Bead?

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For home defense and general defensive shotgun usages, at how much of a disadvantage is a bead sight compared to a ghost ring of rifle sight?

The Mossberg 590A1 variabt I'm interested in comes with a bead sight. Curious to hear thoughts on this. Thank you all.
 
The only disadvantage I could argue, is shooting slugs for accuracy. However, I am most accustomed to beads. I even deer hunted with them for years.
I think there is nothing faster than aligning the beads. Actually it is more instinct than a conscious effort.
 
Seems like the bead is optimized for acquisition speed with acceptable accuracy. I observe that wing shooters achieve lower aiming dispersion (on a moving target!) than would be necessary in the house. Downside is that the singe bead depends on you putting your eyeball in the right place, without a rear sight to constrain it.

Post and aperture sights are optimized for excellent accuracy, with acceptable speed. I prefer them for 50-300 yards, but trading that speed for accuracy seems a waste in the 5-50 yard, large-target domain.

In the house (say within 40 yards): a second faster, with 5+MOA aiming dispersion sounds like a great compromise! A second slower, with a 1MOA aiming dispersion is probably wasted time.
 
Id take a bead over a ghost ring anyday. Especially for HD if i wanted a shotgun for HD. I put fiber optic rifle sights (or a scope) on my slug guns. I do have a couple with just a big fat fiber front sight too. Those would likely work.
 
A ghost ring sight gives you more options for slugs at longish range. At typical shotgun ranges they don't offer any advantage. No real disadvantage either. Given the option, at similar prices I'd choose something with iron sights, but certainly don't feel handicapped with just a bead. In fact I find acceptable accuracy with slugs out to at least 50 yards with just a bead. You just have to shoot at paper to figure out where to hold the sights.

And FWIW, I don't currently own a shotgun with anything other than a bead. I had a Mossberg 590A with ghost ring sights. I liked it well enough, but I'm just more comfortable with an 870 plus the Mossberg's stock was a bit too long for me at 5'10". I gave it to my 6'3" son.

I'm using an 870 with one of the 21" turkey barrels on it as my go-to HD shotgun.
 
My ghost ring is essentially useless to me unless applied to firing slugs at moderate range.

Ironically, I have yet to see a scenario in which I would capitalize on that in *home defense* to the point of forgiving the snaggy nature of my sights.

Add to that the issue of my having buck exclusively loaded in my primary shotgun makes the ghost ring all the more superfluous for my uses.

But, they came with the gun, look cool and might come a day I actually need to aim a slug at a bit of distance...... mebee.

Todd.
 
Are you a shotgun shooter? If so, you know that your eye is the rear sight and a proper gun mount is required for it to be placed at the right height. You need to practice mounting the gun for consistency. I don’t pre-mount when shooting Skeet and have missed a fair number of targets due to a bad mount.

If you’re not a shotgunner or just want to avoid the mounting issue, a ghost ring makes sense for HD.
 
Bead. It takes little practice to become proficient enough for HD use. I takes a little more than a little to become proficient at International Skeet, Trap, or Sporting Clays starting with the butt down. For HD use, any target will be close, not the 30+ yards clays are shot at, nor moving as fast.
My favorite drill for HD with a cyl. bore shotgun is start butt-down, with a small square shipping box about 10 ft. away. (in an area safe to do this at.) Fire all five as fast as you can at it after you shoulder the shotgun. The box will move with each shot, random directions, and end up further out.

For slug hunting deer, I used a rifled barrel with a cantilever scope mount. For HD slug use, the same bead as with other rounds. I see no advantage to ghost sights ecept for those who have used only that sight. At one time this might have been true of veterans, but most recent ones have only used red dots, or scopes. That and tacticool types who must have the most military-looking (to them) shotgun possible. I never saw ghost sights on any military shotgun when I was in; just basic bead topped 20" riot barrels on standard 870's.
 
All of those shots were at least 200 internet yards away too.
Say, on a side note.... can you tell me how many fishing-inches are in an internet-yard? Is it still 36?

I mean, should the need to do a conversion ever come up.

"So, there I was on the side of the road, popping carp in the ditch. Now, these carp were at least ***** inches long and about ***** yards away. Man but that was some shootin' "

Todd.
 
My favorite drill for HD with a cyl. bore shotgun is start butt-down, with a small square shipping box about 10 ft. away. (in an area safe to do this at.) Fire all five as fast as you can at it after you shoulder the shotgun. The box will move with each shot, random directions, and end up further out.

Clever. I'm going to crib that.

Todd.
 
I prefer bead at HD distances.

