| Shooting for One Ragged Hole | |
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A few months back, a fellow named Patrick "Buck" Hibbard posted in the Hunting & Shooting Forum, and I noticed something... he had a link in his signature that read simply, "One Ragged Hole." Naturally, I clicked on it (who wouldn't?) and discovered what the Ragged Hole thing was all about. A couple of Emails later, I was well on my way to owning a set of One Ragged Hole sight blades.
One Ragged Hole is the name of a unique product, born of necessity due to the failing eyesight of its inventor: replacement sight blades for Ruger handguns. Basically, it's a cost-effective and easy-to-install peep, or aperture, sight blade (some folks call them "ghost ring" sights) for your Ruger handgun. The standard set includes two blades, one with a 7/32" aperture and one with a 9/32" aperture, to fit a variety of Ruger revolvers and pistols. The larger aperture is better for short-range and fast work, while the smaller one usually does best for longer ranges.
As soon as I saw this product, I knew it was one I could appreciate. Some of the earliest accurate shooting of my life was done when I was just a young 'un, with Dad's old Winchester Model 69A (a bolt-action .22 rifle), which sported a peep sight. When I started hunting deer on my own at the ripe old age of thirteen, I did so using the rifle I still favor for close-in deer hunting, a Ruger .44 Magnum Carbine with a Williams peep sight. So I was familiar with the advantages of peep sights, and I needed to try the One Ragged Hole for myself.
This
is the Ruger New Model Super Blackhawk that I used for testing. Installation
was quick & easy, and accuracy increased immediately. You can "sorta"
make out the white paint on the front sight in this view.
(Photo by Russ Chastain, all rights reserved)
The beauty of peep sights is that they're so easy to use. There's no worrying about lining up the front & rear sights, because your eye will always naturally center the front sight. With that out of the way, all you need to do is concentrate on the front sight and the target. It's an excellent setup and I've long wondered why more gunmakers don't install peeps as standard sights. Remember this: If you're thinking about seeing the rear sight, you're doing something wrong. Concentrate on the front sight, and all will be well.
I installed the 7/32" One Ragged Hole blade on a Ruger Super Blackhawk, the .44 Magnum companion to my old faithful carbine, and the benefits were immediately obvious. Faster sighting is usually a given with a peep sight, and I wasn't disappointed. Since I had painted the top portion of the ramp front sight with white paint for better visibility, I had a nice square "bead" which naturally fell into line with the rear sight. At the range, groups tightened noticeably using the peep versus my old open sights, further ensuring my satisfaction.
This
is the rear view of the revolver shown above, showing the One Ragged Hole sight
blade (7/32"). When shooting with a peep sight, concentrate on the front
sight & your target -- your eyeball will automatically center the front
sight in the peep. Since you focus on the front sight, not the rear, this is
not really an accurate "shooter's view," but it does show the sight
blade well.
(Photo by Russ Chastain, all rights reserved)
Installation went smoothly on my revolver, which had a Ruger factory sight, probably built in the 1980s. After showing Dad the One Ragged Hole blade on my revolver, he predictably claimed the "extra" 9/32" blade as his own, so I set out to install it on his old "flat-top" Blackhawk, with Micro sights. The rear sight on his gun has much tighter tolerances than does mine, and it lacks the notch that mine sports, so the removal of the extrusion was necessary, as the installation instructions indicate.
Flattening the extrusion proved easier than I had expected -- I simply placed the blade in a vise and chomped down on it... too hard, as it turned out. I had mashed the steel (which was softer than I'd expected), and had created a bit of a downward extrusion myself. A bit of filing and ten minutes later (it took a bit longer on this older model -- I installed my blade within five minutes -- due to the tighter tolerances mentioned above), Dad was the proud owner of his own One Ragged Hole.
Retail price for the One Ragged Hole set is $24.95, and full, easy-to-follow instructions are included. I can recommend this sight to Ruger owners, and I would like to see similar products on the market for other brands of handguns, too. This is too good an idea to limit to just one brand of handgun! Maybe we can talk Mr. Hibbard into considering an expansion of his enterprise... what do you say, Buck?
Edit - November 26, 2002: I later found that when using my hunting ammo (fairly hot 240-grain JSPs), the One Ragged Hole would not allow me to adjust my sights properly. I found I was shooting high, but the high hole in the blade didn't allow enough adjustment to correct the problem. In light of that, I will most likely be re-installing the factory blade on my revolver, so I can hit where I aim when hunting.
Note: Remember my hint above that I'd like to see this blade available for guns other than Rugers? Well, now I'm told that One Ragged Hole peep blades for S&W revolvers will soon hit the drawing board! I'm sure they will continue to grow from there to include makes that have not been boycotted by American sportsmen, but there are a lot of used S&W wheel guns in the world that could benefit from this product, so there is a legitimate demand for it, in my opinion.
-Russ Chastain
