Skinner sights, and Buffalo Bore out of my Oliver Win.

[Lastmohecken]

I was playing around with the Barrel Mounted Skinner Peep sight today, shooting the Heavy Buffalo Bore ammo out of my Oliver Winchester 38/55. It's not my final configuration of sights on that rifle, I was just experimenting, never having tried a peep sight out where a semi-buckhorn usually goes. That Skinner is going to eventually end up on a pre-64 30/30 farm rifle I keep in my side by side, but I wanted to try it out first on the 38/55, with a Marble's gold bead front sight, just to see if like the barrel mounted peep and see how the 38/55 grouped.

Actually, it did pretty good using the ghost ring only with out any screw in inserts. The Buffalo bore ammo is fairly stout 255 grain bullet at 1,950 fps on the box. Recoil was in my opinion maybe a little more than a typical 30/30 but I think less than the average 45/70 with 300 grain factory loads out my Marlin leveraction. I was hitting about 6 inches low at 50 yards, because I had installed a too tall front sight on it, and needs to be probably 1/8 inch shorter. However, my last group was probably slightly less than an inch for 3 shots at 50 yards off of sandbags, with my hand cradling the forend. That's probably as good as I am capable of with any iron sight. And it looks like the rifle likes the Buffalo Bore ammo pretty good. I mainly just wanted to see if the rifle would shoot well before I dumped any more money into it.

So, now, I guess that I will go ahead and have the Skinner receiver sight installed, which will require drilling and tapping, and putting a serrated blade sight of the right height on the front. I ordered the Skinner receiver sight and right height front sight tonight for it. It looks like Buffalo bore uses Starline brass in the loads I bought from them. That ammo is pretty expensive, but with the accuracy I got today, I am pretty impressed with it. No more than I will probably shoot it, outside of some hunting, I will probably just suck it up and buy a few more boxes of it. I don't see much reason to try to re-invent the wheel, when that ammo shoots that good, unless I am wanting lighter loads or something.

[Coalsmoke]

I like the barrel mounted peep. I have one on a Rossi single shot 22 and it is great. Plenty precise enough for squirrels. I would be very comfortable with this sight on a deer rifle. It's a great compromise if you don't want to D&T for a receiver sight.

[Lastmohecken]

I like the barrel mounted peep. I have one on a Rossi single shot 22 and it is great. Plenty precise enough for squirrels. I would be very comfortable with this sight on a deer rifle. It's a great compromise if you don't want to D&T for a receiver sight.

Yes, I believe it is a pretty good option, if you don't want to Drill and tap. When I was shooting it yesterday, I had a Marbles front sight with a 1/16" gold bead on it, and that gold bead would center up really well for me. If I was never going to shoot past 100 yards I would leave it on there. But that bead covers up a lot on out there, so I am going to the serrated blade, but I am a little bit undecided on it, because that bead centers so naturally for my eye.

[Lastmohecken]

Oliver Winchester, Buffalo bullets at fifty yards.jpg

Those first three shots, (bigger group), was just fooling around before I settled down. But those 3 shots down in the lower right, were at 50 yards, off of a sandbag under my hand, with my hand resting on top of the bag and holding the forend just like I would be shooting off of an improvised rest in the field. So, the rifle will shoot and group pretty darn good, if I do my part. I just need to get the sights set up on it now and zeroed in good.

*Double click on that picture and it will right itself. That picture is showing the target laying on its side, right now.

[COSteve]

I've got a Skinner peep sight mounted on the rear of my Rossi carbine where the safety would mount and another Skinner peep sight mounted on the rear of the receiver of my Mossberg 464 30-30. Both give a great sight picture and with their small apertures close to my eye, both help me see both the front bead sights and the targets more clearly.

In addition, with their placement at the rear of the receiver, they increase the sight radius. Both improvements work together to increase aiming accuracy so that both platforms are pretty darn accurate out to 200 yds.

[Lastmohecken]

I've got a Skinner peep sight mounted on the rear of my Rossi carbine where the safety would mount and another Skinner peep sight mounted on the rear of the receiver of my Mossberg 464 30-30. Both give a great sight picture and with their small apertures close to my eye, both help me see both the front bead sights and the targets more clearly.

In addition, with their placement at the rear of the receiver, they increase the sight radius. Both improvements work together to increase aiming accuracy so that both platforms are pretty darn accurate out to 200 yds.
[/quote

Yes, and I like the sight picture of the Skinner a little better than something like the William's receiver sights, because I really never end up using any of the screw in inserts, and just remove them and look through the hole that is left. And the Williams has a very thin ring left, that is too thin for me, although I do have some of them on a few rifles.