'63 Remington (Zoli) Zouave front sight

[mykeal]

This rifle shoots 6" high at 50 yards using the lowest rear sight leaf. The front sight appears to have had a ball installed on top at some time in the past, which would go along with it shooting high. I'm looking for a replacement front sight with little luck so far.

However, my real problem at present is how to get the factory rear sight off the gun. It does not appear to have a dovetail base; does anyone know if it's soldered on or perhaps pinned somehow?

 

[CoyoteJoe]

It's screw attached. IIRC there is a screw with a very large head and two little holes for a spanner wrench, hard to remove without the spanner but can be done with a bit of creative improvisation.

 

[barracudadave67]

MYkeal

Best bet would be to solder on a new higher front sight, so you can sight it in for your load, and bullet. You can also get high quality replacemet leafs for the rear sight, The leafs have highly refined slots in them, not like the stock originals. You can also get blank leafs, if you want to make a peep sight. You might have to make them narrower to make them fit tho.

This stuff is available at S&S Firearms, and Lodgewood Mfg. If you call Lodgewood have a little patience as they are short handed. Both places will no what you need if you tell them your Gun. You can get thier phone #s over on the NSSA.org sight under links.

If you solder on a new front sight, Measure from the back of the breach (not including the tang) to the rear of the front sight base before you remove the orig sight. That way you will keep the correct posistion of the sight. Also tell them to make sure the leaf screw will fit the new leafs.

Hope this info helps

barracudadave67 aka Dave C.

 

[mykeal]

Boy, I screwed that one up. What I meant to say was I need to know how to remove the FRONT sight, not the rear sight.

I've been poking through the S&S catalog looking for a new front sight. I will give them a call, thanks.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I've never actually removed one but I'm pretty sure they are brazed on. If so it will take a red heat to remove them and that is likely to cause scale in the bore if measures are not taken to prevent it. I modified my own Zouave front sight for hunting by folding a strip of thin brass to fit snugly over the blade and soft soldering it in place. That makes it both taller and much easier to see in dim light. I painted the face of the bead with red nail polish.

 

[gifford]

Now that's an interesting rear sight, would you care to elaborate on where you got it or is it home-made? Thanks, G

 

[Tumblernotch]

The originals were soldered on. S&S may have some. You may be able to simply hold a fine sight. Those rear sights are the same ones used on the rifle-muskets. A full sight is used for 100 yds and even then usually shoots a bit high. A half sight hold should get you down pretty good at 50. My musket has original sights and I have to hold a fine sight at 50 even with a full charge. Try that and if it doesn't work, maybe a taller sight will do the trick.

 

[Leatherbark]

The standard fix for the high shooting musket like that is to file down the blade until you can hacksaw a groove in the base and then solder a brass/steel blade of extra height and then file to work on the point of impact.If its been shooting right or left you might want to cut the groove to allow............I've never did this to a musket but I'll swear I have read about others recommending this a lot of times on the Civil War weapons forums.....................Bob

 

[bangfxr]

Ive shoot several styles of muskets and the rifled muskets at 50 yards will hit high. Thats why you read acounts of the officers yelling "aim for the knees boys" this was to compensate for the rise in tragectory of the bullet. Also the sights were set for 100 yards dead on. I have shot the Zouave at a 3" bull at 100 yards and hit it 10 out of 12 shots the same as with my 63 Springfield. I wouldn't go cutting the sight. Rifled muskets take time to learn the pequleritys of each type and where they hit and how they fire in dry or damp conditions, type of bullet ie patched ball, union or confederate designed minie ball how they work in the weapon. My Springfield took about 200 round ball to get to know how it sights, shoots so on. Its not a fast way but its a tryed and true way with muskets. Good Luck.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Now that's an interesting rear sight, would you care to elaborate on where you got it or is it home-made? Thanks, G

I acquired my Zouave as a hunting rifle. Since I had no interest in competing in musket matches I discarded the lame excuse for a rear sight and dovetailed the barrel to accept that Marbles long shank open rear sight and just drilled a peep aperture in it. It works for me. :grin:

 

[gifford]

Joe - thanks very much, that just might work out for me. G

 

[mykeal]

Thanks to everyone for their insights (insites?). All good stuff.

I was able to finally get 5 shots on the paper for the rifled musket postal match being held here by Claude in the Members Only Online Shooting Contests forum. The target is an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of plain copy paper, scored by distance of each shot from the paper's geographical center. So, fixing the sights is not so much of an 'urgent' priority. I had to use a hold point off the bottom edge of the paper, but it finally worked.

As for the sights, I am going to change out the front sight as soon as I have a chat with S&S.

Thanks, again, for the input, everyone.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

My Zoli Zouave has the original factory sights and shoots about 5 inches high at 50 yards. Now I left it that way, figuring the paper punching I do makes it about right for a 6 oclock hold. It will shoot some darn nice groups with PRBs and 30 grains of 2fg. It is still high at 100 yds which is aggravating, but I really don't shoot it much for anything but 50 yad matches anyway.

 

[bub524]

Done this quite a few times. You have to heat the barrel fairly hot and then tap the sight, it falls off. Go to Dixie gun works, they have a front sight blank thats about 1/2" high. Solder it on in the same place and file it to however high you need it.
This is fairly common practice with muskets as they all shoot high at 50yds.
let me know if you can't find the sight and I'll see if I can direct you.

 

[bub524]

Here's the link http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=13359

 

[mykeal]

Bub, thanks, got the link. This looks like the answer.

 

[texcl]

It's also very common in the NSSA crowd to have a front sight dove tailed in, that way you can djust for windage plus switch for different loads. They make sights specifically for this and are easy to obtain.

 

[bub524]

Most Zouaves don't have a whole lot of metal at the muzzle like some of the Italian Enfields and others. Can be done but very carefully.
Another option is this http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Cate...Id=14&subId=167&styleId=763&partNum=FS-ZOUAVE

Its a nice front sight that goes on very easily, no solder no heat and no changing the original sight.

 

[mykeal]

Yeah, I saw that this past weekend while paging through the printed catalog (just got it and was putting in time on the desk during Sight-In Days). Interesting idea; I may do that first and if it works, just stay with it. Thanks.

 

[bub524]

I been thinking of getting one myself. Lots of guys who shoot CW stuff will take a 1/16" drill bit and drill a peep in the rear sight. You flip up one leaf on the rear sight. and drill a hole at about the same height as the notch in the first leaf. You have a nice peep. Should work well with that TOTW sight.