Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Rifle Sight Height

woodmaster9
I have an old rifle that's missing both front and rear sights. Both sights are barrel mounted; the barrel has no taper) If the new front is, say .350, Is there a need for the rear to be adjustable BELOW .350 (or below the angle of parallel to the bore?
0

Comments

4 comments

Date Votes
  • richbug
    Not unless you want to be able to shoot exactly where it is aimed up close. It would be safest to leave a little adjustment lower though, bullets have a bad habit of doing funny things when they leave a barrel.

    My border collie is smarter than your honor student.
    0
  • Bittersweat
    It would be really tough to know what type of sights are needed without shooting the rifle. The exception would be if factory original sights were available.
    If the barrel is drilled and tapped for sights, you could try putting one screw in the front and another screw in the rear. Level them to the same height (like .350) and use them for a rough set of sights. Hold center of bullseye at 12 or 13 feet and see where the bullets land. Now you have enough information to purchase universal sights that will work.
    Hope this helps.
    0
  • oldgunner
    Somewhere along the line this might be of some help to you.

    http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=146382

    There are no bad guns, only bad people.
    0
  • woodmaster9
    Thanks for the ingo, guys. Just so you'll know, here's what I have. It is a Win model 1894 in 38-55, mfg in 1898. Yes, I know I shouldn't "modify" such a gun, but I bought this at a gun show for 300.00! It has been completely re-blued so someone else ruined it's collector value.
    The metal looks almost brand new, the wood it oil-stained as you would expect.

    The rear sight is missing altogether. There is a dovetail cut for it. The front sight is more of a modern 94 style with a ramp and a groove for a hood. I'm told that they didn't have hoods back then. Also it is for a round barrel and mine is octagonal. Obviously it's a replacement. I removed the front sight and I found two more drilled holes, one of them off center. What's really strange is that most of the old Winchesters I seen have a dovetail front sight but there is no dovetail cut in this barrel but I do believe this to be the original barrel.
    Marbles makes a rear sight assy that would be period correct and the also make a front ramp that uses a dovetail insert. They have these in different heights and that's why I was asking.

    Now it seems my biggest problem is that, in 1898, 38-55 was a black powder cartridge. I'm learning some about bp cartridge reloading from the forums on the Goex web site.

    Thanks to all you guys for your help.
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity