As I age out, I most regret not being able to shoot open sights any more ......

I am not alone, there is an industry springing up that is fitting small reflex sights to pistols and rifles.

I find that a red dot scope (or a small reflex likely would do the same job) mounted as far out on the barrel as possible offers a concise small red dot that misses out on the blurring and parallax issues that you can get if you mount the red dot scope in closer on your receiver.    You actually get the advantage of the "long eye sight radius" as far as accuracy goes.

... And way out on the barrel puts the little red dot in your normal longer distance vision range (works with your bifocal glasses much better).

I took a Steyr to the last scoot and shoot with a red dot mounted this way.   That first effort can be refined a bit, and I am working on modding an old Yugo mauser to use this system in a more normal upright shooting orientation.

There is shooting hope for those who can't see very well any more ......

How much are these little things ?

Tips on how to shoot a red dot at LONG ranges.

Don't cant the gun (same thing as for scopes, you move the scope away from the vertical center line of the barrel axis when you let it lay over any at all.

Keep the dot power turned down,  literally until you can see through the dot itself to see the very distant target details.    

The dot may be vague and fuzzy because your eyes are crappy,  and it is sometimes larger than the bullseye but if put the bullseye in the center of the red zone and squeeze off the shot the gun will deliver the bullet on target.

A scope is nice, but it is slow to pick up on deer and such in poor light conditions.   For hunting, a laser is a no-show.   At any real distance the projected laser beam dot is hard to locate on items out in the woods.  A red dot sight is MUCH quicker to aquire and it does not project a beamed laser dot that alerts both armadillo and deer, who are quite able to see the movement of a real laser dot anywhere near them and then they bolt and run away.

EXAMPLE:   Take a laser pointer and put a projected dot anywhere near a cat and see if they don't immediately react to the dot (stalk it & pounce on it).     I made a cat try to climb a plaster wall once with a laser pointer, and the cat was disappointed when the game ended when my wife got all upset because I was teasing her cat with something it could never catch.

Stew': For short range a laser would be ideal.    

stewmills wrote on 09/26/16 at 11:24:54:

Short range ,night shooting BOTH eyes open. and you should be in great shape .. (After you get the laser bore sighted...)

Ok, the various bits and pieces for this Mauser red dot system came in and are put together now.    

Result turned out better than expected, the barrel clamp Weaver rail is actually lower than the Mauser sights, so when taking the dot scope off (a quarter inserted in two slots) the gun is "natural Mauser" again from the operator's perspective.   Nothing is affected mechanical sight wise, the elevation ladder still works, etc. etc.

(Note: the Weaver taper system naturally re-seeks the same scope zero upon reassembly)

Since it is actually on the rifle barrel in the middle of the barrel (the vertical axis centering is there naturally) you can slap the gun to your shoulder and the dot is simply right there in the center of the ghost ring effect that the red dot tube provides.   If you are canting the gun any at all then the dot drifts to one side or another in the ghost ring, so you auto-correct for gun cant naturally and instantly.

Put the dot on the target and squeeze the trigger -- 260 grain slug goes home and the target goes down.   Centering of dot inside the ghost ring effect is completely automatic and totally natural to the shooter.

This overcomes many of the issues seen with the little Steyr short rifles with the off center mounting of both scopes and red dots.

Now, bad eyes ...... really don't play for much.   You see a somewhat fuzzy target, just as good as your glasses prescription can provide.   Ghost ring effect works just the same, fuzzy or not.   Keep the dot turned down low and you can find a smaller target inside the weak projected red zone at those longer distances and still pop it with a bullet.   My dot scales from 1 to 10 and I generally run it at 2 to get a weak dusk dot, and 3-5 for normal daylight plinking.

In short, this system is pretty much ideal for poor old eyes and quick hunting type action.   High magnification scopes are good too, but can require too much time in some sorts of hunting situations even if you turn the scope magnification way down.

A cast bullet gun is always used inside 150 yards, generally speaking.   Max range is set by the sub-2000 fps launch speed of the best, most accurate cast lead slugs, which means you get a rainbow trajectory at longer distances coupled with reduced arrival energy when they strike home.   Bullet drop at 150 yards is 16-18" which on a red dot gun says "put the dot up over the top with the bottom of the dot touching where you want the bullet to strike".   Easy enough, I guess.

Being limited on top end speed, historically cast bullet guns shot heavy for caliber cast bullets.  My Mauser shoots a custom designed slug that weights a whopping 250 grains and is noted for being the 8MM Maximum bullet .... hee hee, that's its name too, the Oldfeller 8MM Maximum.  

I current shoot the Frankenstein version of that same bullet, at 260 grains and this one is cast to be a throat fit, not bore fitted. as the .330" diameter of the slug suites the size of the throat, which on Mausers is oversized on the old JS chamber design, leaving room around jacketed bullets for a thick coating of viscous WWI trench mud.  

So my Frankie custom cast does not require the bullet nor the fired cases to be resized, just deprime, reprime, add powder and lightly crimp a new Frankie bullet in place.   Full case and neck chambering fit and location are maintained as shot previously.    

Accurate, yes, but it goes POW with authority when you shoot it.  

Shot start pressure is increased as the bullet is getting COMPLETELY re-sized inside the first two inches of travel and rifling marks fully engages the entire length of the projectile right up to the big flat nose.   This means cheap milsurp W860 and IMR 5010 powders can be used to good effect and they will burn cleanly enough as the pressure gets on up there enough to get the powder going good before the resizing action is completed and the now bore fitted slug squirts on down the barrel.

Most plinking or squirrel / rabbit hunting is done at 50 yards or less and no drop needs to be considered.   So, as you can see this red dot sight system is good within the limitations of what the gun will be used for and it is very quick and easy to use.

Example, squirrels running and hiding on the other side of tree branches -- no problem, the big slug can go right on through a 10" diameter hardwood branch and the high velocity hard wood splinters constitutes additional "bullet mass" as far as concerns the squirrel on the receiving end.

Deer get hit hard and do not go far at all.   This same bullet has been used on large Elk and American Bison, so a deer presents a relatively easy kill for a Frankie slug.

 

OK, it took about 15 minutes to bore sight both of the guns after I got me a little vise set up on the kitchen bar so the guns could look out the back door out 85 yards or so to the back woods to pick me out an aiming point.

Very easy do, and it works remarkably well -- I will be on paper certainly when I get them out to the range.

Art, these sights are only good for about 150 200 yards on a deer or pig sized target because there is no magnification involved.

North Carolina has woods everywhere the deer are, so you can't see more than 100 yards anyway.

Folks will be shooting the guns since I will be bringing them to future scoot and shoot events, so you can get some other opinions from the other people before jumping in yourself.