homemade peep sight for my 50cal hawken

[corey012778]

first thing first, i don't have metal work experience at all, so I normally shy away from this type of work. but you just have to break down and give it an try.

22ga steel

one of the adjustment lines is not straight nor long enough. the peep hole is off center. but still, an working sight.

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd231/corey012778/007-1.jpg

[gnoahhh]

Well done! Looks functional if a bit crude. Form follows function!

You must have good eyes to be able to use a barrel mounted peep. There will come a day when you'll be looking to make a tang mounted peep!

[corey012778]

I wear glasses but it works. it was my first try. going to make the next one more centered.

as for tang mounted, I need more then tin snips, dremel, and hand drill

[corey012778]

2nd attempt

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd231/corey012778/004-4.jpg

[gnoahhh]

Good initiative. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Hint: drill the peep hole first in an extra-wide piece of stock if you're having trouble centering it. Then trim down the sides of the extra wide stock with a file until the hole is centered and the stock is proper width. For the slots, mark where you want them to be, with a center line scratched along it's length. Then start by drilling a hole the width of the slot at each end, then more holes along your centerline until most of the mat'l in the slot is wasted away. Clean up the now-jagged drilled out slot with a file and you're done. Repeat on the other side. All you need to add to your repertoire is a suitable small flat file. Lose the Dremel. Snips, hand drill and files are all you need.

[BerdanIII]

I got fabulously lazy and Super-Glued a washer to the rear sight of my Ishapore 2A; it worked just as well as the original sight. I didn't know until then that Ed's Red will soften SuperGlue....

[Buckshot]

...............Doesn't matter what it looks like so long as it does what you want. The biggest problem dealing with things that size is, "How do you hold'em!!"? I sure don't recommend via your fingers! What works well for something like that is to take a piece of sheet metal and bend a short leg at a 90º angle. Now, smear some rubber cement (contact cement) on the back of your workpiece and on your sheetmetal holder. Now set your workpiece on the ledge you bent out and press the workpiece back to stick against the cement on the sheetmetal.

So now your small metal workpiece is stuck to the sheetmetal, and it's bottom edge is sitting on the ledge you bent out. The glue will do a good job of keeping it in place with the ledge doing the main work of resisting any twisting movement the rotating cutter in the Dremel may be exerting. When you're done, a bit of carb cleaner or Acetone will cut the rubber cement to remove and fully clean up your workpiece.

I did something similar years back for the rear sight on my Whitworth ML'er.

http://www.fototime.com/1D8F7FECFE6061E/standard.jpg

It has windage slots, but since it's on the front face of the ladder you can't see'em. Makes a big difference vs a wide shallow V.

...............Buckshot