• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Sight placement

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

captgary

40 Cal.
Joined
Dec 2, 2005
Messages
180
Reaction score
2
Building a Pecatonica Dickert with a 42 inch

40 cal. GM swamped barrel, A profile. Breach

end is .950 barrel end is .745 all draw fileing is

done. Rear sight is .335 high and front blade

is .390 high not counting the dove tails. How

far from the ends do I want to install these?

I dont want to look really dumb when Im trying to

aim this baby whenever I get er done.

Thanks Gary
 
I use a piece of double sided carpet tape and place the rear sight along the barrel until all clears up and comes together. (funny, the older I get, closer to the muzzle the rear sight gets)

Don't get too hung up on where they go, if you cant't see the sights, it leds to a lot of frustration. A lot of the originals had the rear sight moved up the barrel a few times to accommodate the shooter's eyes as he aged or his eye sight got worse.
 
What I would do is to determine your near-point of vision by holding a yard stick under one eye and place a large pin or vent pick along side of the yard stick. Slide the pin towards you until it goes out of focus. Slowly move it away from you until it just comes into clear focus. That is your near point of vision. You can then use this to position your rear sight.

You might want to move it a little further towards the muzzle than this because as you age, your near point of vision moves further away from your eye. This natural process is called presbyopia and occurs because as you get older, the elasticity of your lens decreases, making it more difficult to focus on objects that are closer to the eye.
 
Excellent advice gents thanx! The ways things are agoin with my eyeballs and site .. pretty soon my front site and rear will be "one and the same" site up front! :cursing:

Davy
 
I assemble the gun first and figure out how I will carry it so that when my hand is wrapped around it I won't have the rear sight under the palm of my hand; then I place the sight (usually behind where I hold the gun). A slightly fuzzy rear sight is no problem. The eye can still find the center of it.
 
On average I put my sights out from the breech around 12"-13". Most of the older fellas like that. :grin:
 
I like my rear sight just a bit ahead of the ballance point, just ahead of my hand in one handed carry. On the Blue Ridge I just rebarreled that is 13" from the breech but I like to measure from the buttplate. That provides a reference which works for all types of long guns.
 
Greeting Captgary,

The front sight (center of dovetail) should be no less than 1-1/2 inch from the end of the muzzle, and no more than 1-7/8 inch.

Many a first time ML rifle builder has made the mistake of placing the front sight too close to the muzzle, giving it the appearance of a modern centerfire rifle.

Everybody else has given good advice on the placement of the rear sight.

Best regards and good shooting

John L. Hinnant

If you are not an NRA Member, why not? I am carrying your load.
 
Thanks for the insight, going 1 1/2 inch from the end of the barrel for the front. And use Bioprof's method for the rear, on my GPR the back sight is really fuzzy, Guess the old eyeballs aint what they use to be..........

:thumbsup: :hatsoff:

amazing what one can pick up on this forum :bow:
 
Greetings Captgary,

For range work or competition, a pair ground prescription ground shooting glasses are well worth the investment.

My bifocals are totally worthless for open sight shooting; can get a decent sight picture without the bifocals. Good enough for hunting. Still need the bifocals for looking around (unless it is a pretty girl)

I prefer the shooting glasses called KnobLocks, You can find information about them on some of my other post.

Best regards and good shooting,

John L. Hinnant

If you are not an NRA Member, why not? I am carrying your load.
 
i put my rear sight just infront of the balance point as mentioned above,, they are perfect, all three of them.. :shake: dave
 
Back
Top