• I Want Iron Sights Again

    If one were able to hop into a time machine and go back to the mid 2000's to visit a gun shop, they would find that most every new bolt-action hunting rifle on the rack was equipped with iron sights. For whatever reason, just a few years later you would be hard pressed to find any new bolt-action hunting rifle in the rack with irons. In fact, about the only place you'll find iron sights on a new bolt-action rifle these days are the rimfire sporters. Why is that?

    In a time where one of the current fad's are lightweight rifles, iron sights make more sense than ever. Consider that the most compact and lightweight rifle scopes available today still weigh close to a pound, and the weights only go up from there - some even pushing close to three pounds. Now add another one-quarter to one pound for your scope mount and rings. If you truly want the lightest hunting rifle possible, iron's are the best option as you're easily eliminating a pound or more weight by not mounting an optic. Not only that, it will also save you a minimum of a couple hundred of dollars not having to purchase an optic and mounts.

    A separate but related matter is that while most every manufacturer has stopped offering iron sights on most all of their bolt-action rifles, they have never updated their stock designs accordingly. Unless the stock features an adjustable comb of some sort, most every factory stock offering still has the comb height setup for proper eye alignment with irons when you mount the stock with a proper cheek weld. One shouldn't have to lift their head slightly at the cost of a proper cheek weld to get proper eye alignment with their scope on a rifle that isn't equipped with irons.

    Now granted, there is some rhyme to the reasoning behind this stock fitment issue with modern bolt-action rifles. If the manufacturers raised the comb height on their stocks to provide proper eye alignment with an optic, in some cases it could interfere with bolt removal. This is especially true for long-actions. But with long-action cartridges fading fast and being replaced by modern, more efficient short-action cartridge designs, maybe it's finally time the manufacturers take a hard look at their stock ergonomics and fitment for proper eye alignment with an optic. Savage Arms did just that with their AccuFit system a few years ago, and I'm quite surprised that we haven't seen any other manufacturers come out with a similar system for their rifles.

    For a handy, lightweight hunting rifle though, I'd still prefer to see the manufactures start offering them with iron sights again. They are preferred and indispensable by those who hunt thicker cover, whether that's the vast timberlands of the northeastern and north central United States or the tall dense shrubbery of Alaska that minimizes shot distances. Good iron's are also far superior [in my humble opinion] to an optic when it comes to snap-shots, those unexpected surprise encounters when a mere second can make the difference between meat in the freezer and a tag sandwich.

    Optics definitely have their place, and there's no question that the vast majority of hunters and shooters prefer using an optic over irons, but there are still many cases and situations where irons are a better solution and the rifle manufacturers shouldn't be limiting our options. I'm not saying every rifle should come equipped with them, rather just those rifles that are configured well to be utilized in those situations. One can still opt to mount an optic on those rifles as well, but it takes a trip to a gunsmith and an outlay of additional cash to add irons to a rifle that didn't come with them. Having both gives you the most diversity and usability - especially if said optic happens to fail or get damaged in the middle of a multi-day hunt.