Attaching iron sights to a rifle

[daniel craig]

I own a 30-06 rifle (savage axis) that is set up for scope only use and I use it for hunting and rarely for shots over 300m. I have grown to dislike scopes. Would it be a taboo to get after market iron sights attached to it by a competent gunsmith (i.e not myself)? Should I just see if I can sell it and get a rifle with iron sights? I am on a budget so buying a completly different rifle without first selling this one is not an option for me.

Thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.

 

[gazpacho]

For humane hunting reasons, I wouldn't use iron sights beyond 100 yards. Sure you could hit your target, but the added accuracy of optics helps insure a quick clean kill.

That said, all of my rifles, hunting or otherwise have iron sights. I actually prefer iron sights over optics, and do most of my range shooting with just my Mark 1.5 eyeball. (My eyeball is surgically enhanced. I have implanted contact lenses.)

As to the thought of adding irons to a rifle, I advise against having a dovetail cut for a front sight, but if there is enough steel to drill and tap for a screw mounted front sight, then that is what I would recommend. I have had 2 firearms that were buggered up by "recommended" gunsmiths, who thought they could cut a clean dovetail. They were so bad that every time I looked at them, I would get angry, so I sold them. A screwed on front sight could atleast cover up unclean work.

 

[henschman]

Go for it -- it is your tool, make it fit what you want to do with it. An Axis isn't a collector gun anyway, so you would be doing nothing but improving its value by putting irons on. Brownell's sells all sorts of different front sights. Like gazpacho said, get a screw-on. For the rear I would go with a receiver mount aperture sight like the Williams FP.

 

[jmr40]

Add em if you want to, but it would cost more than the rifle is worth. You're looking at $100-$150 just for the sights plus another $50-$75 to have them installed. On the used market your rifle won't bring much over $150.

On the other hand any decent scope would cost just as much or more as having iron sights installed. But I'd still rather have the scope. Adding iron sights won't improve the resale value of the rifle any at all and you have to leave them on the rifle if you sell it. A quality scope will add value to the gun and could always be taken off and sold or moved to another gun.

I wouldn't use iron sights beyond 100 yards.

Using irons in good light does not increase a rifles range much at all. In good light were I can clearly see both the target and sights I can shoot almost as accuraely with either. A scope helps you see the target clearly and is actually more helpful in thick brush at close range in dark conditions right at sunup and sundown than it is at long range where you can clearly see the target.

My advice. Get a good scope and learn how to use it. They do everything better at close or long range and as long as you buy a good one have proven to be more rugged and dependable than iron sights. I strongly suspect the reason you've grown to dislike scopes is because you've never used a good one.

 

[rcmodel]

Your rifle has a high comb, straight line stock designed for a higher scope sight line.

Very likely it would be unusable with iron sights mounted low on the barrel because you couldn't get your head down far enough to use the iron sights.

rc

 

[Mike1234567]

Sorry To Wake Up This Sleeping Thread But...

... I figured better to add to an existing thread than start a new one.

I have two Savage Axis rifles and want to add iron sights because I like redundancies.

My scopes are mounted on Picatinny rails and I can swap the mounts to raised see-through type. I'm thinking of having the front of the barrel tapped to mount a very short Picatinny rail and mount flip-up sites to the rails.

Another option, in lieu of raised see-through mounts, is to use offset iron sites... the ones angled about 45 degrees to one side.

I wouldn't use iron sights beyond 100 yards, BTW.

I'm aware this will cost approximately $100-150... that's okay. Opinions and advice, please.

 

[hipoint]

I kept meaning to do this to my rifle/rifles that are smooth barrel, but every time I called a gunsmith, their turn around time was quoted as pretty lengthy... I finally gave up (after purchasing sights). I don't know what kind of sights these fellas are buying, but all the ones I found were very reasonable in price.

