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Im new to TR shooting, did it years ago as a cadet, what size of foresight element are people using at 300,500 and 600m

thanks in advance

Hi Chris,
I can't give you a definitive size, because I now use an adjustable front sight which allows me to adjust the sight picture at all ranges. Theoretically, just one size should work at all ranges, because the size of the target (the black bit you are framing with the foresite) generally increases with each range. This doesn't always happen at club shoots, because it's too much hassle to paste a new centre onto the target at each range! Generally speaking we use the same centre wether we're shooting at 800, 900 or 1000.
I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you an approximate foresite size, but in the real world you will need to adjust the size to suite the light conditions. I've known the shooting light to be so bad that people have removed the foresite element completely and just used the foresite tunnel to frame the target!

A lot of it is down to personal preference. You need to see a significant amount of white around the black but as already said, the targets are proportionally bigger the further away they are so they should look the same size though the sights.

The more white you can see aroung the black makes it easier to centre. I personally would recommend 3.8 or larger. Best way is trial and error though and whatever works best for you!

It really is down to personal preference and if you have an eagle eye.

I have a 0.5 eagle and use the following:
300x 5.2
400x 5.15
500x 5.15
600x 4.9
800x 4.6
900x 4
1000x 3.8

You need good proportions so the white should be about the same again as the black ~x2 radius the black, & the thickness of the black ring also needs to be fair so about half to 3/4 the annulus of the white. So you have a good black/fuzzy aiming mark with a good white border surrounded by a good black ring. If your eyes are good go larger not smaller at short range, or if you can see wobble. e.g./ standing shooters use a larger foresight element / iris setting. For small bore 25/50m I used 3.5 with no lenses.

Depending on where you shoot fullbore the aiming mark differs. So at Bisley 300yds is quite large so i open up my iris to about 4.00
500 is also proportionally large so 3.8-4.0 works. 600 is actually the smallest bull in moa so 3.6 for me.

Over at Sticks the actual aiming marks stays the same so appears smaller as you fall back from 800 to 1000 yds.

so at 900 I used 3.2 ish & then at 1000 I used about 2.8.

So I guess what we are saying is - get a variable iris & note after each shoot what setting it was on, then set your rifle up each distance iris front & rear, elevation & wind age & if well zeroed you will be in the black first shot.

Once you find what you like write it down & eagle eyes need to be in front of the element so you need a larger element for the magnified target image dont magnify the element as well!

good luck