"Sourdough" front sight

[M. M. Wright]

I have been seeking an old Redfield Sourdough front sight for my Browning 86 SRC. It's front sight is dovetailed into the barrel and the current huge gold bead is .485 high from the bottom of the dovetail.

Back when I started hunting whitetails it was considered to be the best thing to have and I learned to love them but now they are scarce and mostly what used ones I find are too short.

I did see where Skinner says, over on the Marlin forum, that he is making them now but I couldn't find it on his web site.

Anyone have an Idea?

[J Miller]

Contact Skinner directly. I did some years ago and got a custom made front sight. I haven't been to the web sight lately, so no comment there.

Joe

[Chuck 100 yd]

Check Skinners web site again. I just bought two from him a couple weeks ago. His sights are post
( Patridge ) style without the bead though. Drop him an e-mail and be patient. He is a buisy man.

[Pete44ru]

.

Almost nobody, today, makes what us older folks refer to as a Sourdough Patridge sight, like the old Redfield's - a square post sight blade with a brass insert in the rear end of the sight's top, installed at a 45-degree angle to catch the light w/o the sighting idiosyncrasies of round brass bead sights.

In stead, a few sources make what they sometimes refer to as a Sourdough Patridge sight, but are really plain post sights - the best of which are the Skinner and the XS Sight's (which has an easily covered vertical white line down the sighting face).

Today, the only new Sourdough Patridge type sight blades are made by NECG - but AFAIK they are not made to fit conventional dovetail slots: http://www.newenglandcustomgun.com/Gun_ ... Sights.asp

Here's a NECG:


.

To access the Skinner sight, go to Skinner's website http://www.skinnersights.com then in the LH vertical column, click on "front sights:

http://www.skinnersights.com/front_sights_5.html

Here's the Skinner:




To access the XS sight: https://www.xssights.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=991912

Here's an XS Whiteline sight, mounted on a barrel band:




.

[Malamute]

I have been seeking an old Redfield Sourdough front sight for my Browning 86 SRC. It's front sight is dovetailed into the barrel and the current huge gold bead is .485 high from the bottom of the dovetail.

It sounds like yours was modified, they didn't come with dovetailed front sights.

I find Sourdoughs at gun shows in people junk boxes or mixed sight displays more than anywhere else. Finding one for a barrel dovetail is tough, I mostly see them for ramps.

Burris made them for a while (cast, they break if you slip off the base when drifting them), as did Marbles. Not sure if anyone is now.

I cut a Sourdough down from a dovetail type to a plain blade for a 94 with the early type front sight, (small square base soldered on barrel and blade pinned in).

[M. M. Wright]

Yeah Malmute, mine's had the barrel cut back to 19" and a dovetail cut for the front sight. I ordered Skinner's sight and will probably modify it by soldering in a brass insert to make it into the configuration I want.

[AJMD429]

Nice photo from Skinner's website - two now-classic sporting firearms.

[Viejo44]

Older post but a good one. I too love the original sourdough front sight and have them on a couple of favorite brush guns. I went with the NECG version on a .404 Mauser but dislike it due to the shallow angle past vertical of the insert (it barely slopes away from the gunners eye) so it does not get much light reflected back to see. In dim conditions you need more.

The original has a flat face set at 45 degrees. Rounded beads are poor in bright light as they reflect more light from one side of the rounded bead and cause your eye to automatically compensate, by centering the bright spot in the rear sight. So you shoot to one side of desired impact point.

I’m thinking I will have to make a couple of steel posts as blanks, get them the right height, then file a notch and have a custom jeweler solder in a piece of flat 14 karat gold.

[765x53]

Older post but a good one. I too love the original sourdough front sight and have them on a couple of favorite brush guns. I went with the NECG version on a .404 Mauser but dislike it due to the shallow angle past vertical of the insert (it barely slopes away from the gunners eye) so it does not get much light reflected back to see. In dim conditions you need more.

The original has a flat face set at 45 degrees. Rounded beads are poor in bright light as they reflect more light from one side of the rounded bead and cause your eye to automatically compensate, by centering the bright spot in the rear sight. So you shoot to one side of desired impact point.

I’m thinking I will have to make a couple of steel posts as blanks, get them the right height, then file a notch and have a custom jeweler solder in a piece of flat 14 karat gold.

You might try a front sight blank for a muzzle loader. http://logcabinshop.com/oc30/index.php? ... t_id=25594 or http://logcabinshop.com/oc30/index.php? ... t_id=25597