Iron Sights. Yes or no?

[Bonk]

I'm going to have some work done on one of my 9.3x62 rifles. It will used exclusively as a plains game, elk, deer gun. No DG. No big bears. IOW, no close quarters work with stuff that bites or stomps. I have a 375H&H and a 404J for that kind of hunting. I'm leaning towards not having express/iron sights installed. I want to keep the rifle as clean and light as possible. What do you think?

FTR, I already have a CZ550FS 9.3x62 with iron sights.

 

[Phil Giordano]

To me, it may also depend by the overall look of your project - if you plan to have a nice "wood & blue" rifle, well, go with the irons. If you're building a syntetic or laminated/utillity tool, I would go with a plain, no frills tube.

 

[Bonk]

It'll be wood and blue.

 

[Hunt anything]

With my eyes these days iron sites on a rifle are purely aesthetic. I always wanted to hunt a buffalo in the thick stuff with iron sites but in the low light of thick cover my eyes won’t focus correctly.

 

[BeeMaa]

Sounds to me like you've already made up your mind on the "no irons" option. However, in the event that the rifle is to be sold, you should install irons. The buyer may want the rifle for the purpose of close in work. If not it will still look like a classic wood & blued rifle, even with a scope.

No one plans on selling a rifle, sometimes it just happens. Best to be prepared.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

A barrel without a ramp and foresight looks ofd. And an express rear with a folding leaf is so 'correct'.

 

[Opposite Pole]

Well, irons don’t weigh all that much and rarely get in the way, except perhaps with very long scopes or scopes with sunshades, or perhaps nv/thermal attachments so why not have them. On a classic looking rifle they do, in my opinion, add to the looks too.

 

[baxterb]

I must admit I really love iron sights. it's the way rifles started, and even with a scope, I think they just look 'complete.' And I think the best sighted and scoped rifles have a no-objective scope, e.g. 1.5 x 5, 1-4, 2.5x, etc Leupolds or other manufacturer.

 

[Phil Giordano]

I-rons! I-rons! I-rons!

 

[Wyatt Smith]

A rifle looks naked without irons.

 

[Red Leg]

In the States, Europe, and South America, I think the question is more about aesthetics. However, any rifle I take to Africa has iron sights, and more importantly, a quickly dismountable scope.

On my first safari some fifteen years ago or so, I used a wonderful custom .338 built as a English styled express rifle. It has generous, effective open sights. I attached a quality scope to it in fixed mounts. My PH offered an "option" for leopard in those days where if one were taken on a PG hunt, one simply paid the trophy fee. To cut to the chase, I shot a cat over bait at around 9 pm (spotlight) a few days later (then legal in Namibia). He had vanished after I came out of recoil. At the bait we found blood and his prints racing up a shallow dry creek bed (waist high) overhung with acacia (think the blackest tunnel you have ever seen). Nick Nolte and I edged up that creek shoulder to shoulder with his tracker's arm between us holding a spotlight. Nick had his open sighted .470 and I was carrying the .338 with its firmly fixed telescopic sight - about as useful as a 2x4. I would probably been better off holding it by the barrel as a club. Fortunately, we found the cat stone dead after forty yards around the first little bend.

Three years later I was back in Namibia when Nick was called by a neighbor asking for help with a wounded leopard. I was on a lazy PG /tourist adventure with my wife but had brought along the same .338. Nick asked if I wanted to come along and "help." How do you answer that one and maintain one's manhood? We chased that cat around a roughly 500 acre acacia thicket for about three hours before it became too hot for the little Jack Russels to hold the scent. I have always been extremely grateful we didn't catch up with him in that thick stuff. But at least the .338 then wore Talley mounts and wasn't wearing a scope during that little exercise.

I have several rifles without sights to include a couple of lovely custom pieces. But if there is the remotest chance that a rifle could possibly be used on a follow-up on a dangerous game animal of any type, you can bet it has irons and a dismountable scope. For me, a 9.3 would certainly fit that category.

 

[crs]

My two big bore lever action rifles have irons and NO scope (they are not prairie dog rifles).
The .458 has a folding tang peep and a folding barrel sight. That combo works very well in Africa and Texas.
The second is a .405 ( .411 ) and has a receiver mounted peep sight. It has also performed well in Africa and Texas..

Two double rifles (.411 and .458) sport express sights and QD mounted 4 power scopes.

That is it - if I can see it , I can kill it.

 

[318AE]

I think Prince Philip said “a shotgun without hammers is like a dog without ears”. I have plenty of hammerless shotguns, but feel this way about a blued steel, wood stocked mid bore without iron sights. I’d put a barrel band front sling mount on as well!

If it was a 6.5 creedmoor, then maybe a bare barrel would be just fine. A 9.3x62 is pretty cool and deserves a little hardware.

 

[WAB]

@Red Leg stated it well. Anything that goes to Africa or Alaska has iron sights. And yes, I have been in situations where it was necessary.

 

[meigsbucks]

IMO, if the rifle is to ever be used for dangerous game or on a one gun hunt, I’d want the irons for backup.

 

[Milan]

I now have 2 hunting rifles without sights but they will be added on at some point. Failing eyes restrict my use of them somewhat but if I can see the target I can still hit it. I grew up with irons and want to use them more for up close. I say put them on even if you don’t use them much or at all. I sight rifles in with irons then add scope and sight in the scope. Most of my scopes are on qd mounts.

 

[Rare Breed]

A barrel without a ramp and foresight looks ofd. And an express rear with a folding leaf is so 'correct'.

You’ll be proud of me Kevin…when I get my new Westley Richards I am going to try to use the iron sights not a red dot…I will have to let you know how it goes. Elephant and Buffalo

 

[MS 9x56]

The only rifle I own without irons is the one I won on a raffle ticket. The only reason I keep it is, it is the most accurate rifle I own. Ruger American that is now my defacto rainy weather gun. It just saddens me that rifles don't come with sights anymore. Another reason I only buy used guns now. Just one old hunters opinion.

 

[colorado]

I have rifles with and without. If you're not going to have irons I suggest Talley steel QR rings. For my 500 Jeffery I have two Leupold 1.5-5x scopes in Talley steel QR rings both sighted in, plus irons lol. That way without irons if your scope "goes south" you just pop the other one on and you're with an 1/8" of zero at 100 yards no time lost.

 

[Vintageguy]

Personally I’ve never been a fan of rifles without sights. To me they don’t look “clean” but instead unfinished. But to each their own. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.