Cocking Piece Sight (Arms & the Man, vol 69)

[Bent Ramrod]

Any kind of lead screw arrangement is going to wear, so the click indexing method is, at least theoretically, a flawed design. Minor variances in the position of the cocking piece sight would, also, theoretically, add to the dispersion of shooting. Whether the movement of the cocking piece sight would make the shooting less accurate, in the practical sense, than the backlash in the Lyman 48 adjustments, or in a well-used Whelen bolt-shroud adjustment screw, or the eye error with the notch-and-bead barrel sight, or the slop in standard "set and forget" hunting scopes, is the real issue.

The only people who really are affected by these considerations are the most critical of target shooters, those guys who shoot at game animals at extreme distances and write it up to impress the natives, and gun writers pressed for a topic and a deadline. The problem is that their complaints get to the ninety-and-nine who would otherwise be using these sights with perfect satisfaction. Hope springs eternal that some minor technical improvement in equipment will take them from the chimney-corner of their "B" shooting to the cotillion of "AAA" shooting with no additional effort on their part. They abandon the good old standbys, which then go out of production, and spend more money on the latest advancements. Their shooting does not improve much, and the marketers are pleased with the new revenue streams, but the ultimate result for the rest of us is the reduction of the choices in equipment we used to take for granted.

[Larry Gibson]

"I used to make these. I don't any longer because they're damned difficult to stabilize on that third axis well enough to ensure the same position each time the rifle's cocked."

Not only must the sight be stabilized to the same position on when cocked but many times on many actions the rear of the cocking piece is also pulled down slightly as the trigger is pulled. Probably not a problem on top end quality rifles but on many milsurps it is. I have used such cocking piece sights on '03s, Mausers and MNs and found none of them gave precision accuracy. Sufficient to hit a deer out to 100 yards perhaps but not any where near as precise as a receiver mount similar sight. On actions where up and down and side to side movement can be stabilized and repeatable such sights prove satisfactory for their intended purpose.

Larry Gibson

[kootne]

I really like Leroy Rice's solution to bolt mounted peep sights, but I think they were only adapted to Krags. It would not be a good choice for a target shooter but on a hunting rifle it's the best. Simple, light weight, inexpensive at the time.

[KCSO]

Let see you cut off the knb on the springfield cocking piece to get a lighter firing pin and then you add a sight? I just never couldsee why these lasted as long as they did. Admittedly nice work but the wrong place to add a sight imho.

[3006guns]

I have a cocking piece sight..........on a Mosin Nagant! It was a Lyman offering from many years ago and came with the sporterized MN. Someone went to a lot of trouble to put a decent walnut sporter stock on this gun along with a good trigger. Of course, it's a Westinghouse octagon receiver rifle so it was worth it. Evidently they got tired of it though as the barrel was struck and polished, but never blued. I have yet to shoot it, but the sight looks perfectly adequate for hunting even allowing for any striker movement.

I have another, a Lyman #35 that is a prized possession. It mounts on the ejector box of any standard Mauser and right now it's on a Yugo that I shortened into a short rifle/carbine for behind the pickup seat. With the issue sights I can get close to the 200 yard gong......with the Lyman I can smack it every time. With my 66 year old eyes that's quite an accomplishment! I really wish someone would manufacture that sight again. With all the surplus 98's that flooded the market years ago there would be a demand!

[W.R.Buchanan]

The Whelen/Howe sight has a hard stop on one side of the base and a spring loaded plunger on the other side which removes all slack from the positioning of the sight everytime the bolt is closed. The result is that it's position repeats everytime.

I have use similar stops on very close tolerance grinding machines which were expected to repeat their positions under a grinding wheel literally hundreds of times every shift. They work perfectly.

This sight shares many common components with the Lyman #48 which was the premier sighting device of the day. It's two main advantages are that it increased the Sight Radius by another 3+ inches which when used with a Ghost Ring Aperture extended your shooting time longer into the twilight period, and it looked really cool.

I would push the "Looks Really Cool" part as the best reason to build one.

Randy

[StrawHat]

I would like to have something like this for a Swedish Mauser I have. Even something as simple as just a threaded hole in the cocking piece with a tapped eye bolt installed. Just looking for adding to a hunting rifle, not looking for target work. I try to keep things as simple as possible and as mechanically simple as can be made. For my purpose, the cocking piece sight would only adjust vertically. Any horizontal movement would be obtained with the dovetailed fore sight.

Kevin

[EDG]

You can always design in anti-backlash springs and tight tolerances to minimize mechanical errors.
Virtually ever machinist that ever lived knew to back out the tool and set it going into the work to remove backlash.
That technique work with sights also.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Scopes too!

Randy