[Amish]

Are the factory rifle sights on shotguns as good as ghost ring sights? What are their advantages and disadvantages? Which one would you choose?

[Nippy]

Ghost rings are better than rifle sights. You can aquire quicker with ghost ring sights. Both ghost ring and rifle sights are good if you're gonna use slugs. But i've heard the ghost ring sights and the rifle sights sometimes get shot loose so get em if you really need to shoot slugs.

[Andrew Wyatt]

A properly installed set of sights will not shoot loose.

rifle sights and ghost rings are necessary, IMHO on a home defense gun, because HD shotguns are aimed, not pointed.


I also prefer ghost ring sights, because all of my rifles have aperature sights, and it's nice to have commonality of sighting arrangements.

[9mmMike]

I use rifle sites on all my 870's. I am not a very good shotgunner as I tend to aim everything. I can bust clays OK but not compared to those folks who seem to have been born with a shotgun as a third arm.
I really like the rifle sights. For one thing they are free and do not add 100+ dollars to my otherwise inexpensive 870's.
Ghost rings are OK but pricey and I can align rifle sights faster.
I have had the rear site on one 870 move while shooting but it was my fault for not tightening it correctly. I hardly noticed (maybe I do point afterall ;) ) until I was cleaning it and the clays did not notice either. YMMV.
Mike

[Dot_mdb]

I am quite new to shotguns, but I have been doing some experimenting. I think that the plain front bead is fine for HD duty. In fact at home defense distances it is probably better than ghost sites. You can certainly aim with the front bead. I don't have a mid bead on my shotgun but I imagine that it would be helpful out past 50 yards when shooting slugs.

Bill

[Dave McCracken]

Good work is done every day with beads, especially in the AS Scenario area. Shoot your shotgun as is, if slugs are on the menu go for either learning how to use a bead with slugs or get other sights installed.

Open sights will work, but on short barreled shotguns the sight radius is little more than on handguns. A Peep sight(a GR sight without a publicist) has a longer sight radius, which is why they're so universal in HP competition.

But for now,just shoot the thing....