What rifle for hunting with irons?

[MuleyFever]

If you were going to set up a factory rifle to hunt with without a scope how would you go about it? What rifle? Aftermarket sights/peep? This is for deer hunting.

Edit - yeah, I get the concept of hunting with irons. The question is what specifically would you use?

 

[StupidLightweight]

I've been there but chickened out due to the "what if I miss out?" thoughts. To my way of thinking, it's hard to beat the AR for irons. A bonus is you can install everything yourself. Good luck silver soldering a front sight to a Savage 99. Here's an lightweight retro AR I configured for deer. Again, I never killed anything with it, but man do I want to.

 

[TaperPin]

If you were going to set up a factory rifle to hunt with without a scope how would you go about it? What rifle? Aftermarket sights/peep? This is for deer hunting.

Average mule deer hunting? Definitely an adjustable peep sight with a medium or small hole. I bet it wouldn’t be hard to hit a 10” target at 300 yards with a little practice. I had a peep sight on a Remington 700 with a very large aperture and I want to say off the bench we could get 2 or 2-1/2moa groups out of it on a good day with a big black square on a big white background and we held at the bottom of the square, but the younger the eyes the better. It seemed we could hit paper better than a 10” plate - at 300 yards the plate was pretty safe, but we didn’t put much effort into it and the ghosts ring rear sight wasn’t ment for long range.

Some long range shooters add a “bloop tube” to the end of the barrel to increase sight radius - it’s just a hollow tube fit over the factory barrel and extending 10” or so. I don’t recall exact group sizes, but the best target shooters seem to get groups around moa.

Oh, it just hit me - search for long range muzzle loading hunting - those guys seem to have some good setups.

 

[MuleyFever]

Average mule deer hunting? Definitely an adjustable peep sight with a medium or small hole. I bet it wouldn’t be hard to hit a 10” target at 300 yards with a little practice. I had a peep sight on a Remington 700 with a very large aperture and I want to say off the bench we could get 2 or 2-1/2moa groups out of it on a good day with a big black square on a big white background and we held at the bottom of the square, but the younger the eyes the better. It seemed we could hit paper better than a 10” plate - at 300 yards the plate was pretty safe, but we didn’t put much effort into it and the ghosts ring rear sight wasn’t ment for long range.

Some long range shooters add a “bloop tube” to the end of the barrel to increase sight radius - it’s just a hollow tube fit over the factory barrel and extending 10” or so. I don’t recall exact group sizes, but the best target shooters seem to get groups around moa.

Oh, it just hit me - search for long range muzzle loading hunting - those guys seem to have some good setups.

That's all obvious. What rifle and sights? I've never looked at rifle options that come ready for or with iron sights.

 

[TxxAgg]

Lever actions come with irons. Replace rear sight with a peep

 

[MuleyFever]

Lever actions come with irons. Replace rear sight with a peep

So which lever and peep?

 

[TxxAgg]

Skinner peep for sure

Any lever action you like. I have an older Marlin 30-30

 

[Caseknife]

How about a Win Model 54 in '06, or pre '64 Model 70 also in 30 Gov't 06.

 

[MuleyFever]

Skinner peep for sure

Any lever action you like. I have an older Marlin 30-30

I don't have one I like. That's why I'm asking

 

[prm]

Sako 85 Grizzly.

 

[IrkedCitizen]

Steyr makes a mighty fine rifle and they are offered with iron sights. Steyr Mannlicher SM12 and CL II or the SX synthetic stock versions.

 

[rcook10]

Really depends on a lot. Peeps are not ideal at dawn and dusk but do help with precision. A ghost ring can help with this. Express sights/v notch are fast and much better in low light but are harder to shoot accurately at range. A thinner partridge post/blade and squared rear notch is a pretty reasonable compromise between the two and what i grew up hunting with on most muzzle loaders. I prefer fixed sights with a 200 yard zero for simplicity. Thats really about my ethical limits as well.

As for a rifle and cartridge, take your pick. Just about amything from an old 30-30 lever gun to a sporter mauser 9.3x62 would get you there pretty cheap. Easy to jump on gunbroker and search for “peep” in rifles and pull up some nice stuff.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Don’t think they make the anymore. But the Tikka T3X Battue model is fantastic with excellent factory irons sights.

 

[Nine Banger]

Ruger No.1-A

I drove the semi-buckhorn out of the rear dovetail and installed an aperture sight.

I removed the bead sight front and installed a blade sight.

I can hit a piece of steel that is the same size as an IDPA target (think 10" circle equivalent) at 200 yards from standing position about 3 out of 4 times.

 

[TSnave]

For hunting with irons, I use an old Winchester 94 30-30 with a lyman rear peep sight. I can hit a balloon at 200, but I doubt I'd stretch it much beyond that, and I've never actually taken a deer with it.

 

[Choupique]

I use an M1 garand to get my iron sight fix in for deer hunting.

I squirrel hunt with an ancient remington 550 with irons as well. If your eyesight is good, iron sights are great.

 

[NDhunter88]

If you can find a Tikka Arctic they have some of the best irons you can get on a modern rifle. Mine regulates pretty well to about 400yds with 168gr hand loads. Have not shot it much further than that yet but does have 2 more apertures for further shots.

 

[UnckleBob]

I would pull dad's 30-06 1980's M700 out of the safe. If I was young, I would leave the factory sights alone. Since vision is shit, I would probably get some sort of peep sight installed.

I could hunt anything I wanted provided I was willing to get close to it. Vision is the only limiting factor.

 

[Johnboy041586]

I loved an m1a I had with irons.

 

[Hnthrdr]

my 2 iron sight rifles are a marlin 30-30… I replaced front with a red fiber optic and rear with a peep, also replaced the trigger and put on a big loop lever, I believe marlin is made by ruger now and I hope there triggers are better than the garbage they used to put out. Other is an M14 that is a tack driver, but never hauled it around the woods with me yet, I have a few BLR’s that have iron sights but I mounted scopes on them…