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I think the manufactures are dropping the ball on this one...

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Dhc8guru

Member
Oct 21, 2015
63
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Texas
Almost every airgun has a mounting provision for a scope. But why not make a provision for open sights and sell a set of optional set of open sights.
Case in point a Marauder or a TX200. They only have provisions for a scope. I would love to have one with open sights. My backyard hunts are under 25 yards and open sights feel more comfortable at those short ranges. Sure not as accurate (for us average Joe's) but plenty accurate for popping a squirrel. 
I would pay $100 for a nice set of sights that I could just bolt on as an option. I am sure it was a history of marketing research that drove this scope only deal.
Even so, I think selling optional sights for these scope only guns would make some good money for the manufactures.
 
I agree to a point, but for a lot of these manufacturers they are making high end air rifles. In the end, for the open market, they want to show case the limits of the rifle. If you are going to spend the money on the high end air rifles, more than likely you are going to want a scope as well. Also if you are willing to spend an extra $100.00 on open sights, I am sure you can go to an armorer and get some tapped in to it. There are also a few options in zero power quick acquisition sights that might work for you. Also I see a little bit of a hitch with the barrel shrouds and open sights. Since the shroud free moves from the barrel on a lot of these rifles it might be a lot harder to attach a front sight post that can hold a zero without moving. This is only a guess though.
 
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I can see that most consumers think that a gun with a scope is a better gun. I have even read on airgun forums people stating that anything over 15 fpe should have a scope. Really? A .22 firearm has over a 100 fpe and plenty come with open sights.
Like azuaro stated not many aftermarket open sight choices. So, i think if it was an optional purchased add on, the manufacturer could make some money.
 
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My shooting has grown beyond the ability of the Benjamin Dicovery (my first PCP). What really enjoyed about that rifle was the open sights. It was so much lighter and so much fun to shoot that way! My second PCP rifle purchase was influenced by the ability to ADD open sights... The Talon SS. For $60 you can buy a set of open sights and plop them right on your rifle via dovetail rail. The Talon unfortunately did not live up to my accuracy expectations so, I never got around to purchasing the open sights before I sold it off. 
I agree that having some high end rifles with the option of having or being able to add open sights would be nice. I also understand why the manufacturers don't do it. It's a small piece of a bigger market. 
 
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Well, I think this is a personal preference, and one which should fit the capabilities of the shooter. For example, there are 1,000 yard, high-powered rifle matches wherein the rifles are fitted with peep sights. Yet these guys still manage to hit the 10 ring! So if you can do the equivalent with open or peep sights using an airgun, great! I can't, even though I have better than 20-15 vision in both eyes. That's why I use a scope. 
 
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Open sights, aperture type in particular, are a favorite for sure. I believe using them has made me a much better shooter.

The set up I like best is currently on my HW35-- Airforce Universal Aperture sight with a Merit Master Target Iris. At 30 yards and under I group as well with this as I do with a scope.

That said, from a manufacturers point of view there's a lot more profit potential selling expensive glass.
 
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"Tominco"My shooting has grown beyond the ability of the Benjamin Dicovery (my first PCP). What really enjoyed about that rifle was the open sights. It was so much lighter and so much fun to shoot that way! My second PCP rifle purchase was influenced by the ability to ADD open sights... The Talon SS. For $60 you can buy a set of open sights and plop them right on your rifle via dovetail rail. The Talon unfortunately did not live up to my accuracy expectations so, I never got around to purchasing the open sights before I sold it off. 
I agree that having some high end rifles with the option of having or being able to add open sights would be nice. I also understand why the manufacturers don't do it. It's a small piece of a bigger market. 

I bought a Disco just because it is a PCP with open sights. I have a AirArms S510 Carbine. Its boring to shoot because the accuracy is so high, it nearly impossible to miss anything under 50 yrds. I plink FT's in the back yard and enjoy successful shots with open sights.
Click to expand...
 
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I grew up shooting nothing but open sights on rifles like my .22 and .30-30 Winchester and still prefer open sights for closer ranges. I fully understand the frustration you guys feel when there is not even any way to install open sights on a rifle. Case in point: I recently purchased a Weihrauch HW100 S FSB...had fun shooting it with my scope, but wanted to do some plinking at closer ranges. So to solve the problem for myself I purchased the Holosun HS515C circle dot sight. It works as either a circle dot or as just a plain dot alone. It runs on solar cells in automatic mode and switches automatically to battery if there is not enough light for the solar cells. Or it can be used in manual mode which gives the option of dot or circle dot, and many brightness settings.

I absolutely love this sight and am pinpoint accurate with it out to 25 yards, which is the farthest range I have used it so far. One of it's greatest features is that it is parallax free...which means wherever you put the dot on is where the pellet hits, regardless of the position of your head behind the sight. If you are interested check out the entire line at Holosun.com. If you decide to buy one of these sights call the phone number and when the receptionist answers ask for Paul...tell him you found out about his sights on this airgun forum and ask him for a "coupon code" to be used when you checkout...it will save you 10% and shipping is free!

