help, sight compare.......

[bkjeffrey]

Heres what I have. A Remy 870 Sportsman with a vent rib barrel. I mainly will be using this gun for plinking, shooting old tv's and such. Lots of slug and buck at close ranges. Ive added a sure fire forend for HD purposes, but this is not my primary HD weapon.

Heres what Im having a hard time deciding between.
A really nice set of ghost ring sights from truglo.
http://www.truglosights.com/content/products/firearm/turkey/tru_point_xtreme.asp
I like this set because of the adjustability and the ghost ring rear aperature. I dont like how the sights seem to protrude from the sides of the vent rib though.


And I like this set because they dont protrude from the sides of the vent rib, BUT lack the ghost ring rear aperature.
http://www.truglosights.com/content/products/firearm/turkey/pro_series_magnum.asp


And lastly, theres part of my that says "keep it simple stupid" and go with just a nice front bead like this one.

http://www.brownells.com/Images/Products/579000077.jpg

Also, the 870 has an 18.5 inch barrel. Ive heard that you have to use a taller front sight on a shorter barrel or something like that.....

All 3 sights are in the $30 range and I like that

Opinions?????

 

[rcmodel]

I mainly will be using this gun for plinking, shooting old tv's and such. Lots of slug and buck at close ranges.

Then spend your sight money on more practice ammo.

Shotguns got by quite nicely for several hundred years without rear sights.

rc

 

[bkjeffrey]

Then spend your sight money on more practice ammo.

Shotguns got by quite nicely for several hundred years without sights.

I agree, but this shotgun is nearing the end of an overhaul and has no sights at all right now. I gotta put something on there ya know. The reason i picked these three sights was price...theyre cheap and all about the same price. Ive got plenty of ammo and can get plenty more.

 

[Fred Fuller]

An aperture sight mounted on the vent rib of a shotgun is not going to function as a ghost ring. In fact it isn't likely to do all that well as an aperture sight either, for that matter.

A ghost ring is a large aperure (about .25") mounted on the receiver close to the eye. Since one looks through the sight rather than at it, the rear sight resolves itself into a fuzzy blur through which the eye naturally and quickly focuses on the front sight and naturally centers it in the aperture. http://www.recguns.com/Sources/IIIE4d.html

You might like the TruGlo rear sight, you might not, I don't know. But it won't work as a ghost ring, that much I can assure you. How well it does as an aperture sight- well, your eyes are most likely younger than mine.

Good ghost ring sights are not inexpensive (see my favorite at http://store.ptnightsights.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=30&pg=1 ). And that price doesn't include the professional installation necessary. For a serious full time defensive shotgun that doubles nicely as a big-game getter, a good pumpgun with ghost ring sights is hard to beat.

But for a multipurpose shotgun, one that will serve roles in wingshooting, clay games, small game hunting, as well as home defense and big game hunting, IMHO it's best to keep all the sighting apparatus on the barrels. That way, when barrels get changed, the appropriate sighting equipment comes along for the ride. A ghost ring rear sight needs to live on the receiver permanently once the sights are installed, IMO, and it gets in the way of other uses too much if that's the case.

hth,

lpl

 

[bkjeffrey]

I think your right Lee. Im leaning more towards the Tritium front bead. Any thought on this VS a regular bead or a high vis, other than price???

 

[Fred Fuller]

I have used nookulur front beads on a couple of the defensive shotguns here- got a used 21" 870 Express Turkey barrel not long ago that had a busted Bradley bead up front, so I replaced that with tritium. The only time I really notice a bead (or any other sight system) very much is shooting slugs, otherwise it's all target focus.

On your barrel, to replace the front bead (which is most likely pressed in) you'll have to get it drilled and tapped. Pick out your new front sight and get it in hand first, so you will know what size hole and thread count you'll need. Or just learn to live with the standard bead- it shouldn't make much difference either way. A lot of really good shotgunners don't even use beads at all, it isn't necessary if you're doing it right.

About the only time any kind of sights are useful IMHO is for slugs at longer range, and maybe for turkey hunters, and even then for folks who are well practiced and have reliable ammo, sights are often a take-it-or-leave-it sort of thing.

If I ever had to make a squeaky tight shot with a slug, sights would make me feel more confident in doing it- but so far the only time I've ever been called on to do that was the graduation exercise in Louis Awerbuck's shotgun class. I don't expect such a thing in real life, I certainly hope nothing like that ever confronts me in real life, and if it did, I'd have to get it done with just a bead sight, because that's what's on the barrel of the gun I lug around most often these days.

hth,

lpl

 

[bkjeffrey]

About the only time any kind of sights are useful IMHO is for slugs at longer range

I know this may sound funny, but when I go to the range to shoot for fun I like to see haw far I can hit targets with a slug, just my thing I guess. This barrel has no hole for a sight anymore since I bubafied it down to 18.5. Ill have to tap a new hole for a bead unless I go with the clamp on sights like the one listed in my original post.