Peep sites

One thing people often don’t realize that longer sight radius is usually a benefit of installing a peep sight.

Installing a Williams peep sight on my 30-30 Win 94 increased the sight radius by 9” and made it much faster on target acquisition; with 1” groups at 100yds from the bench.
 
Indeed.


Westley Richards, 1912:

View attachment 666048

From 1939 (U.S.) Stoeger Catalog:

View attachment 666036

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Options list for Mannlicher Schoenauer:

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Mannlicher Schoenauer(s) with 'Special Folding Peep Sight' option.
Note similarity to Westley Richards 1912 and Mauser application per 1939 Stoeger:
View attachment 666037

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For Mauser (1939 Stoeger):

View attachment 666049
Interesting. I have never seen the peep attached to bolt shroud. Just checked my Springfield and Mauser. The shrouds have some slop even in cocked position. I wouldn't think peeps attached to them would be terribly accurate.

The tang peep appears to have the same eye relief as a scope. It is one thing to get punched in the eye with the rim of scope but I think it could be quite devastating to get hit with one of those peep sights.
 
Big differance between a peep and a ghost ring.....nothing beats a ghost ring for close range open site work....fastest and most accurate open site availible....
 
Big differance between a peep and a ghost ring.....nothing beats a ghost ring for close range open site work....fastest and most accurate open site availible....
1739830014582.png

Agreed but the same concept. Above is an afermarket sight for AR-15's with the M-16 style "flip over" aperature (peep) and ghost ring.

I found this photo of an M-16A2 aperture flip over to ghost ring sight.
1739830468109.png
 
I love the cocking piece ghost ring Rigby offers. I wish I had had one
Installed when I ordered my highland stalker.
 
For years now I haven't been able to use any form of peep sight well. I knew it was mainly because of problems with my right retina, but no problems at all in my left eye. I can look through optics with no issues, but the sights on my Walther LG400 that I shoot 10 meter Olympic air rifle with every Thursday give me fits.

During my annual eye exam last year I had a photo taken of my right retina and the damage was obvious even to a layman like myself. The careless things I did in my younger years now haunt me on a daily basis, and optics are the only real choice I have on a rifle.

Just a reminder to take care of yourself, shoot and hunt while you can, because your health doesn't last forever.
 
This is an honest to goodness vintage Rigby cocking piece peep sight (it even says “sight”).
16E70B44-93CD-4356-956F-7A2642247840.jpeg


You can see here that is has detents for 100, 200 and 300 yards. It’s set at 200 here and can go all the way down and out of the way. It’s slightly less optimistic than the 600 yards you sometimes see on British express sights
C040060C-687A-48B1-BA4A-11F796658098.jpeg


This is a Westley Richards like the one from the advertisement earlier in the thread.
29EB3986-3915-4E80-B07B-06A84D02F142.jpeg


Half my 318s and 425s have peep sights. They seem to be pretty common, particularly in the higher grade bolt guns.

So there you have it, a little gun porn for the peep show…..
 
Big differance between a peep and a ghost ring.....nothing beats a ghost ring for close range open site work....fastest and most accurate open site availible....
A ghost ring and a peep sight work on two different (and one the same) visual principles.

The one similarity is that when one looks through a hole, small or a bit larger, it is a natural occurrence to thoughtlessly center the target in the hole. Target centered in the hole and front bead centered in the hole make for accurate shooting, right?
Now, a ghost ring makes use of this phenomenon and works well as a sighting device.
A peep sight does the same thing but also takes advantage of something known as the pinhole effect.
The pinhole effect is when light passes through a small opening, it bends, or diffracts. This blocks unfocused light rays, leaving only focused light to land on the retina. The result is a clearer image.
In effect, looking through a peep sight makes the image more crisp than one can achieve looking over a flat sight or a bigger ghost ring because the light bends all around the peep hole focusing the entire fields of view rather than just over the sight plane of an open sight. An open sight does this too but just over a very small layer of light rather than circumpherally inward.
Native Americans would look through a squeezed hand to clarify the view and enable themselves to see much farther and more clearly - try it yourself - with a little practice it works very well!
Also, as I learned being bored in class, if you take a pen or pencil and while you look at something across the room, slowly slide it up the bridge of your nose, you will see a thin horizon across the top of the pencil of perfectly clear and focused image.
It’s the same principle as the peep sight, the clenched hand or the pencil.
 