The last but not the least of all the things I love about this sight is the fact that it weighs only a few ounces. For me weight is the enemy, as I have a damaged rotator cuff in my left shoulder, so it is difficult for me to shoot standing offhand if the rifle is too heavy. My HW100 weighs about 8.5 lbs naked...and is now a lot of fun to shoot standing & walking & plinking offhand with just the Holosun on the gun. Even though my Leupold scope weighs only 15 ounces, it is still hurts my shoulder to shoot offhand with the scope on it if I fire more than just a few shots. Also, these sights have a lot of features that the Aimpoint and Eotech do not, for way less money. I LOVE MY HOLOSUN!
 
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A good set of iron sights in the 21st century is an uphill battle. You can buy a second scope and mounts for the cost of a good set of irons. The marked is oriented toword scopes. I don't like writing that, but that is how I see it. 

It is, however, a battle that can be won, and oddly enough our biggest ally is the black rifle.Take a look the June and July archives at Blueflax Airguns http://blueflaxairguns.blogspot.com/ and you will see two Armadas with sights. One using a national match set up for a space gun and the outher with backup sights from MAGPUL. These are not the only two solutions, and the options now are a great deal better than they were 20-30 years ago.

Two other things. One is demographics; there are a lot of older shooters out there with older eyes. You don't need 20/20 visions to shoot irons. Two is that there are less rifle shooters out there that know how to shoot irons. You gotta do your homework is attaching and using irons.

Iron Sights rock.

Ron
 
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I don't think open sights are as popular as you might think. Certainly on a PCP the gun is capable of far better accuracy that open sights will allow you to achieve. We shoot at very small targets and it is so much easier with a scope.

Daystate and Brocock have made rifles with opens sights, the last time we offered them on the Huntsman back in 2007 and we sold very few. More recent designs us screw on moderators which are a must for the US market and further complicates 'iron' sights.

On scopes (we also own MTC optics) the main sellers are 12+ mag, though we do a 1-5x it is almost never bought by airgunners, indicating a 1x option is not wanted either.

Different argument when you are dealing with a $100 toy, but for most people who spend a lot of money on a good quality airgun a scope is really needed to use it to its full potential.

All the best

Tony
 
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Over the weekend, I was shooting my Discovery. At 30 yards, I was getting dime groups with open sights. And those stock open sights are not the greatest but apparently they work. 
I acquired an Umarex Fusion. It comes stock with a 4X32 scope, it works but not the best experience. At 30yds, I was plinking a Remington rabbit knock down target. In 50 shots I missed the target (using the smallest target reducer) twice. The only reason I think I missed was the yellow paint has worn off the target and it is hard to see. I thought about how it would be a much more satisfying rifle without a scope. Its a sub 30 yd rifle so your not going to try for anything at long ranges. Its deadly accurate and having a scope makes loading pellets a pain. Just seems to be a rifle that screams for open sights. 
 
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The biggest reason there are few iron sight options is that there few formal games that require them. The 10 meter games are the primary exception. In the high-power rifle world, there are service rifle and match rifle events that require the use of irons. The Civilian Marksmanship Program, introduced a 10 meter version of its service rifle matches and a few makers offer rifles for these games. However, this is where I think the CMP screwed up. It should have taken the game outside, like the regular matches.

I have been a bit of a competitor in the high-power rifle game for a while. When components became hard to get and expensive, I discovered airguns. While comparing ballistics, I noticed that I could duplicate the wind drift of my .223 Win. 600 yard load that uses an 80 grain Sierra Match King by shooing a 20 ft-lb .177 pellet rifle at only 40 yards. With a 30 ft-lb .22 the distance extends to closer to 50 yards. This opened up the practicality of inexpensive practice. I wouldn't have to drive 75 miles or more to a 600 yard range.

I've played with fitting match rifle type aperture iron sights to a few air rifles with only a modicum of success. None, until recently, have had the ability to nearly duplicate my match rifle's ergonomics. The service rifle is still a bit of a unicorn, unless you are shooting at 10 meter power levels. You can see what I have done to the Benjamin Armada by going to blueflax's blog (a few posts above) to make a space gun out of it.

Now, if the outdoor game of airgun high-power rifle (like what I do for practice) were to become popular, then the manufactures would see the profit in producing rifles set-up with these in mind. If other sorts outdoor games required the use of iron sights were to be introduced and have a sanctioning body, then the rifles would follow. But, this is a problem. You need rifles to play the game(s) in the first place. Where there are no rifles, there cannot be the games. 

The CMP solved this problem by co-developing the indoor game with some manufactures modifying or making new rifles. Unfortunately, IMO, they gravitated to 10 meter indoor rifles, instead of looking at field target rifles as the starting point.
 
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