Peep sight for my Encore?
 

Here in Colorado we must hunt with open sights. I have an old set of iron sights on my Encore 209X20 and I'm thinking of getting a peep sight to improve my shooting. What kind of open sights should I hunt with?

RE: Peep sight for my Encore?
 

The kind of sights is really a personal preference. I have rifles with old iron sights, fiber optic sights, and peep sights. My favorite has to be the fiber optic sights.

Iron sights can be hard to pick up in dark areas, shadows, or during the late hours of the afternoon especially in a forest. The same holds true for the Peep sight. People always tell you to take the center peep out and shoot through the ghost ring. I have done that and it works fine, but I would not shoot long distances with just the ghost ring.

The fiber optic sights on my better rifles are so easy to pick up and spot that I just feel for my own personal use are the better choice for me. If you have an oppertunity to look through or at some of the different sights in the different lighting conditions I think the choice would be easy to make.

RE: Peep sight for my Encore?
 

I too am in Colorado. Peep sights work for me a whole bunch better than regular open sights. Take your rifle to a gunsmith - have him/her replace the front sight's fiber optic rod with a green one. They are the .040 diameter rods available in Brownell's or from Dawson precision.Green is a lot more visible in low light than red or orange.

Get rid of the open rear sight and install a Williams receiver sight in the holes where the rear scope base is supposed to go. You just look through the peep, essentially forget its there, and put the green dot on the target. A .040 green dot represents about 6" at 100 yards. Pretty fine aiming point, as far as open sights go. I can shoot 2" groups pretty consistently, with certain loads off the bench, and this sight combination. Plenty good enough for "minute of elk" accuracy.

RE: Peep sight for my Encore?
 

I'm also in Colorado. I have a CVA Kodiak and I bought a set of Truglo Muzzle Brite fiber optic sights and they came with a bonus Fiber Optic Ghost Ring for the rear sight. Unfortunately the front sight didn't fit on my rifle, but I got a front sight from CVA. The ghost ring works much better for me than the stock fiber optic sights.

RE: Peep sight for my Encore?
 

Roskoe,
I like the idea of the green fiber optic rod vs. red. I found this out with my fiber optic pins on my bow. The green stands out better.
Question: Why would you need a gun smith to change this over....what's involved?

RE: Peep sight for my Encore?
 

Encoreman - you might be able to do it youself if you are pretty handy. It is often necessary to drill out the old red fiber op rod - requires a .040 drill bit, which is not a common hardware store item. You want to cut the new green rod long enough to let about 3/32" stick out the front - with the end your eye sees a little below flush. The end your eye sees has to be cut very square and even. Then you heat the part sticking out the front with a Bic lighter until it forms a little molten ball. Finish by putting a dab of the kind of superglue used to gluerear view mirrors on the inside of you car windshield. Done right, it is very durable.

The rear peep basically just screws on - but sometimes you can't get it high enough for heavy conical bullets; and, in that case, you have to make a little spacer block raise the sight up about .100". Machined out of aluminum, the block looks like it came on the rifle. Don't remove theaperature insert and make a ghost ring out of it. The way it comes from Williams is about the right size aperature.

Good luck. Roskoe