Are the bright fore-sights on modern shotguns really necessary?

Is it just a marketing ploy – or is there merit in the system?

SHOTGUNS
Mike George
I once shot 50 Sporting targets with a well-worn Remington semi-auto I had borrowed for a second-hand gun test, and didn’t realise the foresight was missing until I took the gun in to the photo studio later in the day.

If you are watching fast moving sporting targets properly, you don’t see the fore-sight.

However, I do tend to notice the fore-sight more, and a mid-rib bead if it is fitted, on the rare occasions I shoot the trap disciplines.

That could be why I shoot them so badly. I also find a fore-sight a handy reference point when shooting in very poor light, like duck flighting after dark.

In these situations, a small white bead foresight seems to be best, for me at any rate.

A foresight of any colour can always be temporarily whitened with a dab of Tippex, which you can still buy in an age when nobody uses typewriters any more.

I wouldn’t knock a gun that came with interchangeable foresights, but I don’t think I would use them much, either.