1903 Springfield receiver sight help

[iron brigade]

Hello all,
my 1903 was drilled and tapped for a Lyman or other receiver sight at some point in its past. The rifle does have a rear sight on it but was missing the windage adjustment screw which I added, perhaps incorrectly. I shoot cast boolits only in the rifle and is quite accurate with "The Load" for the first couple shots then wanders to the right.
It is a repeatable occurrence. I would like to add a receiver sight to the rifle but am unsure which one to put on it. the holes seem to be drilled off center from one another. and are spaced 0.600 apart or 5/8" ctc. one hole being lower than the other. trying to figure out which sight would work.
see pic if it loads. will not load picture.

any help would be appreciated.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Kind of a toughie without seeing the rifle. Are the holes on the right or left side of the receiver? There have been many receiver sights manufactured for the M1903, but I would hazard a guess that more requiring the drilling of holes have been made for right side mounting than left. The models that I am familiar with have the holes drilled at the same level, so it is possible that your drill job was screwed up by an amateur. Unless your description rings a bell with someone I think the way to proceed would to be to have a phone conversation with the most prolific receiver sight manufactures, such as Lyman, Williams, and Redfield and to describe your off-set holes and measurements. You may very well have a representative of one of those companies identify the holes as fitting one of their sights. Just on a hunch, I'd start with Williams. If no one will own up to having made a sight with those screw hole specifications then you have the option of TIG welding up one or both of the holes and starting over. You might also need to know the screw size and thread that fits the existing holes for a positive ID.

[iron brigade]

Hi and thanks, the holes are on the right side of the rifle. They could be a botched job, but looks like a sight was installed in the past. Stock is inletted a bit. Try as I might the picture won't load. Great idea about contacting various companies.

[Gewehr-Guy]

The .600 hole spacing is what a Lyman 48 has, but they are straight apart,not off centered. One screw MIGHT hold the sight OK, if you can keep it tight.

[iron brigade]

Loctite might do the trick. I have looked at a bunch of sights on eBay checking the screw hole alignment. Must be an odd ball.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Depending on how far out of line the holes are you may be able to elongate the holes in the sight base itself.

Just for reference the holes should be on the Horizontal Centerline of the receiver. The holes are .594 apart and are 6-48 holes.

The problem with drilling and tapping holes in these receivers is that they are Case Hardened about .015-.020 deep and the surface is really hard. Thus drills will wander. Also since they are "Case Hardened" they are hard on the outside and the "inside" of the receiver as well. So you have to break thru the outside, and then there is soft metal, then you have to break thru the inside as well. Lots of times the drill will break when breaking thru the inside.

When I did mine I did it on the Mill. I have prefect alignment. I had to use a grinding burr to break thru the Case Hardening on the outside, and then drilled thru.

Tapping the holes was not that easy and I broke the same tap 4 separate times when trying to tap thru the inside Case. It took me nearly 4 hours of sweating blood to drill and tap 2 holes!!! There was also a healthy dose of blind luck and divine guidance involved.

Springfields are not easy.

I would suggest either a Lyman #48 or #57 for your gun and I'd be looking on Ebay until I found nice older Steel one I could afford. That's what I did.

The new ones are aluminum as are Williams sights.

If you set the base on the receiver squarely and the two holes are close to lining up you can enlarge the holes enough so you can get the screws in. The base indexes off it's curvature on the back side. That is what makes it sit square. As long as one hole will not move it from its correct position the other hole can be enlarged until the screw will thread in.

Then you're in business.

This is what it should look like when you're done.

Randy

[vzerone]

You're right Randy, those Springfields are hard! I done three Remington one time and it was a breeze. I was also surprised to find the rear receiver ring and a 7.7 Jap Arasaka very easy too. Good thing I didn't have to do any holes/threads on the front receiver ring of those.

[gnoahhh]

A little late to the conversation, but if it were mine and the holes were mis-aligned, I would drill out a large hole that would capture the bad hole, thread it, and install a plug. Then drill and tap a new properly aligned 6-48 hole into that plug. Being under the sight, no one will ever see it. This operation would go a lot better if you have access to a mill, or access to someone with a mill.

[vzerone]

More then likely those holes will fit some receiver sight. I'd wait and see if you can find the one that does. Now if you want to start anew, rather then drill those out larger and plug them, I'd rather TIG weld it. Then dress the weld down and redrill for whatever sight you want.

[justashooter]

i agree that TIG welding the errant hole shut and re-tapping is a viable option. material property effect from the welding in this area is a non-issue.

[iron brigade]

All good ideas and answers. I bid on and won a Lyman 57 SME sight on eBay for $41.00. Should be here this week. Older steel model
I will mess around with it then. I don't own a tig welder so that idea is out. Perhaps some type of epoxy would work.

[iron brigade]

Well gents, I have installed the sight. I enlarged the top of one hole and the bottom of the other.
It went right on.
Thanks for all of your imput.

[W.R.Buchanan]

See I knew you could do it! Not that hard was it?

Randy

[gnoahhh]

Is the sight tight, and will it stay tight forever and ever, amen? Anchored with two elongated holes...

[iron brigade]

Well, I put 30 rounds through it the other day and the sight remains tight for now. I guess time will tell........