Which Lyman 17A for Carbine?

[Phineas Bluster]

Deleted

[Scharfschuetze]

It will depend on if your carbines have a ramp front sight or not.

I use the .404" height on my Marlin rifle length lever guns without a ramp with good success.

My Winchesters have ramp front sights and are a no go due to the height of the sight when placed on the ramp. For those I use a good blade front sight with the aperture rear sights. That gives me a military sight picture which for me is way more precise than a bead. As I use the blade inserts in the 17A, it amounts to really no difference in the sight picture for me at any rate.

The lower .404" sight also gives you more useful elevation adjustment with your rear sight for longer range shooting.

If you are a large man with large cheek bones, the low sight might mean scrunching down on the stock's comb uncomfortably. If that's the case, then the two higher sight options from Lyman would be in order.

Two Marlin rifles with the .404" 17A sight.

[Scharfschuetze]

This morning I checked a Marlin 336C I have apart in the shop and the ramp mounted sight is in the .250" neighborhood. Oh well, it seems I'll have to find a square blade of the proper height and width.

I constantly look for old square blade front sights at gun shows.

Another option that I tried that works well is this:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/363283/marlin-front-ramp-sight-red-insert-marlin-model-45

It's a pliable nylon material that makes it easy to install. Don't let the color put you off. I sprayed it with flat black sight spray and the Model 64 (ramp sight) sight cover keeps it protected and black as midnight. I guess a flat black paint would also work.

[olafhardt]

I made the sights on many of our guns. The front sights I prefer are made from dove tail blanks drilled and tapped for nylon screws which are trimmed to the appropriate hights at the range. They show up in the woods but disapear agianst a white back ground. Cold blue or heat blued steel can be used as can brass. If the skinny screw sticks up higher than I think looks good, I screw a nut on it. I started doing this several years ago and really like the nylon screws but I don't have to deal with snow.
I take short pieces of 1/2×1/8 flat steel and file or ground into a dove tail blank which I then drill and tap. I have thought that spare screws of different hights could be stored in holes drilled and tapped into the stock.
I get 1/2×1/8 flat steel at hardware stores.

[Scharfschuetze]

Here's what I use on drizzly or rainy days instead of carbide on my rifles and handguns.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/124525/birchwood-casey-sight-black-gun-finish-825-oz-aerosol-matte-black

It works a treat on that ghastly orange plastic sight. I sprayed mine a couple of years ago and as it has a sight cover, I haven't had to respray.

[beagle]

Here's another idea that's cheap and easily doable. I was looking for an aperture front for a M94 and ran into your delima. Had several front sights in my "spare" box. We took one that was the same as on the M94, ground it down leaving a small ridge. Cut a slot in the ridge with a Dremel and found a #4 steel washer (smaller outside diameter) and silver soldered it in place. This gave us an aperture with the center hole the same height as the original front blade and the hood fit over it nicely. Spray painted it flat black. Worked well for me and eliminated some of the vertical stringing I was getting. Too slow for field and game shooting./beagle