Buckshot
04-02-2005, 08:01 AM
http://www.fototime.com/252FAAEEFDECA72/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/103B7CD70CB7B7A/standard.jpg
Front and rear views of the sight on the rifle. In the left photo you can see where I drilled and tapped 2 mounting holes in the tang, but changed my mind. The lug is authentic. In the right photo, if you look closely at the top of the block the staff is attached to you can maybe see a screwhead? There is a hole through the block for a plunger to ride in that slot visible on the front of the lug.
The plunger is an extractor plunger from an M1 Garand :oops: Heck, it keeps the sight upright or lying down! That fancy stuff on the hammer was done with a carbide dental burr :o and checkering done with a thread chasing file. Doesn't look too bad unless you get real close!
http://www.fototime.com/57421DC9AAF1E5B/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/5D3A786C22A881E/standard.jpg
On the left shows I'd cut the bottom connecting part of the sightstaff off, and welded it to the block I'd made. The block was a piece of keystock and I milled through to form the 2 legs. The block was then drilled through top to bottom with the hole stepping down to pass the nose of the Garand extracter plunger. The top was tapped to accept a plug screw to capture the plunger spring.
These tang sights designed for cartridge rifles aren't a direct fit as these LR match rifles are very straight through the wrist, without much fall. As a consequence a sight 'as is' would sit too high. So as mentioned above I had to cut the base part off to lower it. It didn't affect the useable range of the sight staff, as it still has it's full 4-1/2 minutes of elevation for getting out to 1000 yards.
The tangsight started out as one of those $50 Italian flip-flop type deals which are a real abortion in gross windage adjustments. While fairly inexpensive, they're actually no too badly done overall (construction wise). There IS a bit of improvement to be made though. On the elevation screw, up top you can see the 2 washers I placed on either side of the guide up top. There was so much slop before that the elevation screw would come almost all the way out of the bottom guide to flap in the breeze. Now you can put a dial indicator on the eyepiece and you just barely have to turn the elevation knob, and the dial indicater will show movement.
Speaking of rear sights, 3 of us sent off and had Lee Shaver do his magic to 4 of the cheap Italian tang sights. A couple of thes had mild design differences and the prices ranged from $85 to $95.
http://www.fototime.com/193D60B7CD23034/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/3144C594B86259F/standard.jpg
This is a poor example of the Shaver conversion to Soule type windage format. They cut off the base of the staff and fit the Soule cylinder which is spring loaded internally. In the left photo the bright rectangle plate which is all washed out from the light carries a vernier scale and there is a witness mark engraved on the base.
The right photo also doesn't do justice to their work. On this sight, the vernier markings on the staff had been so lightly marked from the factory that Lee's worker bee's couldn't highlight it very well without compeletly removing them. Otherwise what they do is to buff the side of the staff to bring the markings into high relief and then engrave a matching vernier scale on the eyecup slider so you have real vernier markings.
The work is of such a level that I heartily recommend anyone suffering with one of the cheap Italian tang sights to get it off to Lee Shaver, so you'll get something back you can actually use and depend on.
................Buckshot
Front and rear views of the sight on the rifle. In the left photo you can see where I drilled and tapped 2 mounting holes in the tang, but changed my mind. The lug is authentic. In the right photo, if you look closely at the top of the block the staff is attached to you can maybe see a screwhead? There is a hole through the block for a plunger to ride in that slot visible on the front of the lug.
The plunger is an extractor plunger from an M1 Garand :oops: Heck, it keeps the sight upright or lying down! That fancy stuff on the hammer was done with a carbide dental burr :o and checkering done with a thread chasing file. Doesn't look too bad unless you get real close!
http://www.fototime.com/57421DC9AAF1E5B/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/5D3A786C22A881E/standard.jpg
On the left shows I'd cut the bottom connecting part of the sightstaff off, and welded it to the block I'd made. The block was a piece of keystock and I milled through to form the 2 legs. The block was then drilled through top to bottom with the hole stepping down to pass the nose of the Garand extracter plunger. The top was tapped to accept a plug screw to capture the plunger spring.
These tang sights designed for cartridge rifles aren't a direct fit as these LR match rifles are very straight through the wrist, without much fall. As a consequence a sight 'as is' would sit too high. So as mentioned above I had to cut the base part off to lower it. It didn't affect the useable range of the sight staff, as it still has it's full 4-1/2 minutes of elevation for getting out to 1000 yards.
The tangsight started out as one of those $50 Italian flip-flop type deals which are a real abortion in gross windage adjustments. While fairly inexpensive, they're actually no too badly done overall (construction wise). There IS a bit of improvement to be made though. On the elevation screw, up top you can see the 2 washers I placed on either side of the guide up top. There was so much slop before that the elevation screw would come almost all the way out of the bottom guide to flap in the breeze. Now you can put a dial indicator on the eyepiece and you just barely have to turn the elevation knob, and the dial indicater will show movement.
Speaking of rear sights, 3 of us sent off and had Lee Shaver do his magic to 4 of the cheap Italian tang sights. A couple of thes had mild design differences and the prices ranged from $85 to $95.
http://www.fototime.com/193D60B7CD23034/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/3144C594B86259F/standard.jpg
This is a poor example of the Shaver conversion to Soule type windage format. They cut off the base of the staff and fit the Soule cylinder which is spring loaded internally. In the left photo the bright rectangle plate which is all washed out from the light carries a vernier scale and there is a witness mark engraved on the base.
The right photo also doesn't do justice to their work. On this sight, the vernier markings on the staff had been so lightly marked from the factory that Lee's worker bee's couldn't highlight it very well without compeletly removing them. Otherwise what they do is to buff the side of the staff to bring the markings into high relief and then engrave a matching vernier scale on the eyecup slider so you have real vernier markings.
The work is of such a level that I heartily recommend anyone suffering with one of the cheap Italian tang sights to get it off to Lee Shaver, so you'll get something back you can actually use and depend on.
................Buckshot