I’ve been singing the praises of XS rifle sights for a long time. Of course in this day an age if your rifle does not wear an optical sight – in most cases a very large optical sight – you’re looked upon as either an old fart or a neophyte. Well, my buddy Monte Long from XS Sights proved my point at the recent Gunsite Academy Scout Rifle Conference and he does not fit in either category.
Monte ran a Mossberg MVP Scout with XS Sights. (Factually, Monte used a Mossberg MVP Patrol fitted with an XS Sights prototype rail. This is for all practical purposes an MVP Scout.) The first thing you must understand is that Monte can shoot. The second thing you must realize is everyone at the Conference could shoot. Though some may not have had much Scout Rifle experience, they were all seasoned veteran shooters.
The first drill consisted of engaging the kill zone of a Gunsite Option target with three shots, as fast as possible, from 25 yards. Each competitor did this three times. Monte’s average time was 7.56 seconds with eight out of nine hits. The overall average for this drill was 9.73 seconds with 7.84 hits.
I know what you’re thinking; this was close-in work and at 25 yards a ghost ring sight is just fine. Well, in stage five the competitors had to negotiate a walking field problem, engaging steel torso targets between 150 and 300 yards. Monte recorded seven hits and one miss with an average engagement time per target of 10.86 seconds. (At each engagement point shooters had the option of assuming any intermediate position they desired.) The average time for all shooters was 14.95 seconds with 6.26 hits and 2.47 misses.
In the end, Monte placed seventh against shooters using optics and was the only shooter with enough kahonas to use open sights through the entire course and competition! He conclusively proved that XS rifle sights work just fine and for a Scout Rifle – any rifle – to be effective, an optical sight is not mandatory.
Of course, you have to be able to see to use open sights and it would appear Monte Long can see pretty darn well. I guess the good guys do win!
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