If you must use iron sights, peeps are the best way to.go.
A "ghost ring" peep sight might be the perfect short range, non-optic sight.

A normal peep sight is surprisingly accurate. A friend (Vietnam War vet) taught me how to use them a few year ago, and I amazed at the accuracy. I was able to shoot about 3 MOA at 200yards with them after a little practice.
 
I love the cocking piece ghost ring Rigby offers. I wish I had had one
Installed when I ordered my highland stalker.
FYI those cocking piece sights are made by a man in Montana, then shipped to Rigby in the white.

At the last DSC show in Dallas I noticed the cocking piece sight is a $2,400 option on the Professional hunter .416Rigby; you can purchase the sight for $475, I’m having one installed on my .404J build.
 
I have a Lyman #1 on the bolt of my M1910 Mannlicher Schönauer. I think that can be classed as an African rifle. Hemmingway certainly believed so.

As far as Mark's comment on things being "Marine Proof", we used to say the only perfect piece of gear in the Marine Corps was the Chem Light: It had no moving parts and you had to break it to use it.
 
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FYI those cocking piece sights are made by a man in Montana, then shipped to Rigby in the white.

At the last DSC show in Dallas I noticed the cocking piece sight is a $,[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]] option on the Professional hunter .[emoji6]Rigby; you can purchase the sight for $[emoji[emoji6]][emoji6], I’m having one installed on my .[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]J build.

PM me when you have a minute.
 
FYI those cocking piece sights are made by a man in Montana, then shipped to Rigby in the white.

At the last DSC show in Dallas I noticed the cocking piece sight is a $2,400 option on the Professional hunter .416Rigby; you can purchase the sight for $475, I’m having one installed on my .404J build.
Any link to the Montana guy's site? I'm wondering if he has any bolt-peeps that can be rather easily retrofitted to BRNO 602 or CZ 550 bolts?
 
Pops right up on google.

I guess the advantage is one doesn't need to fumble in the daypack to switch to an attachable peep (e.g. NECG). Instead, one has to fumble with resetting the shroud mounted peep to needed windage. I do not see how the peep in his site photo would see over the scope base without readjusting windage. Seems if the peep is mounted high enough to see over scope base, it would be bumping into ocular bell ... unless high rings are used. A scope mounted high = poor acquisition + more felt recoil. This is just me thinking aloud based only on perceptions of what I'm seeing in the photo. Be interested to hear from someone who has fitted this peep on their gun.
 
I guess the advantage is one doesn't need to fumble in the daypack to switch to an attachable peep (e.g. NECG). Instead, one has to fumble with resetting the shroud mounted peep to needed windage. I do not see how the peep in his site photo would see over the scope base without readjusting windage. Seems if the peep is mounted high enough to see over scope base, it would be bumping into ocular bell ... unless high rings are used. A scope mounted high = poor acquisition + more felt recoil. This is just me thinking aloud based only on perceptions of what I'm seeing in the photo. Be interested to hear from someone who has fitted this peep on their gun.
On BRNO and CZ actions there is no “scope base” because integral rings mounts attach to recesses in the receiver bridges. Thus the receiver is the “base.” The peep unit, attaching as it does to the back of the bolt shroud, should elevate it sufficiently over the plain of a BRNO/CZ receiver to see the front sight in the aperture. I’d still want to see clear pics of the peep unit attached a BRNO or CZ bolt to get a better idea though before I’d order one. Elevation adjustment, if needed, would occur by installing a taller or shorter front-sight blade.
 
As to the original post, the concept of the forward mounted scopes on the Scout Rifle was in response to wanting a rifle to travel to Africa, but if the scope broke during travel, could still use his preferred ghost ring sites! The military ideas associated with it are because he was hunting in the 1970-80’s when Africa was very unstable and he wanted to be able to fight if needed.

I think he would have liked the “bolt peeps” as backups as well! The sight states they work well with quick release scope mounts so I assume it’s meant as a backup.
 

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