Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chadwick View Post
OK, as no-one else has replied, here goes with the comments!

I am not sure what you mean by "decreased accuracy/shootabilty". Decreased with respect to which setup? True, the M-H sight picture has been aptly described as "looking at the Great Pyramid through a railway cutting". But the shooter who told me this little gem is, in fact, a crack shot with the Martini, and I have seen him beat a lot of others with what are often held to be "better" sights.


The work-around is called "fine-sighting", accompanied by "Kentucky windage" if required (it seldom is, but I'll come to that in a moment). Please be so good as to go here:
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....ing#post180004


As for windage, I have what might fairly be called a representative spectrum of military BPCRs, and none of them require aiming with a hold-over, a.k.a. Kentucky windage. But they are all shot with black powder loads that correspond roughly to the original service load for which they will have been set up. If you use any tricky nitro or duplex loads, then the completely different rate of onset for nitro can cause flexing of the system that sends the bullet way off course, compared with the original load. So NO nitro, "cats-sneeze" or "hot" loads.


Neither do I, but it sounds like an excuse for inadequate practise of the fine-sighting method (see the link above.)

Hope this all helps!
Patrick:

Thank-you for your response. I shoot flint & percussion frontloaders with primitive (fixed) sights as well. A common practice with such guns is the method you describe, with a degree of fine-tuning done with charge adjustment once you reach 100 yards. I'm talking patched RBs here. This appears to be the hold-under method some have called "Navy hold" (a gap) vs. 6 o'cock, centerhold or "framing" with the rear sight.