montana_charlie
07-24-2006, 02:45 PM
I got one of those Pedersoli Soule sights that I was advertising for, and mounted it on my Sharps.
After dinking with the spring to get it positioned (fore and aft) the way I wanted, I put the gun down to go do 'outside stuff'.
Later that evening, I was considering methods of checking it to see if it was plumb (side to side) with the barrel, receiver, and front sight.
Too lazy to go out to the shop to pad a vise and select a level which would be easiest to hold against the side of the staff, I sat at my reloading bench...just thinking about it.
An idea came to me as I glanced at a cheap plastic 'bullseye level' laying in the top of my in-the-house toolbox.
I usually use it for things like when shimming countertops to get them level front-to-back and side-to-side, without turning the level to check both directions.
I laid my Sharps on a padded table with the level placed on the right-side flat of the barrel. I shimmed under the lever pivot to 'roll' the gun until the level indicated that the barrel flat was square with the universe.
I then placed the level on the side of the receiver, and found that it was also lying perfectly 'flat'.
After those two checks, it was a simple matter to balance the little round flat-bottomed case on the side of the staff to see if it agreed with the rest of the gun.
In my case, it did...so no sight base shim needed (unless I decide (later) to 'lean it to the left' to compensate for bullet precession).
The little plastic level is probably worth about seventy-five cents at the hardware store, and is useful for many things...not just tang sights.
CM
After dinking with the spring to get it positioned (fore and aft) the way I wanted, I put the gun down to go do 'outside stuff'.
Later that evening, I was considering methods of checking it to see if it was plumb (side to side) with the barrel, receiver, and front sight.
Too lazy to go out to the shop to pad a vise and select a level which would be easiest to hold against the side of the staff, I sat at my reloading bench...just thinking about it.
An idea came to me as I glanced at a cheap plastic 'bullseye level' laying in the top of my in-the-house toolbox.
I usually use it for things like when shimming countertops to get them level front-to-back and side-to-side, without turning the level to check both directions.
I laid my Sharps on a padded table with the level placed on the right-side flat of the barrel. I shimmed under the lever pivot to 'roll' the gun until the level indicated that the barrel flat was square with the universe.
I then placed the level on the side of the receiver, and found that it was also lying perfectly 'flat'.
After those two checks, it was a simple matter to balance the little round flat-bottomed case on the side of the staff to see if it agreed with the rest of the gun.
In my case, it did...so no sight base shim needed (unless I decide (later) to 'lean it to the left' to compensate for bullet precession).
The little plastic level is probably worth about seventy-five cents at the hardware store, and is useful for many things...not just tang sights.
CM