Canadian Airgun Forum

Part 1: The introduction.

I did a lot of research and cannot find any information showing that other people use anything other than rear and front sight (two-point sight system) when shooting with iron sights.

I am not sure when I discovered the three-point sighting method but I guess, as it was after the posting of a review about my Cometa Indian pistol, that it should have been sometime in 2012. I had an accuracy problem with the Indian and it was reviewed in this post.

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When I bought the Cometa Indian, I shoot it as a pistol because this is what it is. I could not hit where I was aiming so I made other sights. Even with the new sights I was not happy with the results, so I transformed the pistol into a short carbine with the addition of a shoulder stock and it slightly improved the situation. All became dependent on my cheek weld and it seemed that I was not 100% consistent so I continued to miss the target once in a while.

This was something I also noticed when shooting my air rifles. With an aperture sight at the rear and globe sight with a ring at the front I was scoring a lot better than when the rifle had a notched sight at the rear end of the barrel and a blade at the front end. After thinking about it, it made sense. The peep sight is close to the eye and the cheek weld has to be right in order to look through the hole so it probably helps with getting a consistent position.

I will go over a simplified explanation of the normal two-point sight system compared to the three-point sight system I am using. The examples will be with a rifle which has the notched rear sight at the rear end of the barrel (or about at the mid-point of the rifle) and a front post at the front. The eye must line up with both sight components and the target in the background to obtain the sight picture. If everything is perfectly lined up the projectile should hit the target where we are aiming. The problem is that it is impossible to hold still and the rifle will wobble sending the pellet somewhere into that probability zone. When the hold is not perfect or the sight picture is slightly off, it will create an angular error amplified by the wobble and the hitting zone will grow larger than if the cheek weld and sight picture are perfect. The three-point sight system adds a peep sight at the rearmost position on the rifle. This helps to get a repeatable cheek weld and also, because of the small hole in the aperture sight, to get the best focus possible on the front sight.

This is shown in a pictorial format below.



To confirm what I was suspecting, I modified my carbine arrangement and added a tang peep sight to have an aiming reference closer to my eye. The result is shown in the pictures below.



After the shooting improvement experienced with the Cometa Indian I started to modify some of my air rifles.

The next in line were both of my IZH 61 with two different homemade rear peep sights. The one in the top right picture was made from bent aluminum sheet metal and the one in the lower left picture started its life as a piece of an extruded aluminum window frame.



I was on the right track and both rifles were shooting better than before.

R-Gun Pete

Part 2: Is it really working?

Over time I had accumulated several accessories bought new or used from other Forum members and I had a hooded aperture sight and a Williams peep sight that could be repurposed.

I forgot to mention that both the IZH 61 were zeroed in with the original iron sights before I added the third one. Since the role of the addition was to reinforce the sight picture of the other two, it was a bit tricky to drill the hole at the right spot. Both rear sights were homemade and it was a game of trials and errors to zero them.

For the next two rifles, it was easier because the commercial sights I was using were fully adjustable. The hooded aperture went on the Hatsan AT44W which was already very close to a tack driver and the Williams was installed on the Beeman QB Chief. Both air rifles and a closeup of the Williams sight are shown in the pictures below.



Having used the available commercial sights from my stash, a new homemade peep sight was made for my Artemis LR700W. Adjusting it properly took a bit of time and the initial hole in the rear sight was enlarged several times until I found the right spot. Then another plate with a small hole was glued in place. The pictures below show the air rifle at the center, the large hole on the left and the small hole on the right.



I can assure you that each rifle that was modified with the three-point sight system performed better than they were with only the original rear and front sights. You will have to take my word for it because I didn’t keep references from when I started using the system (from 2012 until now) but to not be called a liar I documented several shots from my Artemis for this post.

In the pictures below we can see the Artemis with several pellets on the left and, on the right, a closeup of the same pellets. The deformed pellets were shot at the pin and the “Robin Hood” was two consecutive shots on a paper target (they have been retrieved from the putty in my trap).



All the air rifles purchased with an aperture system like the Daisy 853C, the AR2078A, the CZ 200T or the HW57 were left alone because they are very accurate but all the other that had a rear sight located at the mid-point were fair game for the modification.

R-Gun Pete

Part 3: Why stop there?

This is where this post reconnects with the one I just finished on “Making Iron Sights” (topic94809.html). The recent series of sights (made before closing my shop) mentioned in that post were specifically manufactured to transform a bunch of air rifles to my three-point sight system.

My Diana Mauser K98 PCP had the mid-body rear sight that could benefit from the addition of a peep sight closer to the eye.



I also had a pair of Crosman 622’s that were good candidates for the same transformation.



It is only after the fact that I thought that it would be nice to have something different like the “tang rear sight” that can be seen on old cowboy rifles. For one of the Crosman 622, I made another rear sight with a dovetailed block as the anchor and built the extension from there.

I am pleased with the look it gave to the air rifle as well as with the improved accuracy.



I think I am done with the topic because I ran out of air rifles to modify. I guess I will just have to enjoy what I have.

If some people decide to try the modification from a two-point to a three-point sight system, I am definitely interested to know if it would work for them too.

R-Gun Pete