Do I really have to?

[Limey]

I have just fitted the Pedersoli long range tang sight to my new Pedersoli 45/70 Sharps replica.....looks fabulous.

I did all the two spirit level stuff to get the sight set at a perfect right angle to the barrel....fiddly but not difficult....and just as I nipped up the screws locking the sight into place it hit me,.......NO!,....not the sight...... but the fact that with it in place I cannot clean the rifle from the breech to the muzzle direction!!!!

Do I really have to take the sight off every time I want to clean the gun now?....

...or do I simply only clean it from muzzle to breech.....in this direction any crud pushed out by the rod/brush/jag/patch goes into the breech block mechanism and the Tang sight!

How do you guy's get over this situation or is it spirit levels every time?

Safe shooting

Limey

[Gussy]

There is only one thing I can think of, do you have the sight base on correctly? On a Sharps, at least mine, the staff is to the rear (base is so that the staff is rear of center of the base).

I do not have to take the sight off to clean. I DO remove the eye piece so that the staff lays flat on the stock.

[freedom475]

I have an Axtel (riflesmith) tang sight on my Pedersoli '74'and as long as I don't remove the base, I have no trouble with maintaining my zero after removing the rear sight for cleaning or transport. I'm not sure about Pedersoli's but the Axtel is held in place by a large thumb screw. If the Pedersoli is held by a "screwdriver" screw you may be able to get a thumb screw style replacement.

I carry the gun on a lot of my wilderness trips (sometimes on a horse) and I carry the tang sight in a leather bag in my pocket. This keeps my expensive sight safe, clean and out of the way.

A friend of mine shot his rifle with the tang folded and almost lost his EYE! He now has a nice scar on his face to remind him of the indescretion.

When I have the oportunity to take a fast shot at 100-250yrds I just shoot, using the factory ladder. If I get a shot at a quarter mi. I usually have time to put my tang on and get it set to the proper setting for the range.( a range finder is part of my "rig" when I'm hunting with the sharps).

Hope this helps,

Freedom475

[iron mule]

hello limey are you sure you put the sight on correctly it should fold to the rear and allow you plenty of space to clean the barrel from the rear ////mule

[waksupi]

Something is wrong there. I have a Parts Unknown sight on my Pedersoli, and can clean from the breech. Move the eyecup down to where it clears the comb, and I have plenty room.

[kodiak1]

Turn the rifle upside down clean from the muzzle and the crud will fall on to the floor or ground!!!LOL
Ken.

[wills]

Something is wrong there. I have a Parts Unknown sight on my Pedersoli, and can clean from the breech. Move the eyecup down to where it clears the comb, and I have plenty room.

What he said only rolling block.

[Limey]

I had the sight is set up so that it folded forward towards the breech.......on reading your replies it would appear I needed to reverse the way the sight is mounted so it could fold rearward towards the stock.

Just to make sure of these recomendations I got out 'THE' seminal reference material out to see which way the Sharp's Guru mounted and folded his Tang sight.....yes, that's right.......my copy of 'Quigley down under' DVD........and indeed, he does fold his Tang sight rearward!

So I duly reversed my sight so it now folded rearward......but now the windage adjustment pinch screw fouled the mounting preventing the sight folding down enough so that cleaning rods could be used from the breech end so better at all.....

The only way I can realisticly clean from the breech end is by leaving the sight mounting base on the stock of the rifle and removing the pivoting vernier scale section.

However my Tang sight, Pedersoli Part No: USA 431 (this has a 3 inch tall elevation scale) has a leaf spring that engages with a positioning slot under the pivot point of the vertical piece........and to facilitate removal of the pinch screw you have to loosen the mounting screw of the leaf spring or the pressure of the spring prevents you being able to remove the pivot pinch screw.....and unless you have the leaf spring 'floppy' there is no way you can compress the leaf spring enough to get the vernier section back into position and get it's pivot screw back in!.....unless your names Conan or Rambo and you have thumbs like high tensile steel!!!

......but by doing all this loosening stuff you are straight back to getting the two spirit levels out to correctly re-position the vernier section vertical agin relative to the bore axis!!!!....and continual tightening and loosening of this small screw does not bode well for a long thread life.

You can take the leaf spring out and then it is just like Quigleys....you can put the vernier piece in and out dead easy but then it is down to guess work or two spirit levels to get that damned post vertical again!!!!!

This clearly is a design flaw with this sight......I cannot be the only one who has found this problem....plenty of you guy's on this Forum must have Pedersoli Sharp's and sights and found the same problem......I will e-mail Pedersoli in Italy and find out what they recommend.

Safe shooting (and frustrated cleaning)

Limey

[4060MAY]

it should clear with the eyepiece all the way down
this is not a Pedersoli sight but a Mike Stevens copy of an original Remington Hepburn Sight, as is the USA431 a copy somewhat of the Hepburn sight

[freedom475]

"THE" sight used in the Quigley movie was made buy by/for Axtel "The Riflesmith" company, from sheridan MT.

If you recall, many times during the movie Tom took his sight from his pocket, blew the lint from the eyecup, and mounted it on his rifle.

It is very easy to do and I have no problem maintaining my "square to bore" level.
There is a "flat" spot on the bottom of the sight and with just a little down pressure with your thumb, and a little practice it becomes second nature.

The sight is not as well made as the ones from MVA but they are the best replica
of the origanal Sharps tang. That is why they were chosen for the movie.

