What Type of Rifle Sight Did You Learn To Shoot On?"

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  • What Type Of Optic did You Learn To Shoot A Rifle With?

    • Iron Sights

      Votes: 153 92.7%
    • Red Dot (reflex, prismatic, holographic, etc.)

      Votes: 2 1.2%
    • Scope

      Votes: 10 6.1%

    • Total voters
      165
    • Poll closed .

    robmints

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 20, 2011
    5,092
    Iron Sights. In the basement of Food Fair on Taylor Ave near Loch Raven Blvd. The Optimists would teach kids to shoot, mostly Scoremasters, but there were some 40x's. I would love to know where those are. Can you imagine anything like that today? Holy Cow.
     

    JohnnyE

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 18, 2013
    9,462
    MoCo
    While I learned on irons, the poll asks what optic. Since I'm a cranky old SOB, and irons are sights but not optics, I voted scope. Specifically, over 40 years ago it was my father's friends Browning field grade BAR in 30.06 with a 3-9X Leupold scope.
     

    rseymorejr

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 28, 2011
    26,007
    Harford County
    Iron Sights. In the basement of Food Fair on Taylor Ave near Loch Raven Blvd. The Optimists would teach kids to shoot, mostly Scoremasters, but there were some 40x's. I would love to know where those are. Can you imagine anything like that today? Holy Cow.

    I didn't know they had a range there. When I was a kid we would shoot at the Pikesville Armory and in the basement range at the Marine Reserve building behind Northern Parkway Junior High
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    I learned on iron sights, but will be teaching my children how to shoot with red dots first. For me, reinforcing good shooting fundamentals and firearms safety is more important than learning irons. Once they learn to shoot on a single focal plane I'll teach them to shoot using three.

    I think you learn the overall fundamentals better with iron sights.

    I would start new shooters with irons, then move to optics.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    I think you learn the overall fundamentals better with iron sights.
    For the fundamentals of shooting, I think a reflex sight can be a much better tool for teaching overall fundamentals, because you don't need to deal with front/rear sight line-up and figuring out which to move to make your shot go where. With a reflex sight, your dumb little movements, bad breathing, etc. all come into razor sharp focus without a lot of distractions from managing irons. I know that's some hard-core blasphemy to some people, but I feel like critically thinking about the problem of teaching marksmanship makes you realize that irons aren't necessarily the best solution.
     

    WildWeasel

    Active Member
    Mar 31, 2019
    468
    MI>FL>MD
    Scope. Sure I had my Red Ryder, but the pellet gun had an old 3-9, and the .22 had a rimfire scope. I can shoot irons, and think everyone should be able to as well. But as good as scopes and dots are now, I'll never have irons on anything but a pistol or historical firearms. And even the pistol irons are looking shortlived...

    I look at them like manual transmissions versus automatic...
     

    woodline

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 8, 2017
    1,947
    For the fundamentals of shooting, I think a reflex sight can be a much better tool for teaching overall fundamentals, because you don't need to deal with front/rear sight line-up and figuring out which to move to make your shot go where. With a reflex sight, your dumb little movements, bad breathing, etc. all come into razor sharp focus without a lot of distractions from managing irons. I know that's some hard-core blasphemy to some people, but I feel like critically thinking about the problem of teaching marksmanship makes you realize that irons aren't necessarily the best solution.
    Couldn't have said it better myself. It is important to remember that the way we learned things wasn't necessarily the best or the most suitable method for everyone. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Sometimes people have done things a certain way for generations for good reason. Other times, not so much.

    I could go on about this subject all day, particularly with slide mounted red dots on pistols, but that's somewhat off topic. Point being, reflex sights are at least as good as irons as a sighting system for teaching marksmanship.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    I disagree.

    I think that reflex optics and scopes allow people to get away with bad habits.

    Irons get all the fundamentals drilled in.
     

    cmb

    Active Member
    Dec 28, 2012
    499
    Conowingo MD
    I learned on Grandfather's Belgian Browning 22 Rifle. Loaded from the stock and ejected casings from the bottom.(It was a 'Take-Down', before Take-Downs were cool:D) It was ideal for me being a wrong-handed shooter!
     

    toppkatt

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 22, 2017
    1,185
    I learned with iron then diopter (Redfield Olympic on my target rifle). Took me a long time to use a scope due to the fact that I could not see my 'wobble' as pronounced using iron as through a scope. Seeing the wiggle blew my confidence for awhile. I KNEW I could shoot okay but seeing that that swing back and forth magnified really blew me away for a long time. I finally got used to them and use them now, because my eye sight isn't the 20/15 it used to be. I still am not fond of red dots as I find I need too much time to acquire the dot, maybe just not enough usage to familiarize myself with them.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    I think that reflex optics and scopes allow people to get away with bad habits.
    How? What bad habit does it let you get away with that irons don't? The rifle is either moving off target before / when you pull the trigger, your sighting system does not change that fact.

    If anything, I think it's quite the opposite. Plenty of dudes who shoot pistols with iron sights get sloppy, and then when the reflex sight gets tossed on the slide, all their terrible habits get revealed.
     

    jimbobborg

    Oddball caliber fan
    Aug 2, 2010
    17,112
    Northern Virginia
    I learned to shoot a rifle through the NRA junior marksmanship program. Open sights, four positions, with sling. This was in 1979, at the Rod and Gun club in Seoul.
     

    calicojack

    American Sporting Rifle
    MDS Supporter
    May 29, 2018
    5,348
    Cuba on the Chesapeake
    I have been out of the military for years; I thought the Army now uses some type of red dot and expected more recent vets out there to say they learned on a red dot. Now I am seeing that the Army has gone back to irons for basic training, is that right?
     

    tmo8320

    Active Member
    Mar 31, 2019
    296
    Technically the first rifle I ever fired was a MK13 mod 7 with a Schmidt & Bender scope
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I learned to shoot with irons and still do as best I can.
    When my dad taught me to shoot I thought the neatest thing was using the front site to estimate the distance to a man. Depending on whether he's crouched or standing and the relationship to the front site blade of a M1.

    I seen a guy today shooting something like a 10x12 steel target with some sort of electronic optic. It had a suppressor and a bi-pod and he was having as good a time as me.
     

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