With the upcoming hunting season, most gunsmiths are going to be booked solid. While it is a bit of a challenge, I did eventually find an older savage 111 with irons on it. I, like some other folks on here, much prefer iron sights to scopes if and when the terrain fits. Now, I have 2 .30-06 rifles and use the one that fits my terrain the best. If (in the rare instances) I am on open terrain, I carry my a-bolt scope only gun. The rest of the time, I'll be carrying the savage.

The biggest issue I had, was actually FINDING a modern hunting rifle with open sights, they're a bit of a unicorn in my area. I could have "gotten by" with the .30-30, but I just prefer the .30-06 cartridge so now I have no need to keep wondering if I should put some sights on my browning...

The one issue you may encounter is if you wanted open sights AND a scope, then you'll need high rise mounts (as was mentioned). There is a bit of an accuracy loss with those, but my main reason for wanting a rifle with open sights is a couple years ago I fell on ice on my porch while leaving for hunting and knocked my scope off of zero, it caused me to gut shoot a deer and lose it. So there is a good argument in of itself for having a rifle with both scope and open sights... Good to always have a backup plan.

It's really your call, but personally for me, if I was going to an area where it is likely I'll be making a longer range shot (long range for me is 2-300 yards), I'd want the scope only rifle. If I were hunting in an area where it is not probable to make a long range shot, I'd opt for a high rise scope with see through mounts and iron sights. If I were hunting in an area where it would be highly unlikely to make a longer range shot, I would personally prefer the no-scope option...

Those scopes do add some weight too, at least the cheap scopes I can afford do.

It's all personal preference, but if you're confident in your open sight shooting and don't like scopes, then go for it, although you may be better off just finding a rifle with irons already on it. The other consideration is finding sights that will match the contour of your barrel, if the front sight is too high or too low, no amount of adjustment of that rear sight will compensate for it.

 

[Sun Tzu warrior]

Sell it and get another rifle designed to be used with iron sights.
The tall, see thru, scope mounts will cause the same problem.

Like a shotgun, it should point automatically where you are looking when shouldered, if not your quarry may be gone before you can make the nessessary adjustments for proper cheek weld.

 

[hipoint]

+1

Good point, somehow I had missed RC saying exactly the same thing above... Take your scope off and pretend you have irons on it, if it doesn't automatically line up, then it'll be harder to use than a scope!

I have seen some mossberg atr's with irons on them, the ATR I had was a scope only gun, but it was a dandy! Cheap too! If you're a gun addict, we're the worst enablers you'll ever encounter haha, everyone needs "just a couple more"

 

[tubeshooter]

I wanted to add some thoughts, as I went through a similar thought process recently.

I asked my LGS (which offers gunsmithing services) about adding some iron sights to an Axis. The impression that I got was that it would be possible... but costly and I might not be 100% pleased with the result. I also gathered that they were not enthused about tackling the project.

It is kind of surprising how few centerfire rifles are offered with irons nowadays. You really have to kind of hunt for them (pardon the pun), but there are a couple out there.

One thought I personally had was to maybe buy one of those magnetic, removable fiber optic front sights designed for shotguns and mate it with something like a Skinner Lo-Pro sight screwed into the rear-most scope mount/base hole. Not sure how well it would have worked with the magnetic front. I have a Lo-Pro installed in the way described on a couple of guns that actually have a front sight or a shotgun bead, and the results are satisfactory - to me, anyway. Relatively inexpensive and easily undone if desired.



I ended up selling the Axis and I plan to buy a Savage Hog Hunter, which actually DOES have iron sights in addition to a few other doo-dads that are a plus. They run a little more, and they're not offered in .30-06, but if you can part with the Axis and live with .308 you might want to give that a look. The price difference is not that extreme; with decent trade-in money you would be out about the same cash as you would for the sight installation or maybe a little more. Just throwing that out there, since it is the route I am going. Good luck.

 

[Robert]

The op has not been back in a while and this is over a year old.