Best CQB shotgun sights?

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cpileri

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Besides the weapon light, folding stock, shorter barrel, and other oh-so tactical accessories for a HD or CQB shotgun, what sights are preferred or typically used?

Specifically, if it makes a difference, for a 12ga 870 express, i was thinking about something like a ghost sight or maybe a ghost sight but with a tight v-notch so that one can rapidly acquire a picture with the open ring but still have the option of more precise aim if time allows.

basically looking for a versatile sight that combines wide WIDE field of view/ fast sight picture acquisition without compromising the ability to take more precise aim.

Thanks for the help!
C-
 
Bead.

I was taught to shoot without beads or sights. Focus on Target. This is why gun fit to shooter is important.

I'm one that has used a shotgun quite a bit be it competition or hunting. In 12 ga alone I used to run 25K rds a year. I have lost the front bead and/or the mid bead and continued to fell clays and game.

Now I have for folks with aging eyes painted the bead neon green. One fellow did go Hi-Vis neon green...he only uses this sight if slug hunting for deer, but he is almost 80 and the eyes are not young. He will still beat you on the skeet field like a drum. "its when they are sitting still I have a problem" he says. :)

His HD is a bone stock Ithaca , old police issue he has had forever...full wood stock and all...he likes to bust quail with it. :D
 
I like a Peep Sight(That's a GR sight without a press agent) for slugs and fast acquisition. Most of the time the aperture's unscrewed out and I sight through the hole. Works out to 100 yards. I can put the aperture back in if I'm testing slugs. While not as glamorous as the fancy GRs, it works just as well.

However, a bead will work for me just as it will for any experienced shotgunner.

S'funny, maybe half of the really good "Serious" shotgunners I've known over the decades use just a bead. Some paint the bead up with yellow or white enamel, a few use a Green Worm sight, but it's basically just a bead.

Few seem to use the open rifle style sights as found on slug barrels. Not enough sight radius, IMO.
 
When I first bought a shotgun I was all about rushing out and buying a ghost ring sight, or tritium sights. I decided to wait though, and try the bead. It was simple to line up on the target, and easy to see. I painted it with a reflective orange paint, and while I cant see it in total darkness, I can see it when I use the surefire light to light up a target. It cost me under a dollar for the paint, and I have a extremely useful and durable sight that meets my needs. Dont get me wrong, I still like the ghost rings and tritiium sights, but i think ill save those for my rifles and handguns.
 
The solution that has worked for me is the XS rifle sight system.

I began with the factory rifle sights on my 870, but found them incredibly slow in compeition. I found that I could usually score hits by just using good form and lookng at the target (my gun fits me pretty well). But the narrow, blocky factory sights would obstruct the target from my view. When I swapped the barrel out for bead-sighted version, I was substantially faster. But, I wanted to retain the ability to place slugs accurately inside of 100 yards.

The XS sight is a pretty good compromise. It is essentially a large bead front sight that sits in a very shallow "V" rear sight. When I wanna shoot fast, they are not in the way, and the bead provides a good reference point. They have proven acceptable for longer range work as well. When I take my time and properly center the bead in the "V", I can do about 2.5" at 50 yards with the preferred slug. I haven't had time to get out to 100 yet.

They are, of course, a compromise - but they work pretty well for my purposes.
 
I have the standard LPA ghost ring sight on my Benelli Nova. As all my rifles have had aperature sights, I'm comfortable with the sight picture. A bead is a tiny bit faster, but at close range with buckshot, I'm actually looking "over" the rear sight half the time, just front-sight-boom. For slug use, the GRs come in handy, 100 yard hits are easy and fast.
 
I use the same AO sights (on a factory rifle-sighted barrel) as Bix mentioned. I have a set with tritium that are very fast and easy to align. Not as accurate as a peep but they work very well for me.
Mike
 
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I like the stock rifle sights found on Remingtons "Deer" 870 guns.

I've tried the WIlliams Fire Sight (Fiber Optic) and didn't notice much of an improvement. Take them or leave them.

For me, I think, the rifle sights work better because it allows me to hold my head a little higher and be right on sight. My neck is longer than most young giraffes and this helps.

Smoke
 
This is an interesting and eye-opening (no pun intended) discussion. In my rush to get the newest, coolest thing for my shotguns (i.e., ghost ring sights), I seem to have lost sight (again, no pun) of their intended use. Put simply: What do I want to use them for?

I went through a 2-day tactical shotgun course using a hi-viz light pipe on my Winchester 1300 Defender, and that worked great...except when the aftermarket heat shield slipped forward and knocked the sight off repeatedly--so off came that bling-bling (the heat shield, I mean). But then, that wasn't exactly CQB stuff. So I'm thinking: the 500 is 20-something inches, the 1300 is 18. There's no sense in tricking them both out the same way for the same purpose, right?

