Have any of you guy worked with these different size apertures? I like the idea of not looking through a tube of a NM sight. Also you can keep your standard rear sight base and adjustments. I researched this pretty hard, and found conversations on other forums. The owner was quick to reply to my questions and provided some good information. I was just curious if any of you have one, and what your feelings are on them.

Thank you.

http://shop.shootingsight.com/Reduced-Apertures-M1-as-issued-JCG-Match-Legal-Reduced-Aperture.htm

That ap that came on my Springy Loaded was smaller than GI. (non hooded)  I don't know the ap size off the top of my head.  I actually changed it out for a USGI one though.  Just for the heck of it.  When the sun is to your back and you forget to where a baseball cap. them match ones are hard to see through.  But if it was just to shoot matches with, I'd leave the small one in.

There is less slop in the match ap and supposedly they are fitted to be more tight and have less windage shift when dialing in elevation.

Did you ever shoot the smaller ap so you could compare them? I know you can have issues in low light conditions too, didn't think about from over top. These are USGI new the fit should be good, but you are correct the NM are stoned to fit tight. Thanks for the reply.

I've got the small aperture, non hooded one one my loaded currently as well and too am considering the change to a USGI piece. Low light conditions make it pretty much useless and although I'd love to shoot matches with it, realistically that's just not going to happen around my neck of the woods. The are very sweet in perfect daylight from a covered bench at the range though.

Do you know what size it is by chance?

My hats off to anyone who can see through a .047 or smaller aperture, and get a good sight picture. Live and learn I guess.

Yeah, I don't know what size it is......  If you go on their website I think it says.  It works, it's just like the other guy said, it's not really a good size for practical use.  It's best for just competition.  There's usually enough light in those situations.  And you can wear a hat to shield the sun if it's from the back.    But really, even the normal USGI sized ap is not all that good in real low light.  I think the ghost sight on an AR is the best for that.

Springfield site shows .520 for the loaded, non hooded NM ap.  

http://www.springfield-armory.com/products/m1a-loaded/

Your right about .520. Hell I have pissed away 40 bucks on worse.

Just going to stick with GI issue with cross hatching and smoked black.

Well the upside to a smaller ap is it makes everything more clear.  When you focus on the front post, the target becomes blurry.  And of course the rear sight is blurry.  But the smaller the ap, the more in focus the target will be.  Which helps accuracy.  That's why they do it.  It's just that at some point there is a trade off between speed and practicality and accuracy.   I wish I could get a super small ap like that for my AR with the bigger ghostring.  So I can have the big one for the Home defense oh crap up close and bad breath ranges.  And the other ap would help with my aging eyes for shooting at 25 yards and further.

You might know all that already though.  Sorry to sound like a know it all if you do.  All you can do is try it out at the range and however you will be using it.  Like hunting or whatever.  See what works best for you.  I'd use the smaller one all the time if everything I was shooting at was standing still.  No doubt.  And there was enough light.

No, thank you for your input. All noted and appreciated.

A little understanding goes a long way so I offer the following.  First, a small target aperture, say .042" is designed to be used with the shooter's eye placed close to the aperture; say within 1-1½".  That way the picture through the aperture appears large enough to be of use and as you'll see below, the optical benefit of sighting through a small aperture is maximized.





A smaller rear aperture benefits the shooter in 2 ways when used correctly.  First, the correct use of a 'target' aperture such as the .042" versions I use on levergun tang sights, the rear sight of my Ruger Mini-14, and my M1A requires that the shooter's eye is set closely to it, the closer the better; about 1-1½".  With one's eye close to the aperture, one gains first, the maximum benefit of increased Depth of Field and second, as the rear aim point is smaller, it produces a more precise sighting system.





Depth of Field; what is it and why do I care?  Optically, the Depth of Field (DoF) is defined as the span of distance wherein objects appear to be in focus.  This distance is increased when one sights through a small aperture, in fact for a given lightening, the smaller the aperture, the longer the DoF.  Conversely, larger the aperture, the shorter the DoF. That's why you can see sharper on a bright, sunlit day and not so well at night; your iris closes down in bright light and opens in low light.





Those of us more 'seasoned' shooters and some of you more younger ones with less than perfect eyesight, note that looking at your front sight centered in a semi-buckhorn rear sight produces an off focus image of both the post and the target.  When you focus on the front sight, the target is even more blurry.  What's happening is that your natural DoF is insufficient to allow you to see both the sights and the target clearly with these sights.  Increasing the lightening helps a bit but your eyes simply can't adjust so that you can see the front sight and target clearly like you once could.





Now, if one simply replaces the rear sight with an aperture sight and sights through it from say, 6"-10" away, all you see is a tiny hole, a blurry front sight and target, and conclude that it's not for you.  However, if you place your eye very close to your standard large rear aperture, say within 1-1½",  you'll note that the area inside the aperture seems a bit clearer, you can see a lot more real estate through it, and the system is useful as an aiming system.  Now, if you then decide to reduce the aperture size to around .042-.050"" with your eye within 1-1½" from the rear aperture, you'll note that almost magically, the front sight is in sharp focus and so it the target, even though it may be 100yds away.  That's because you are sighting through a small aperture close to your eye and that increases your DoF dramatically.  So now that we've got your DoF addressed, the second advantage of a small rear aperture is that the smaller aperture a more precise aiming point.




 
 

BTW, I'll 69yrs old on election day (nice present I get this year . . . . not!) and am both far sighted and have astigmatisms.  I shoot target aperture iron sights on my rifles quite regularly and increased DoF of the smallest apertures allows me to still see the front sights and the targets clearly.  So much so that a favorite pastime with my Tang sighted Rossi 357mag rifle, my 'NM' like iron sighted Mini-14, and my 'NM' sighted M1A is shooting at bowling pins at 200yds.

I've seen pics of guys shooting High Power with AR's and their noses well forward of the aperture.  So yeah, I guess I should've told him about getting closer to it.  Good explanation!

Nice replies guys. I was using my standard cheek weld, and it never crossed my mind to adjust that to use the smaller aperture.

Op remember your talking about a 30 cal so be thoughtful with where you put your nose.  You can get away with touching your nose to the charging handle on an AR but I don't recommend getting that close on an M1 or M1a.  I put a fulton armory 0.052 on my M1a several years ago and like it.

My competition AR had a .040 rear sight.  I got a larger one as I started to struggle with focusing on the front site at the 600 yrd line.  I think I went to a 0.046.

No doubt, I really appreciate all the input.

I think Bushmaster has a 0.050"/0.200" non-hooded NM aperture for ARs. Or if it's a 0.050"/0.050", the 0-2 can be drilled out.