mustanger98 said:
hps1's comment regarding the 5.75" aiming black at 100yds... the clay birds are, IIRC, 4.25"... a little smaller target that's actually less the half the size of a deer's kill zone. After you bust a few clays, see if you can hit the fragments. That'll tell you pretty quick without having to overthink it... more fun, too.
I was just pointing out that the size of the aiming black in relationship to your sights (in this case a front aperture) is all important on how close you can hold on that target. The NRA approved 600 yard aiming black is 36" yet their 600 yd reduced (for 100 yds) target is only 5.75"......close enough that still works well with same diameter front aperture. A larger or smaller aiming point would be much more difficult to hold tight groups w/same sights.
While not
as important with a front post, I like a square post for target shooting and a dot with a diameter that appears equal to the width of the front sight. When my eyes were a bit better, a 6 o'clock hold
with just a thin bit of white showing between the post and the bull worked best. A good example is the front sight blade is .062" wide on a national match M1 Garand and works very well with the NRA approved targets from 100 to 600 yards. Service grade front sights are a bit too wide for these targets.
Most hunting rifle front sights use a bead, which I do not find quite as easy to get precise 6 oclock hold but work well for center hold so long as the aiming circle appears to be a bit larger than the bead. Mustanger's suggestion to sight in @ 25 is good; you might want to experiment w/size of aiming dot to find best combination with your front sight.
Group size will vary greatly depending upon lots of variables, including shooter's eyesight, rifle, ammo, etc. etc. For instance, I'm 84 years old. I once had no trouble shooting little tiny groups with iron sights, until I couldn't. Switched to scopes and once more, I could, until I couldn't.
Then I switched from round to square targets and I could, until, most recently I couldn't. Then I started using the cross hairs of the scope to bracket lower corners of the square (instead of centering the square) and, once more I could.
100 yds from sandbags, center hold in 2006^^^....^^^100 yds./sandbags hold lower rt. corner 1" square
The moral of this story is, size and shape of aiming point has a large bearing on group size......you can't hit something you cannot see (clearly). Experiment with your targets, especially during load development to be sure you are testing accuracy of the load, not your eyesight.
Regards,
hps