Fuzzy Peep Sight Question

[Scott Kurki, 12475]

I have a peep sight on my Maynard carbine which when I look through the hole (either 50 or 100 yard) there appears to be fuzz in the hole. I have checked and cleaned the holes out but found no actual fuzz yet it always appears as if there is fuzz. Have you ever heard of this? If so, do you know of a solution?

I have peep sights on my 61 Springfield also but this issue is not occurring with this rifle musket.

[DAVE FRANCE]

Hi,

Do you mean that you see the inside EDGE of the hole in the peep as blurry, or do you see something in the peep that looks like a hair?

If the inside edge seems blurry, but consistent, it shouldn't be a problem, because you can see where the center of the peep is. As you get older, the distance where you can see clearly gets further and further from you eye.

If the hole you are looking through is not thin, it should help if you chamfer it on the side away from your eye. And put sight black on the sight on a sunny day.

The glasses I use for shooting make the rear sight less blurry than they would be without that correction. They work like bifocals. They work like the glasses most people use for reading as they get older. But, the glasses make distant objects more blurry as they make close up sightS look less blurry.

If the peep is too small and your eye does not get enought light, everything will you see through the sight wil not be clear. But the same peep that works well on a bright day may not do well on an overcast day.

I am not an optometrist. There are websites from companies that help shooters with glasses for better sight. I believe a skirmisher who is an eye doctor wrote an article for the Skirmish Line, that might help you if you can find it.

Bon Chance!

David

[Scott Kurki, 12475]

Thanks David. The fuzziness seems like a hair or something is in the hole. I cannot seem to clean it out even though I cannot even find anything in there. This situation is more pronounced on darker days such as was the case this weekend during the snowball where the sky was quite overcast all day. It seemed like twilight all day.

I checked my sights and the sight on my Maynard is not relieved in the back but the sight in my 61 Sprinfield is relieved in the back. So it seems that perhaps the sight with the relief in the back allows more light or something so that the affect of the fuzziness is reduced.

[DAVE FRANCE]

You probably didn't get enough light through the sight. It is like taking a picture with a camera. If you don't get enough good light, you won't get a good picture. On a bright day a small peep can work fine. If the sight is close to your eye, you can use a smaller hole than if is further out on the barrel.

Don't worry about the inside edge of the peep looking blurry, if you can see where the center is.

Maynard sights are fairly close, like on a sharps aren't they?

Using a peep also makes it easier to see the front sight. If the top of the front site is blurry, that is a serious problem. What I do is use a peep with a fairly large hole, and glasses with a change (A DIOPTER CORRECTION) that helps me see the front sight better. The correction makes the target look a little blurry, but that doesn't cause a big problem. If your eyes are good, you could use the reading glasses that have a diopter correction, but are not prescription glasses.

Some use a lens that has a diopter correction that is held in a little device that clamps onto the frame of your glasses. I forget the name, but if you ask on the BB, someone will tell you.

You don't want to wear sunglasses that reduce the light that gets to your eye.

I think there was a listing of a company on the N-SSA site that could supply a kit with lenses you could add to your glasses to help. I went to an optometrist one time and he gave me lenses I could tape onto my glasses.

Some optometrists know what you need if you talk with them.

Yellow glasses help when it is overcast. They are a big help when it is overcast and rainy. If I remember correctly it cuts out the blue light. They also help to see the breakable targets we shoot at because they create more contrast.

A lot of people wear a peep on their glasses that is taped on.

You have a lot of things you can try. If you want to try a larger peep in your rear sight, try taping something on to try.

I would try a larger peep first, and try a eye glass change also if that doesn't work.

If you I can be of help let me know.

Good luck!

David

[Scott Kurki, 12475]

Thanks much David. Would you be able to say if the size of the hole in the peep sight would affect accuracy? The hole I am using now is very small.

[DAVE FRANCE]

Scott,

The ones I use are larger than most people use, but I don't think they are too big at all. And they are not large enought to cause poor accuracy.

The one on my Henry is 7/64 ths whichis 0.1094 inches.

The one on my musket is 3/32 ths which is 0.092 inches.

The hole in the sight of my Henry is larger because it is further from my eye.

If you buy fractional drill bits the sizes vary by 1/64th of an inch which is 0.0156 inches. That may be too much different is size. You may want to use a size that is larger than 3/32ths but smaller than 7/64 ths. You can find a chart on the internet that lists all the number size drills if you don't already have that.

Wikipedia has one that you can find by going to wikipedia and looking for drill bit sizes. The number drills that are used for drilling holes that are going to be tapped, might be easier to buy. For example, there is a number drill size 38 that is 0.1025 that is between 3/32 ths and 7/64 ths. And the 38 drill is the size used for drilling the hole for a 5-40 tapped hole.

Peeps are sometime very small on modern rifles for shooting at paper targets. But, they have to be larger for overcast days and for shooting at breakable targets that are hard to see.

I have seen skirmishers stop shooting because they could not see the targets at all in a team event.

Good luck!

David

[Greg Ogdan, 11444]

Scott,
I'll try to answer this for you. Dave is correct, as you age, you will need a larger peep hole. Those of us who are looking back at 60 may use a diameter as large as .090. That would be for a sight mounted on the BARREL of the Henry. If the peep is on the receiver, considerably smaller should be used. And to answer your question about accuracy, I, as well as many of my teammates, find no dropoff in accuracy. Of course, I can't hold the rifle still!

[dml1296]

Cataracts can cause this. I first noticed the problem with small apertures. Going to a larger aperture fixed it for a short time. Then I noticed it when looking through my spotting scope. I had cataract surgery which fixed the problem. Only your optometrist or ophthalmologist will know for sure. :wink:

[DAVE FRANCE]

This is a little off the subject but I think it is kind of interesting and maybe even funny.

I occasionaly get a silent migraine. It is a migraine but there is no headache. The only sympton is that things in my vision seem to be moving around, that aren't really moving. Like the pattern in wall paper seems to be moving.

I know some skirmishers get these symptoms, but this is different. This is when I am sober.

I expect some funny responses to this. Go ahead!

David

[Scott Kurki, 12475]

Thanks for the information folks. I have also been told that higher blood glucose levels and dehydration can be factors. I have diabetes and my blood glucose was high in the morning when I noticed the fuzziness. I was also drinking the night before so would likely have been a little dehydrated as well.

It is very overcast here today so I broke out both my Springfield and Maynard to check the sight pictures. I am still having the fuzziness with the Maynard (where it interferes with the front sight) but my Springfield was better (fuzzy around the edges but no interferance with the front sight). The distance between the butstock and the Maynard sight is 19.5 inches whereas the distance on the Springfield is 19.0 inches. There is a difference between the peep sights on these two guns also. The Springfield has a slightly larger hole and the back is relieved to gather more light. The Maynard sight hole is of course smaller but also lacks the relief on the back for additional light gathering. I am going to have the holes on both sights opened up slightly and I am going to get the backs of both relieved for additional light gathering. I think these actions will reduce the fuzziness and may allow for a faster sight/target acquisition.