Pedersoli 1885 High wall with Steve Baldwin sights need help with adjustments

I just bought a used Pedersoli 1885 high wall 45-70 that came with Steve Baldwin tang and globe sights. I received no instructions and I am new to the single shot game. I have a Ped. Sharps 1874 with Ped. mid-range tang sight and spirit globe front. With it, you turn the right knob on the rear windage left or counterclockwise to move POI left, and right to move it right. The knob has divisions on the shaft that go 0-1-2-3-4, where each number represents 0.5 MOA and one full revolution is 2.5 MOA. I am thinking the Baldwin is opposite in direction, clockwise moves POI left. It also has divisions on the shaft, what is one full revolution of the windage shaft? And, am I right on the direction to move the windage?

Steve will make sights turn the way the customer requests. If not a special the standard is like Olympic match sights.

By turning the sights you can see which way they are going. You have to see the movement or you can not adjust them.
I will assume you have the standard sight.
Windage; clockwise will move the staff left (think of it just like screwing in a screw), counter clockwise right, just like unscrewing the screw.
Windage is divided into 3moa per rotation. The knob has long and short marks.
Long lines are the whole minutes. Short lines are the half minutes.

Elevation is the same rotation, clockwise = down, counter clockwise = up
You will need to learn to use a vernier caliper - it is easy.

I am not going to take time to write a lesson. I will see if I can find a well written one and post it if someone does not beat me to it. You can look it up too.

Sometimes the sight needs to be tightened up if the windage starts to turn too easy. Ask for help so you don't bugger the screws up. OR!! Call Steve for help on this one. He does not bite and will be very willing to get it going for you.

You have a top of the line sight. Have fun.

Thanks Chill Wills. Yeah, the elevation is not a problem at all, and the windage, I could see it move, but just wanted it etched in my gray matter which way was what. I did not know the 3 MOA per revo or the major and minor hashes. I believe I will give Steve a call because I also need to see how to change aperatures and to move the front globe sight. It has some gap under the sight in the dovetail slot and I can see a set screw, so I need to know how to get to it. And yes, the Vernier was a little like my calipers to learn, but now, I am referring to the movements as points and it is relatively easy, just have to keep a little book for each rifle on the points for each distance. Thanks.

Sure. I am glad you are making friends with it. It is a good sight.
The Baldwin front uses set screw in combination with friction with the dovetail. The apertures can be removed by unscrewing the barrel screw (end part). This is not a slotted screw but rather it is a threaded barrel inside the sight barrel. Look at it and you will see how the sight insert goes in and out the slot. Then re-tighten the barrel end.

The dovetail screw needs to be loosened first to move the front sight in the dovetail, L or R to correct for ZERO wind zero. To access the set screw, remove the front sight glass level (unscrew level end cap) to insert the alien wrench (key) from the top (through the small hole in the top of the sight barrel). Re-tighten set-screw when done adjusting front sight L or R and then replace the glass level.

It may be very hard to remove the front sight level's end-cap with out buggering it up. But, careful pliers work in combination with a padded bit of leather in the jaws can work for without leaving marks.

All this sounds harder than it is. After the first time, it is easy.
Michael Rix

How is the trigger working on your rifle, I know the guy who had it and he had alot of trouble with it.

Chill Wills, thanks for the info. I managed to get the "barrel" off the globe and replaced the aperature with a different one. I had not read your post reply yet, but I did see a tiny hole in the top. I had another friend locally that has a Baldwin and he was talking to me over the phone. We could not figure out how to get to the set screw. That makes total sense, now. I will gingerly, try to remove the end cap off the level and hopefully, I can do that and then find a small enough allen wrench to go thru the small hole and loosen the set screw so I can drift the sight. Thanks for the info!! It is an allen screw, isn't it?

How to read a Vernier Sight

Just a note that the actual adjustment on sights depends on the sight radius. Up close it doesn't matter a lot, but the further out you go the more important it becomes. One full rotation of the windage knob may be 3 MOA with a 36 inch sight radius but it will be more like 2.75 MOA with a 30 inch sight radius.

