TargetTalk

I'm new to this stuff. Have a ruger mk III target model. My local range has a .22 league once a week. they shoot 50' indoors. use the b3 target and shoot 6 targets, 2 -5 shot strings per target. drop the lowest scored target, so total possible points is 500. they shoot each 5 shot string in 10 seconds.

I haven't been yet and wanted to test myself before going. The other day, went to the range and shot a 439 w/6-x (target scores were 87,88,89,92,83. dropped first target of 76). I know its pretty low but it was my first try, I was using my stock ruger with bulk american eagle ammo, guessing at the 10 second limit. I've started reading the army marksman training manual from the "encyclopedia of bullseye" website. Got a lot of learning/practice to do.

My question to ya'll is this. I seem to have difficulty with aiming the stock Ruger sights. I really want to shoot iron sights. Not interested in a red dot right now. I try to focus on front sight, but that plain black blade doesn't contrast much with the target center. I found myself just hoping to get a 9 or better. Do people normally do any mods to these sights? How common is it to see someone using a stock ruger with iron sights?

There is a private gun club locally that does the complete outdoor bullseye competition. They allow guests for the comps. I'd eventually like to get over there with my ruger.

Any advice??
Thanks

aldayat wrote:I'm new to this stuff. Have a ruger mk III target model. My local range has a .22 league once a week. they shoot 50' indoors. use the b3 target and shoot 6 targets, 2 -5 shot strings per target. drop the lowest scored target, so total possible points is 500. they shoot each 5 shot string in 10 seconds.

I haven't been yet and wanted to test myself before going. The other day, went to the range and shot a 439 w/6-x (target scores were 87,88,89,92,83. dropped first target of 76). I know its pretty low but it was my first try, I was using my stock ruger with bulk american eagle ammo, guessing at the 10 second limit. I've started reading the army marksman training manual from the "encyclopedia of bullseye" website. Got a lot of learning/practice to do.

My question to ya'll is this. I seem to have difficulty with aiming the stock Ruger sights. I really want to shoot iron sights. Not interested in a red dot right now. I try to focus on front sight, but that plain black blade doesn't contrast much with the target center. I found myself just hoping to get a 9 or better. Do people normally do any mods to these sights? How common is it to see someone using a stock ruger with iron sights?

There is a private gun club locally that does the complete outdoor bullseye competition. They allow guests for the comps. I'd eventually like to get over there with my ruger.

Any advice??
Thanks

Yes. It is difficult to see the sights aginst the black of the bull no matter how good the sights are. My recommendation is to go to a sub six hold on the target so that you see the outline of the front sight against the white part of the target under the bull. The distance from the bottom of the scoring rings to the bottom of the black is the same as the distance from the top to the bottom of the bull. Most international iron sights shooters use a sub six hold for this reason. You then are more apt to focus on the sights rather than on the target when shooting with irons. You then adjust your sights up so that sub six hold puts the shots into the x ring.

http://www.shootingwiki.org/index.php?t ... e_-_Pistol

Best of luck, Isabel

When I started shooting my ruger I was frustrated with the irons, and I switched to Bo-Mar sights. They make a world of a difference. I will never go back to stock ruger sights after using them. They are a lot easier to see/align.

aldayat wrote: I try to focus on front sight, but that plain black blade doesn't contrast much with the target center.

well I think you listed your problem.
The front black blade should be just touching the bottom of the black.
If you are trying to allign the center of the blade with the center of the black there would be alot of issues with allignment.

once you try that you will have to raise your sights a little.

aldayat wrote:I'm new to this stuff. Have a ruger mk III target model. My local range has a .22 league once a week. they shoot 50' indoors. use the b3 target and shoot 6 targets, 2 -5 shot strings per target. drop the lowest scored target, so total possible points is 500. they shoot each 5 shot string in 10 seconds.

