1894Win. shorter front sight

[RU shooter]

Where can I find a shorter blade for my 1920's era 1894 32 spl. I shoot only cast through it and no matter what load I shoot I cant get it to hit to the sights at 100 yds(always 6-8"low) unless I flip the rear ladder sight up and dont really want to do that out hunting. The blade that is on it now is marked Marbles and 894 on the other side Is this number the blade height or for what rifle its for just missing the number one?

Thanks,Tim

[Heavy lead]

Seems like an awfull tall blade if that number were the height. Measure from the bottom of the dovetail to top of blade, that is the height you have. Should be able to order one shorter, or file it shorter if the sight itself has no collector value. Midway, or Brownells has a great assortment of Marbles, Lyman and Williams you could replace it with.

[beagle]

I had that problem as well. I measured the one I had and went to Brownell's and ordered all different heigths. Go to the range, set the rear on the lowest notch and switch fronts until i'm on at 50 yards and I'm ready.

Or, take a screwed up front from your local gunsmith (he probably has 50) grind the blade off and drill and tap for a 4-40 set screw. Install this and adjust to what you want as a lower notch zero, measure and order one from Brownell's of the nearest heigth./beagle

[ra_balke]

I have a m 94 25 /35 made in yr 1912, and I bought a piece of flat ss steel .063 as I recall, then I made one to fit,, it seems to be working fine.

Just make it too high, and file it down at the range till it cuts the target where you want.

[RU shooter]

Seems like an awfull tall blade if that number were the height. Measure from the bottom of the dovetail to top of blade, that is the height you have. Should be able to order one shorter, or file it shorter if the sight itself has no collector value. Midway, or Brownells has a great assortment of Marbles, Lyman and Williams you could replace it with. Problem is its not a dovetailed sight its pinned in place similar to a 03 Springfield sight . I it would be easy enough to make a plain blade as ra balke stated but I wanted one with the small bead on it like the original .All anyone seems to sell is dovetailed fronts

[Jon K]

RU,

Is it a sweat on or a screw on Front Ramp?

Jon

[skeet1]

9764

RU Shooter
I'm not sure if this will help you or not. The top of the chart pretains to Swede rifles but the bottom chart should help you decide what hight sight you need. When you decide you can get the one you want from Marbles. I hope I got the attachment right.

Skeet1

[RU shooter]

RU,

Is it a sweat on or a screw on Front Ramp?

Jon Its not really a ramp but just a small square block maybe 3/8 long x1/4 wide with a groove cut in the middle for the sight blade which goes the entire way down to the top of the barrel. I assume its sweated or welded on dont know how exactly they did back in the 20's

[Larry Gibson]

RU Shooter

Odds are you are not going to find a replacement blade for the front sight. I'd make one in stead of filing down the original. Make it tall enough and zero with the best hunting load to be used. Do this with the rear sight down of course filing the new front sight down until desired zero is obtained at 100 yards (suggest 2-3" high for a 150-175 yard zero). Then you should be fairly close with other cast loads. That is what I do with several similar sights I use.

Larry Gibson

[John F.]

This is almost certainly a Winchester CARBINE that he is talking about, and his pre-dates the ramp front sight with dovetail slot which came in shortly prior to WW2.
It should have a narrow, slotted block permanently attached to the barrel, and the sight is a blade pinned into the block. Replacements were available for many years and can still be found.

I have seen original Marble's and Lyman pinned-style 94 carbine front sights on Ebay fairly often, and bought 1 new in the original envelope (but very old!) not too long ago. I agree that to keep the 94's collector value intact, one should not modify the original sight. However, correct replacements are available if you look for a while. Having an idea of what measurement you are looking for will help, and Brownells website has a "front sight height calculator" which may be useful to you.

Hope this helps,
John

[Pepe Ray]

RUshooter;
If you'd measure and post the dimensions you may find that there is someone with a junk drawer full of them and eager to help.
From your remarks i deduce that you want a bead.
1. hgt.
2.thickness
3. bead diameter.
Pepe Ray

[missionary5155]

Thin piece of steel and a file...

[RU shooter]

This is almost certainly a Winchester CARBINE that he is talking about, and his pre-dates the ramp front sight with dovetail slot which came in shortly prior to WW2.
It should have a narrow, slotted block permanently attached to the barrel, and the sight is a blade pinned into the block. Replacements were available for many years and can still be found.

I have seen original Marble's and Lyman pinned-style 94 carbine front sights on Ebay fairly often, and bought 1 new in the original envelope (but very old!) not too long ago. I agree that to keep the 94's collector value intact, one should not modify the original sight. However, correct replacements are available if you look for a while. Having an idea of what measurement you are looking for will help, and Brownells website has a "front sight height calculator" which may be useful to you.

Hope this helps,
John
Correct its a Carbine not a rifle, I always forget that point since the Rifle are very rare around here, carbines are all we see in my area. Thanks everyone for the ideas I'll take a look on ebay and if no dice there I'll try to fab. one including the top bead.

[fecmech]

If you want to keep the bead why not remove your current sight, file the required amount off the bottom of the blade and redrill the hole slightly higher for the pin??