Have fun with that rifle. I finally got mine to shoot well with a black powder load. Now I want to see if I can find a smokeless load too.

HiWall, I had a little difficulty with my trigger at first. I took some carb cleaner and removed ALL the lubrication from the trigger assembly. Then I lubed it with a lot less and lighter lubricant. Then went to work on the adjustment screw setting. Getting used to a single set trigger took some doing, but I got my sequence down and am comfortable with it.

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Originally Posted by shafer44

Chill Wills, thanks for the info. I managed to get the "barrel" off the globe and replaced the aperature with a different one. I had not read your post reply yet, but I did see a tiny hole in the top. I had another friend locally that has a Baldwin and he was talking to me over the phone. We could not figure out how to get to the set screw. That makes total sense, now. I will gingerly, try to remove the end cap off the level and hopefully, I can do that and then find a small enough allen wrench to go thru the small hole and loosen the set screw so I can drift the sight. Thanks for the info!! It is an allen screw, isn't it?

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Yes it is an allen wrench, I believe a #5 ?, anyway the same allen wrench fits Baldwins, and MVA.

36" divided by the actual sight radius = the moa adjustment.

sight radius means the distance between the front and rear sights, not the barrel length.

36" sight radius = 1.000" = 1 moa @ 100yds
34" sight radius = 1.059" = 1 moa @ 100yds
32" sight radius = 1.125" = 1 moa @ 100yds
30" sight radius = 1.200" = 1 moa @ 100yds

my 30" barreled roller has a sight radius of 33.78" ....
1.066" = 1 moa @ 100yds
2.132" = 1 moa @ 200yds
10.66" = 1 moa @ 1000yds

guys, I do know how to read a Vernier, that is not the problem. The unknown was the windage adjustment on the tang sight. My Pedersoli is 2.5 MOA per revolution, the Baldwin, per info by Chill Wills is 3 MOA per revo. That is what I did not know. And the Baldwin direction for the tang windage is opposite the Pedersoli. Now I am going to search for a #5 allen wrench so I can loosen the set screw and drift my front sight. And for all practical purposes, gongs don't care as much as trying to hit all X rings on paper....each point to me is 1"...works for me.

If you don't have one yet, you may want to get ahold of one of the Wyoming sight drifters. It's a really handy tool for moving front sights, and doing it with some precision, plus if you ever have to remove a sharps firing pin, the thing works great to tap that recoil shield out of the way.

LOVE the wyoming sight drifter! a must have!

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Originally Posted by Don McDowell

Yes it is an allen wrench, I believe a #5 ?, anyway the same allen wrench fits Baldwins, and MVA.

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For what it is worth, I mic'ed the Baldwin allen key that fits the front sight, 0.050" across the flats.
Aren't some Allen keys fractional? SAE keys? I did not know about the # system. Live and learn - 0.050" is sure not fractional.
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Okay - just looked at a chart. .028", .035", .050" and then fractions start with 1/16th.
I bet you wanted to know that!

(don't even start on metric keys) :grin:

Thanks Chill Wills, I too was baffled by this. The smallest allen wrench SAE that I had was 1/16", then when I talked to the other guy at Baldwin sights or Mechanical Accuracy, he told me that it was 0.05" allen wrench. I looked it up on the trusty Home Depot website and of course they are not available in the store, but probably about Monday, they will arrive at the store for my order and pick up in store deal. They had 5 of them for $5. I have another local friend that has a Baldwin sight that came on his rifle and I will give him one of them.

Yeah and before I did that I tried the 1/16" allen wrench and it would not even fit in the hole at the top. I mic'd it and it was 0.0625, that was when I decided to call before I bought the wrong ones. and you are right....metric drives me crazy and it is a short drive!!

.050 is a common size for fine work. As are some of the other numbered Allen heads. Most of my allen sets included a .050 (Bondhus)

I like metric. WIsh everything had changed years ago. Instead I have vehicles with metric and imperial so have to carry around two sets of everything.

Then add in the JIS screws. Looks like Phillips but isn't. If you get the right drivers they are great.

Standard for Steve's tang sights is to adjust the same as a scope does. CCW will move bullet impact to the right.