The Axtel design is far better and more user friendly than the pedersoli. My longrange Pedersoli tang didn't last too long. I was having trouble getting it plum and gave it a little "tweek" and snaped it right off:(:confused: It seems that where the tang portion and the mounting hole come together there is just a solder joint. It soon joined the "short range" in the junk box.

Oh well it forced me to head for Sheridan the very next day. Carmen kindly took my $500 and sent me home all set up with the new Axtel mounted on my rifle.

A little pricey, but stress the Pedersoli sight had caused,:Fire: it was worth it. That was 8yrs, 100's if not 1000's of of times on&off and 1000's of rounds ago. the threads on the retainer screw/base are still just fine.

[freedom475]

I think I had better add to this before I upset someone with a GOOD pedersoli sight. The sight that came stock on my sharps was Pedersoli's 'el-cheapo sight NOT one of there much better made 'soule style or high grade sights, they are built totally different.

I don't mean to get off track here but I thought I had better say something before someone else did.

Thanks: Freedom475:Fire:

[HEAD0001]

I have the Pedersoli. I do not have that problem. Mine folds out of the way with no problem. Tom.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o223/HEAD0001/IMG_0311.jpg

[Limey]

I got an e-mail from Pedersoli and they too say backwards folding is the correct way to fit their sight.

So I re-fitted the sight so it folded backwards.

But the sight would not fold flat enough because the course windage adjustment locking screw.....that's the one at the bottom of the sight just above the pivot point......stuck out so far it fouled the base mount preventing the sight folding flat.

However, by removing this screw it is possible to fold the sight flat as per the attached photo's on this topic so I can clean from the rear!......clearly somebody at Pedersoli needs to get back on the drawing board!!!!

So I don't loose the windage pinch screw when I have the sight folded flat I screw the screw into the 'wrong' side of the sight ....ie the up side of the folded sight.....and then it's just a simple case of swopping the screw from one side to the other and pinching it up again when I raise the sight to shoot.......it's not a perfect solution but it's accepatable.........is'nt life just a series of compromises?

I hope my experience and solution helps others who experience the same problem and thanks to everybody who has offered advice.

Safe shooting

Limey

[HEAD0001]

Mine folds back with no problem. Could you have something else wrong?? Does yours look like mine?? Tom.:castmine:

[montana_charlie]

Limey,
When you finally got around to saying the model of your sight, the answer became clear. The USA 431 is not designed in a way that is conducive to laying it flat to the buttstock.
(No, Tom, his does not look like yours.)

The 431 is one of Pedersoli's 'better-quality' sights, but the USA 406 Soule is a better choice if you need a lot of windage adjustment. The 431 has enough 'extra' windage for silhouette shooting, while the 406 has enough for long range matches.
But, even the 406 will not lay flat against the stock unless the eyepiece is removed. That is not a big deal, but care must be taken to be certain the little threaded plate on the other side of the staff is not lost.

If the a windage requirement doesn't exist, the USA 430 is of the same quality, but not hampered by that protruding screw which tightens up the windge mechanism on the 431.

It should be noted that, with all three of these sights, the 'significant' thing about mounting them on a Sharps rifle is having the long leg of the base pointing forward.
Reversing the base would be correct for a HiWall (for instance).
And, all of them will lay forward or back...not just one or the other...regardless of how the base is used.

My (pre-owned) Pedersoli came with the 431 sight, and I did manage to remove and replace the staff in the base...without changing the adjustment of the staff spring. But, as you said, it takes strong thumbs.
I used it for a while, then moved on...primarily because of that rear screw.

As for Quigley's sight...
Yes, he laid it down on the stock after running the eyepiece down, but it was a sight much like Tom's (HEAD0001) in overall style...and quite similar to Pedersoli's 430. But, it probably did not have a vernier scale for adjusting elevation.

You can see all of the Pedersoli tang sights here...
http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/accessoriDettaglio.aspx?CategoriaId=1315&lang=en

CM

[4060MAY]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7y9vtVG4eY&feature=related

[Limey]

Montana Charlie,

You are right on the button with my problem......

......thank goodness somebody with a lot more experience than me had the same problem and understands what a hassle that lower windage locking screw is when it comes to folding down this particular model of Pedersoli Tang Sight.

The large head of this screw hit's the mounting base long before the sight is laying flat along the top of the stock......by removing the screw from the back of the sight you can lower the sight some more to facilitate using cleaning rods from the rear....so I do not lose the screw between usuage I screw the screw back into the sight but on the up side of the sight when it's led down.......wow!, that's hard to discribe for such s simple action!

If anybody else looks at the URL Montana Charlie references in his topic....it's the sight, Ref 431, top row, extreme right.......if you look at the pivot point you will clearly see the very large head of the lower windage locking screw poking out...........however this windage screw's one good point is that you can use a coin to nip or un-nip it at the range rather than a screw driver.

Anyway, with it set up as you described MC.......it would still not fold rearwards!!!!!, forwards yes, rearwards?, no way..........boy was I mad, I have had that sight on and off so many times trying to get it to work like all you guy's said it should.

I studed the set up really hard and it had to be the locating leaf spring......it had just too much ''leaf''.....ie spring set, so off it came, some carefully applied blows with a small engineering hammer while resting on a hard wood block took about a 1/16th of an inch out of it's set.........and now?........success!!!, it'll fold back or forward now and the sping still has enough set left to positively locate the sight in the correct 90 degree position in relation to the bore axis......so a big thank you to everybodies input and interest in helping a BP newby to fix this problem.

Safe shooting

Limey