Replacement sights for Baby Sharps

[tejano]

Gents I recently bought a used Charles Daly Baby Sharps in 38-55. I shot it for the first time yesterday using a Lyman 375449 FNGC sized at .376 that I bought from Montana Bullet Works. I used Starline cases and 16.4 gr. of 2400 that another shooter on this forum recommended. After I figured out how to shoot this little rifle, I finally got it settled in at 2" high at 100 yards in a 3 shot 3" group, but it was 5" to the right. Yes, it was windy day, but 5" is still a bunch.

The rear peep sight is not adjustable for windage, but I suppose that the front dovetail sight can be moved to the right a bit via the trial and error math. (No, I am no longer any good at math.) But that got me to thinking whether I would be better off replacing the rear sight with one that is both height and windage adjustable. Marbles makes such a sight but I am not sure which one would work. Have any of guys already replaced the rear and/or front sights on your Baby?

:veryconfu

[pietro]

Tang peeps sights, that don't have built-in windage adjustability, can be zeroed for windage via shimming under the appropriate side of the tang sight base.

I color any visible shim stock to match the bluing with a Sharpie.

Metallic shim stock is commercially available, or a plastic credit card or a section cut from a cartridge case wall may be used - it all depends upon how "close" you want it to zero.

.

[montana_charlie]

The rear peep sight is not adjustable for windage,
Some of the less sophisticated tang sights do have a little bit of windage adjustment by sliding the aperture right/left before tightening it down.

When present, this adjustment is usually enough to obtain a basic 'no-wind zero' for the rifle without moving the front sight.

CM

[tejano]

Thanks for the tips gents. I also placed a call to Charles Daly today, but the guy in the Service Dept. who is knowledgeable about the Baby Sharps was off until Monday.

[tejano]

Just update this. I spoke with an engineer at Charles Daly who advised that the existing rear sight holes in the Baby Sharps would probably not match up with the holes in the base of a Marbles tang sight so drilling of one hole would be required.

[ktw]

Marbles offers up a detailed spec sheet for their tang peeps.
http://www.marblearms.com/standardPeepTang_info.html

You might be able to use it to find one that matches your existing center to center hole spacing and tang angle.

-ktw

[tejano]

Thanks for the link. I will look at it and measure the holes on my rifle, but I am not optimistic because that was my precise question to the engineer with Charles Daly and he said he didn't think they would work. He also said that he should probably work with the Marble's folks to make sure that they had one that would work as a "drop in."

[Don McDowell]

When you get the measurement of center to center on your sight screw holes, a call to Buffalo Arms will likely find you a sight with the proper hole spacings.
They're a might hard to find at the moment, but the Ukranian made soule sights have slots in the bases that allow use on different guns. They're supposed to be some coming shortly , would be worth asking BACO about those while you have them on the phone.

[tejano]

Thanks. I have done business with BACO in the past; don't know why I didn't think of them.

[marlinman93]

You might also consider a windage adjustable globe front sight. They are cheaper than buying a new rear sight. I wouldn't shim the rear unless it's not exactly vertical. If you shim it to compensate for the 5", you may tilt it enough that it wont hit center at lesser or greater ranges, then you'll be changing shims at other ranges to get back to center.
Here's a link to a windage adj. sight that is reasonably priced, and will serve you well for anything but competition shooting.

http://www.jeffsoutfitters.com/store.aspx?panel=3&productid=108&categoryid=66

[tejano]

Well, after a week or so of not much activity, a bunch of good suggestions. I think that globe front sight will work and it is a reasonably priced. The CD engineer did tell me that the front sight dovetail was 3/8" Thanks to all.

[tejano]

I drifted the front sight to the right a tad and then took it back out to the range on Monday. I am certainly not a good shot but since it was only 2nd time out with the Little Sharps I was please enough with the results. 14 shots at 100 yards. The first 6 shots were at 50. The load was a 264 gr. FN-GC bullet sized at .378 from Montana Bullet Works, CCI primers, Starline cases, and 16.0 gr. of 2400 (weighed). The wind was light and blowing almost straight downrange.

[nicholst55]

Give Track of the Wolf a call at 763.633.2500; they list 8 pages of tang sights for cartridge rifles. I'll bet they can help you out!

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(22prkw45wx5djbe51qyxro55))/Index.aspx