mid bead

[Doctor Lecter]

what's your opinion on a mid bead on a sporting shotgun ,   yes or no !   thanks in advance for your comments     

 

[Jonny English]

I used to love them years ago, but now I've had a few guns without I wouldn't want to go back to one now. My dt11 has no beads at all and my mk game just has a small steel mushroom bead.

 

[Garwood]

Like them on clay guns,by co incidence all my favourites have had them...........

 

[Robden]

what's your opinion on a mid bead on a sporting shotgun ,   yes or no !   thanks in advance for your comments     

No.

 

[vmax1010]

Useful for dry mounting checking your gun mount and when shooting trap type targets pre mounted just don't get in the habit of looking at them and not the bird 

 

[JoostB]

A mid bead comes in handy sometimes. But generally when shooting (I shoot gun down), I don’t even see it. 

 

[jonz]

Have never been able to shoot well with a gun that has a mid bead, my eye keeps getting drawn to looking at it. So the only gun I had with one got removed fairly quickly. 

 

[Doctor Lecter]

Have never been able to shoot well with a gun that has a mid bead, my eye keeps getting drawn to looking at it. So the only gun I had with one got removed fairly quickly. 

i shoot a 525s    i guess i can remove my mid bead but obviously it leaves a hole  !   unsightly   ?   

 

[MartynB]

I’ve just shot a practice round . Gun down , or soft mounted the bead is pretty irrelevant, gun shouldered in a trap style the mid bead makes a nice check . But then what do I know, it took me 40 years to stop buying loads of tripe advertised as the next best thing in shotgun sights .

 

[DolphinCTC]

Not bothered either  way but if fitted it needs to be in the  middle of the rib, not like the one on my 525 trap!! 

 

[ColinD]

i shoot a 525s    i guess i can remove my mid bead but obviously it leaves a hole  !   unsightly   ?   

Really, just how big is this mid bead

 

[k80ben]

Totally pointless and obtrusive. I remove about 20 a week. 

 

[El Spavo]

...whether or not the owner wants it or not!

 

[antse7en]

Definitely without. All it does (and you see people doing it all the time) is to encourage you to close an eye and check your mount every single time before every single shot - as opposed to trusting your mount. It’s a bit of an anti-pattern IMO. 

 

[Doctor Lecter]

Totally pointless and obtrusive. I remove about 20 a week. 

ok but it leaves a hole obviously ,   that irritates me ,  is there anything  i can do ?   or just crack on  ?     

 

[ColinD]

Try to find a small black grub screw to put in the hole that will sit flush with the rib

 

[Les53]

I can miss equally well  with or without a mid bead!

 

[El Spavo]

Definitely without. All it does (and you see people doing it all the time) is to encourage you to close an eye and check your mount every single time before every single shot - as opposed to trusting your mount. It’s a bit of an anti-pattern IMO. 

Or you use it as a handy tool when you start shooting, then just ignore it cos you're actually looking at the clay? My 525 has a mid bead and even though I'm a distinctly average shot, I can't remember once actually noticing the mid bead when confronted with a live target cos I'm looking waaaay beyond it.

If anything, it's useful for me to practice just once or twice when I'm sporadically dry mounting to check I'm seeing the same sight every time and I'm not getting lazy.

If you don't see it, which you shouldn't when you're shooting unless there's something seriously wrong with your game, then I don't see the issue with it being there or not, and therefore any need to remove it for the sake of it. Unless you're literally just starting out, removing it just because sounds like one of those golden bits of advice to do it when it's actually a bit irrelevant. Just saying. 

 

[Luke_(NL)]

ok but it leaves a hole obviously ,   that irritates me ,  is there anything  i can do ?   or just crack on  ?     

Black epoxy should sort you right out, but permanently so. Or melt in a bit of plastic that you could melt back out. The grub screw suggestion is better, but maybe hard to find in the right size and thread.