BSA dioptre Sight Set – essential for indoor target shooting

If you are an indoor enthusiast, this BSA Dioptre Sight is an essential; the Dioptre Sight is a bolt-on rear sight featuring a small aperture and a fore sight, which has tiny elements through which to view the target

Indoor target shooting is a popular sport, and the beauty of this particular discipline is that it is shot over fairly short distances. Finding a 6-yard or more commonly 10-yard distance over which to shoot, is far easier for many of us, who might not have a decent-sized garden to play with. Set up the correspondingly small paper targets to shoot at, adopt the standing position, and the challenge is indeed set.

Olympic airgun shooting takes place over 10 metres, and is hotly contested, with the top exponents able to blat out the bull, which is just 2mm across. Try this from the standing position and you’ll soon appreciate the task in hand … and just how good they are!

Whilst full match rifles rule the roost at the highest level, any budding enthusiast can replicate the discipline with more simple kit. Scopes aren’t allowed in this arena, and for that reason, the prerequisite accessory is the dioptre sight. This takes the form of a bolt-on rear sight that features a small aperture, and a fore sight, which has tiny elements through which to view the target.

IN THE BOX

BSA now offer a Dioptre Sight Set, and this comes in a neat protective box. Inside, you’ll find everything needed to get started. There’s the main rear sight assembly, a rubber eye cup, fore sight assembly, and interchangeable fore sight elements. It all feels fairly well made, and whilst part of the fore sight is made from plastic, it still feels quite refined, with precisely-moulded components.

To get started, just push the rubber eye cup onto the back of the rear sight, and that’s assembly from the box pretty well done. The rear sight then bolts into place on the gun’s dovetail rail, and with a large knurled bolt clamp fitted, this is an easy task that can even be done without an Allen key, as hand pressure for the most part, is sufficient. The rear sight is an all-metal assembly, and it feels well made, and pretty robust, which is always reassuring.

Likewise, the fore sight has a small clamp and this is designed to tighten onto a small dovetail rail at the muzzle. A suitable rifle is therefore needed, but BSA can also supply an adaptor tube for some of their rifles, effectively creating a dovetail rail on the barrel. Once you have the fore sight fixed in place, the final job is to select a central element from the various designs supplied. Using different elements subtly changes the sight picture, and personal preference here comes into play. Some of us favour a thicker circle, for example, but others may not, and it’s great to have a choice, which all adds to the experience. So much of shooting is fine-tweaking our approach, so detail such as this is always welcome. To change the element, slightly unscrew the two knurled collars, drop the new element into its slot within the housing, and then gently retighten the collar caps.

SIGHTING UP

Now all is in place for the action to start, and for those unfamiliar with this style of sighting, by placing the rear rubber cup/eyepiece against the eye, you are then looking through a small circular aperture. At this stage, as with any sight, gently adjusting the position of the rear sight makes sense, until correct eye relief is achieved, and the eye gently comes to rest naturally on the rubber eye cup. As mentioned, when correctly set, back light will be minimised, and the image will appear sharper.

The idea is to place the fore sight ring element on the target, and keep everything centred; centralise the target within the fore sight element, and at the same time keep the circular element centred within the rear circular aperture. The soft rubber eyepiece helps to cut out back light and accentuate the view through the viewfinder, and as with anything, familiarity and practice soon pays dividends.

Once results start to become more consistent, it might be time to make adjustments, and here, the rear sight is fully adjustable for both windage and elevation. There are small graduated scales marked up for both the adjustments, and on test, everything responded and worked really well.

CONCLUSION

As with most of this type of dioptre sight, there is no magnification used, but with familiarity and careful setting, the sight picture that results, is both clear and precise. So if you do happen to have a yearning to enter the world of indoor target shooting, this neat Dioptre Set from BSA is a great place to start. I’ve used plenty along the way, and the quality of this one compares well to many more basic rivals available.

BSA Dioptre Sight Set RRP: £105

Contact: BSA Guns