I haven't been yet and wanted to test myself before going. The other day, went to the range and shot a 439 w/6-x (target scores were 87,88,89,92,83. dropped first target of 76). I know its pretty low but it was my first try, I was using my stock ruger with bulk american eagle ammo, guessing at the 10 second limit. I've started reading the army marksman training manual from the "encyclopedia of bullseye" website. Got a lot of learning/practice to do.

My question to ya'll is this. I seem to have difficulty with aiming the stock Ruger sights. I really want to shoot iron sights. Not interested in a red dot right now. I try to focus on front sight, but that plain black blade doesn't contrast much with the target center. I found myself just hoping to get a 9 or better. Do people normally do any mods to these sights? How common is it to see someone using a stock ruger with iron sights?

There is a private gun club locally that does the complete outdoor bullseye competition. They allow guests for the comps. I'd eventually like to get over there with my ruger.

Any advice??
Thanks

Your scores are very good for someone starting out. You are studying the right material. You might also want to buy a copy of Gil Hebard's "The Pistol Shooter's Treasury". The bulk American Eagle ammo may be holding you back some. You might want to try a few boxes of assorted middle grade standard velocity ammo. Have you tried blackening the sights? Depending on the light, you may be getting a reflection that is keeping the front sight from looking clear to you. You may not be completely focused on the front sight, but be focused somewhere between the front sight and target...if so that is not good. You might also try putting a tiny smear of "White Out" on the front sight to give your eyeball something on which to focus. Besides the grips, the trigger and sights are the only things that I would replace (upgrade) on a Ruger Mark III.

little_doodie wrote:

aldayat wrote: I try to focus on front sight, but that plain black blade doesn't contrast much with the target center.

well I think you listed your problem.
The front black blade should be just touching the bottom of the black.
If you are trying to allign the center of the blade with the center of the black there would be alot of issues with allignment.

once you try that you will have to raise your sights a little.

Most of the international shooters do not do this. It is called a six o'clock hold. The reason they don't is because placing the black of the bull on top of the sights causes your eye to go to the moving blob of bull bouncing around on top of your sights (i.e. causes you to look at the target) it works for a very few people but using the sub six hold is generally less distracting. You don't need to align your signts with the black of the bull to shoot a ten. You need to use an area aim and align your front sight with your rear sight. Try shooting some blank targets and see how good your groups get when there is no temptation to look at the bull because it is not there. Isabel.

You haven't said anything about your age or if you use glasses, but being able to see the front sight clearly is important. Also, widening the rear sight notch can really help, according to both Don Nygord (http://www.nygord-precision.com/sights.html) and a fellow I shot next to at a match. He was using a Ruger and had opened up the rear blade notch, a bit crudely, but effective. I think the sight blades are fairly cheap.

A sub six o'clock hold might take a bit of getting used to, but a lot of shooters swear by it. It certainly helps for area aim, since there is nothing to aim at but area.

If your rear sight seems off center, file away some of the notch that is away from the center. You will then have a wider notch, which I find helpful, and have your sight more centered.

A quick and dirty method which I use and like, is to file the notch into a half circle using a 5/32" chain saw file. They are very cheap. For many years the Russian (winning) free pistol shooters used this style.

I also use a candle stub to smoke and blacken my sights.

Try to find a carbide light sometimes called a miners lamp. The smut fron this device seems to provide the deepest and most consistant solution to having the deepest ,darkest black on the sights. One more issue is that if the target appears as black as the front sight you are not focusing properly on the sight. That is why I use the center hold. I get a clear warning if the target starte to get black. If your focus is correct the target will appear grey and very fuzzy witth the sights black and in clear focus. Keep working on the eye focus until [when you focus exactly right ] The front sight will seem to get bigger and perfectly defined. Another reason I use center hold is that I have an exact point to center my hold on every shot. Once I have completed the settle in the center of the target and developed the stillness of hold my trigger finger has already started mooving and the only thing left to give me a good shot is sight allignment.I concentrate both mentally and with eye focus on perfecting sight allignment until well after the pistol fires. Good Shooting Bill Horton