.

To answer your question about the legality of our optical scoring gauges; We regularly supply our scoring gauges to organizers of major Games such as World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games as well as lower level events. At the ISSF level the official scoring of targets is done by a crew of officials who often use our gauges to score the targets. If, however, they come upon a very doubtfull shothole they pass the decision on to three jurymen who insert a certified plug gauge into the hole [once only and no one else is permitted to use the plug] Each of the jury then examine it [often with a magnifying glass] and actually vote on the result, in or out. At this level there are no double holes to worry about. Many regulations at a lower level allow these optical gauges to be used for final scoring. One needs to be familiar with his local rules. They are especially usefull for scoring multiple shot holes [nothing much else will work]. Many events allow the shooter to change his own targets in which case the shooter can actually gauge his own target before he turns it in for scoring......they dont disturb the hole. By doing this the shooter has a good idea of the value that should be given by the official scorers........and if that value is'nt there he can challenge. But again, be carefull what the match committee or range officer will allow otherwise yoiu may get in trouble. They work very well for postal matches when the holes cannot be plugged by the local club officials.

Hope this helps.

Hello all, it's not just older shooeters that prefer thick foresight rings. I'm 25, and don't need or use glasses either for everyday or shooting. I have never found a comfortable sight picture using thin rings; they fuzz out and I just can't see them. I currently use a Gehmann iris (520A I think) and find that on 3.8 the ring width is just about perfect.

Good shooting

Tim S

Exeter UK