(Quoting myself for me info)

After reading more replies, I feel I could do better and put me more context to my reply.

I'm not a shot-gunner. Compared to most here, I'd say I'm a novice at best.

I was raised on rifles and got into pistols later and then even later than that, shotguns.


My take and experience. When I actually measured HD distances, 40 ft was about max realistic distance. There were just a few places inside that were in the 50-60 ft range.

But I wouldn't be taking the 50-60ft shots in a defensive scenario as me and the bad guy wouldn't be in those few line of site places.


At 40ish ft and under, I can point and shoot with a bead pretty well. I may be a little high or a little low but my shots are close to centered left to right.

When shooting center mass, a little high or low is still stopping the bad guy.

If I'd practice more I'd get smoother with the pump and everything would be better with quicker follow ups.

My smoothness could use work and that I feel is my weak point, not the bead at real HD distances.
 
Say, on a side note.... can you tell me how many fishing-inches are in an internet-yard? Is it still 36?

I mean, should the need to do a conversion ever come up.

"So, there I was on the side of the road, popping carp in the ditch. Now, these carp were at least ***** inches long and about ***** yards away. Man but that was some shootin' "

Todd.
You are correct, sir. There are 36 fishing inches in an internet yard.
 
I’ve shot all three common open-sighting set ups on shotguns; bead(s), ghost ring and open rifle sights.

Bead is by far the quicker, but as the guys stated it’s harder to be accurate at distance with a shot (especially slugs).

For me, rifle sights are second fastest to acquire in a less-than-ten-yard buckshot scenario, and more accurate at distance with slugs than a bead is. The Benelli shotguns we had at my former agency used rifle sights and I got pretty proficient with that sighting set up.

Ghost ring, for me anyway, is the slowest to acquire but the most accurate ... especially at distance. Over the past 15 years this is the sighting system I’ve qualified with the most using 20” shotguns firing slugs and 00 buck.

Like with everything shooting; be sure to practice with the choice you make to become proficient and confident with your shotgun.

Stay safe.
 
This is discussed in Fighting Shotguns section of this forum, if you want more input. There is a lot of consensus that less is more, especially from those who have used a shotgun for defense.

my 12 gauge spreads 3/4”/yd with cheap 00 buckshot. 40.ft is almost 13 yds. At 40 feet, I would have a cloud of shot almost 10” in diameter. It’s or
Not like you’re trying to light a match. Go shoot trap or skeet until you can mount consistently.
 
I mainly shoot at moving targets with my shotguns. So proper swing and following the moving target are better done with a bead.
Ghost rings and rifle sights are for aiming and rifle like work where the target is not moving rapidly. For home defense a bead is going to be faster into action and more familiar to folks who wing shoot. With shotguns it's really about aligning the barrel with your eyes and your body and shooting where you look, not about aligning a front and rear sight like you do with a rifle or a pistol.

If you want to improve the visibility of the bead there are magnetic fiber optic shotgun beads available that sit over the current bead and rib.
 
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I just got out of a slump shooting Trap with my Beretta Silver Pigeon. I found out that I was seeing the front white bead and was aiming and stopping my swing. I took it off and then shot two 23's. I missed the easy straight a ways 4 times.
 
You are correct, sir. There are 36 fishing inches in an internet yard.
The only issue with fishing inches is arm length....long-armed persons alway catch the largest internet fish. That could relate back to comb and barrel length, thus affecting MOA adjustments required when utilizing front bead alignment to the ass of whatever manner of creature disturbed your rest.
 
I mainly shoot at moving targets with my shotguns. So proper swing and following the moving target are better done with a bead.
Ghost rings and rifle sights are for aiming and rifle like work where the target is not moving rapidly. For home defense a bead is going to be faster into action and more familiar to folks who wing shoot. With shotguns it's really about aligning the barrel with your eyes and your body and shooting where you look, not about aligning a front and rear sight like you do with a rifle or a pistol.

If you want to improve the visibility of the bead there are magnetic fiber optic shotgun beads available that sit over the current bead and rib.
Except to be successful in wingshooting or clay targets, you're better off without a bead than one that is too visible as that draws your eyes away from the target/bird
 
Just practice with it. You'll get the hang of it and once you do it'll be a whole different kind of fun.

I had my shotgun with me this afternoon while I was chronographing a rifle load. Just for fun I put a slug in it and took a shot at a B-27 I had set up at 100 yards. The impact was a little high and left of center mass but in the black. I haven't tried that in a couple years.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a bead sight.
 
For shooting it like a rifle at stationary targets, a bead is fine; for moving targets, a gun that fits and points where you are looking is better still
 
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