First Shots

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Nov 24, 2022
Messages
172
Reaction score
319
Well, I got to the range this morning for the initial sighting in of my new Optima V2 with open sights. The bullets were Hornady .44 cal 240 grain XTPs over various charges of Blackhorn 209 (60, 65 & 70 grains, all by weight), using Federal 209A primers and a Blackhorn breech plug. I swabbed between each shot and blew off a primer before loading, just for consistency.

My first shot was off a sled, which I wasn't very comfortable using. I ditched it and shot the rest with just a small sandbag up front. The shot from the sled is the upper left in the picture. The next three shots grouped well, but high at 25 yards. I adjusted the rear sight as I went along, shooting at 25, 50 and 100 yards. All shots ended up within the larger black circle, with the most distance top to bottom being 5 inches.

Honestly, at 100 yards the entire plate was covered by the front sight, so I was just winging it. I'm confident with my results that it would be fine for hunting, and will work on making up some better, larger targets. I did have the plates stapled to a large piece of cardboard so I could see if I missed the plate entirely.

I bought the open sight version due to the fact that most shots around here are within 60 yards, and the scoped versions seem to be 3-9, which I wouldn't need. I'll most likely add a 1-4 scope in the future just to help, but for my needs the open sights work for me.
 

Attachments

  • 20221208_142901.jpg
    8.1 MB · Views: 2
Change your sight picture to a 6 o'clock hold. Won't cover you POI anymore
I thought of that after the last shot, LOL. When I was in the Army many moons ago, we aimed the M16 with a center hold. Today, I was about 3/4 of the way through and realized I was using a cover hold. I've been carrying an HK VP9, and now an HK45 for awhile, and they use a cover hold. Hopefully the deer are bigger then 9 inch paper plates 🤣
 
If your rifle has a round front bead here is what I do, I mean did as my eyes are too old. Almost everyone now days has an Amazon box which works for us cheap skates. Set a five gallon bucket on the bottom and with a can of spray paint cover the first couple inches around the bucket. Instant target that your front sight will center in almost like using a peep sight. Adjust distance for size of front bead. Use a smaller circle for close shooting.
 
That's a good idea. I may use it for my AR..I was shooting that today and couldn't see the front sight against the dark background at 100 yards. The ML sights are fiber optic.
 
Looks real good to me for open sights! I'm shooting 80grn blackhorn by volume with xtp 240s out of my accura V2 lr and it's a tack driver at 100yds! I have the Leupold VX Freedom ultimate slam scope on it.
 
Yeah on my slug gun the front sight is pretty massive. A former Marine told me to set it to a 6 hold and it made a world of difference. But then I had to practice to make sure I had the muscle memory to do it. Practicing with sabot slugs ain't cheap!
 
Back
Top