So it must be time to break out a "pumpkin thrower", right? I even had a valid excuse to do so - I just put a new set of sights on it and have been eager to get it zeroed.
"It" is my .72 caliber double muzzle loading rifle. It's a round ball only rifle, hence the moniker "pumpkin thrower". I was never happy with the issue open sights:
They just seemed kind of indistinct and hard to see, especially in the dark woods or heavy cover in which we use such a rifle. So, I came up with this:
The rear sight is from XS Sight Systems. They call it a "ghost ring" (hah - another Halloween reference
). It is meant to be mounted on the rear of a rifle's receiver, where a normal peep sight would go. This one is meant to fit a Model 70 Winchester. I've tried this setup on bolt guns and lever guns, and found the huge aperture to be too imprecise for my tastes. Mounting it further forward like this, however, seems to be just the ticket for a rifle meant for quick shooting in heavy cover.
Curious as to how my improvised sights would work out, I hit the range today. After zeroing it off the bench at 100 yards (which is honestly too far to be shooting these things), I took to my hind legs and started firing quick right-lefts offhand at 50 yards, emulating how it is used in the field.
I'm going to declare "success". I couldn't be happier with how this worked. Here are five pairs of right-lefts at 50 yards, kind of "snap shooting" like we would if something was after us:
That ought to slow down those Halloween zombies...
