Longtime Readers will be familiar with my affection for Browning’s Buckmark .22 pistol, she of the wonderful trigger and reliable feeding. And excellent accuracy… well, except in my hands.
I used to be able to shoot the Buckmark acceptably well, but as old age has buggered my eyes up horribly (stop me if this is familiar to y’all), so has my accuracy suffered. Of course it’s not the gun: I’ve owned (counting on fingers) five of the things over the years, and I’ve always been able to make the cans pop and dance, so to speak.
Now? I’d be lucky to hit the inside of a room.
So I’ve had to go from this light, sleek little beauty:
…to this (much) heavier, ungainly-looking thing:
Accuracy? I’ll let you know next week, after I’ve been to the range and zeroed the dotty thingamajig in.
That looks fun! You’ll probably shoot more .22 than you have in one outing in a long time.
And, regrettably, I’m also beginning to have issues with the sights.
I’m trying to put off the mounting of red dot sights because I’m too cheap to spend the money. Also, I haven’t researched the products.
Good luck with it. I hope you enjoy it
Kim,
I’m still okay with a green fiber on the front post, for now. White dot? Forget it. And the time it takes for my eyes to change focus when moving from target-to-target .. much slower than even just five yrs ago. Aging sucks, but it’s better than the alternative.
– Brad
I have 5 pistols with red dots (reflex) sights and all of them are 1/2 or 1/3 the size of that monster.
Must be nice.
It is, but I started with just one. My point was the size of the sight. Smaller is better.
I would have no problem with putting an electronic gizwidget on a .22 target/plinking pistol and having a lot of fun with it.
But I’d never put ANYTHING dependent on a battery or circuitry on a defensive weapon, whether it was a pistol, revolver, or long gun. My experience over the last six decades has proven to me that something which needs electrical power, particularly from a battery, or functioning circuitry, is going to fail exactly when you need it the most. And while the reliability of red-dot and micro-red-dot sights has improved markedly since the last time I tried one back in the late 90’s (which failed completely after about 1,000 rounds on a .45 with a Weigand “straddle” sight mount, not even mounted to the slide) they still routinely fail after high round counts on a defensive caliber.
On a different but related note I’ll never, ever mount a flashlight to a firearm. This is a terrible trend which will inevitably result in “accidental” or “negligent” discharges when somebody violates the 2nd rule and points their firearm at something in order to light it up. They might get startled into pressing the trigger, or they might not have enough muscle memory due to insufficient training and press the trigger instead of the on/off switch of the light when under stress. The light should be separate and used in the off hand. My 3-D MagLite is next to the drawer-type gunsafe bolted to the nightstand, and the batteries are changed twice a year (when we switch from DST to ST, and vice-versa). But unless the home invaders have cut the power the safest thing is to just turn on the damned lights so you can see your targets. If that’s the case you can still point your flashlight at something to identify it while maintaining your pistol in a safe, ready position.
All the training I’ve seen for weapon-mounted lights uses “bounce-light” off the floor to illuminate your potential target…screw that, I want my bright light right in their eyes, and at inside-the-house distances I can point-shoot well enough to hit center of mass from a close retention position. And if the problem is outside, it can bloody well stay there. Even if somebody is busting into my (parked outdoors) pickup, there’s nothing in there worth risking my life to protect. And shooting somebody breaking into your parked vehicle is called “murder” if they’re not presenting an immediate threat of death/grievous bodily injury. About the only thing I light up at night are the damned mule deer eating my trees, so that I can try to scare them away since it’s not legal to shoot ’em here within the town limits.
Sorry for the rant, but it’s a hot-button for me.
Kim you always make me want to spend money I don’t have for things I don’t need but damn I want one!
The Ruger Mk 4 22/45 lite model 43921 is the closet modern made item still like this.
I like the Ruger as well. That is on my list of wants too.
I like the Fiber front sight. While I have guns with night sights, I prefer fiber sights on the front.
For now, I enjoy my Ruger Single Six convertible. And I have a fiber front sight on that.
Enjoy that gun, it is damn nice. Rimfire guns are awesome. Affordable, no major recoil, and FUN!
My problem with red dots is astagmatism; the red dot looks more like a fuzzy star. It’s manageable, particularly if I turn the intensity of the dot down as low as reasonably possible. There’s also green dots; some people see the green better than red, some red better than green. Personal preference.
The beauty of the dot for a defensive pistol is that lining up the sights isn’t really necessary; find the dot, put it on the target, pull the trigger. Once you get used to finding the dot (and if you’re used to lining up sights, you can do that) most people find that they’re faster shooting with the dot, and just as accurate. I now have one on my carry pistol. I’ve had one on my AR for years. On a rifle, finding the dot isn[t really an issue at all; once you get your cheek weld, you’ll have the dot in front of you.
Sure hope your new dotty works out. I’m sure you at least looked through one before purchasing. I recall when we were at the range and my home made aperture turned out to be of no use for your eyes.
My vision has drifted somewhat in to opposite direction. I have had cataract surgery/lens replacement, which remains an absolute gift. Now it seems I have developed astigmatism in my shootin’ eye as a result of a head injury when I was a young lad. (Not sure which one, actually. I suffered three concussions before I was in high school). Even with my glasses, my red dot has distorting “light streaks”. Fortunately, there is still a bright “point” that I can aim with. Even more fortunately, using my glasses and home made aperture, iron sights are sharp and clear, at least on the target range.
I have a similar astigmatism problem – if I may, what diameter aperture worked for you?
You may indeed. My pleasure. 1/16-inch diameter. Why? It was the smallest drill bit I had at the time, decades ago when I started shooting Bullseye competition. Pardon a dose of Captain Obvious, but it’s easier to make the hole bigger as opposed to smaller. Turned out it worked fine and I just left it.
The concept is pretty simple: when you greatly compress your field of view, your depth of focus gets longer, sort of like squishing a balloon.
I made my aperture from a set of flip-up shades that clip to your glasses. I took off the weak side lens so it only covers my shooting eye. Made the hole, then spray painted it flat black.
Such a small hole does not allow a lot of light, so this only works for well lit high contrast targets. If you go out to hunt the brown bunny sitting in the brown grass, you’ll never see him.
If our host is willing and able to put us in contact, we can discuss mechanics in greater detail.