That is going to be a big help to me, and a relief to my wallet, to keep my 1300 an almost box-stock dedicated CQB weapon, and use the 500 as the "do everything outside" test bed/project gun--with a factory Mossberg ghost ring sight.

Thanks! :D
 
Andrew -

The rear sight slowed me down in a couple of ways. The stock "deer sight" has a relatively narrow notch and small blade/bead. They are precise sights, but getting everything aligned (target, front sight, rear sight) takes time - especially if your mount is slightly off or if you are breathing heavy, shooting from your weak shoulder, shooting in low light, etc.

Under "practical competition" conditions, I found them hard to use. When you are working with just a bead, you have one less item to arrange in your sight picture (this is true, to a lesser extent, with the XS sights). The trade-off is, of course, precision.

Also, the rear sight itself is quite big, and, for me this obstructed the target. When combined with the comparatively tiny notch, I felt like I was trying to find poppers (and my front sight!) by looking through a tiny crack in a big wall.

In fairness, I didn't give the stock sights much of a chance. I scrapped them for the XS after a few comps. I'm confident that there are a lot of guys out there who are much, much faster than me with stock sight arrangement.
 
Out the distance that my coach gun patterns well at (about 15-20m), I have no problems hitting things using a bead sight. (or perhaps I should say that if I miss, it isn't due to the sight) Don't see the need for anything else.
 
in 20+ years carrying a SG for work i think i've shot more than 3/4 of the time just looking down the barrel...i only use the bead when shooting slugs. before i bought a personal 870, i'd often been issued a departmental 870 with a missing bead :eek:

i've since found that i'm leaning toward the peep sight too. with the large aperture it is almost as fast as the bead and has far greater accuracy potential.

BTW you wouldn't need a "notch" for "more precise" shooting...the ghost ring/peep sight is actually more accurate than rifle sights when properly employed...you have to let your subconcious take over
 
Clay pigeons don't shoot back, even in CA (born, raised, 22 years there, I know) and if you miss, so what?

Our sights are for more serious purposes.
 
Hitting a man sized target at 30 yards with buckshot can be done by just looking over the barrel, but I prefer sights. They're a bit more precise!
 
You guys need sights on your shotguns? I'm able to hit a 4" clay target flying 40 yards away without any. You may need to practice more
Click to expand...

A bead is a sight and my eyes along with a solid, consistent cheek-to-stock weld make up the rear sight.

With that being said, yes, I DO need sights on my shotguns. I need them for my handguns and I need them for my rifles as well. :D

Besides the weapon light, folding stock, shorter barrel, and other oh-so tactical accessories for a HD or CQB shotgun, what sights are preferred or typically used?
Click to expand...

For slug-work I prefer peep sights as they provide nearly the same sight picture as an ar15, m1a, m1, m1 carbine, yada yada yada. However, in all honesty I'm comfortable with beads, peeps and rifle sights. A good consistent cheek-to-stock weld in my opinion makes those three sighting systems FAST.

Jim
 
I can hit a man sized target with my mossberg from prone at 150 yards with my slug load at will, and i can hit clays in the air with it more often than i miss. Our 870 (bead sighted 18.5 inch barrel) can barely keep the slugs on target at 25 yards, as they shoot to a significantly different point of impact. the fact that the stock is very much too long for me does not help.

Training does not fix sloppy gun fit or improper sights.
 
IMHO no sighting system available will help much with a folding stock on the gun. As consistency with the spotweld suffers so will the utility of the sights.

For a dedicated HD gun I prefer ghost rings, specifically the MMC non-tritium rear with tritium front. But various 870s and other working shotguns (a Benelli M1S90, a couple of Winchesters, several Mossbergs, a Browning A5) in the safe bear XO Express sights, IWI tritium replacements in factory bases, Williams apertures with blade fronts and Scattergun trac-locks as well as several with 'just' beads. None of them appreciably slow the use of the gun, after all it IS a shotgun and was built to be quickly 'pointable'- that suffices at close range. That said, a bead (tritium or not) is sufficient for indoor use given a shooter with enough trigger time to use it effectively (and a shooter _without_ sufficient trigger time WILL NOT be helped by sights IMO).

My working guns have sights because they sometimes have to go outside, and once outside, the ranges are appreciably longer and slugs are necessary if the gun is to remain effective. For a gun that stays indoors, a bead is plenty. Ammunition and practice is a far better use of $$$ than tacticool bolt-ons.

lpl/nc
 
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