To buckhorn or not to buckhorn

[FredGarvin]

My Rossi 1892 with full buckhorn sights shoots too high, way too high (8 inches @25 yds, 16 inches at 50 yds). Without using a serious amount of Kentucky windage by raising the front sight or aiming really low, its tough to be on the paper. I'm thinking about looking into a Marbles Tang sight, but would really like to know what other options I may have or how others have dealt with similar issues before investing $ in a solution. Any suggestions?

Hope you're all well!

[J Miller]

Fred,

What caliber is the Rossi?
What loads are you using?
How tall is the front sight now?
Do you have the rear sight all the way down?
How are you aiming?

That does seem to be way high for normal iron sights, but without more info I can't say for sure.

I would suggest figuring out why it shoots too high before you go altering the sights.
For instance if you're shooting a .45 and it's shooting way high you might be shooting ammo the sights are not designed for.
Most, most guns are sighted for the most common and traditional load for that caliber.
If you use something else, then you gotta work with the sights.

Joe

[Dave]

If your front sight is dovetailed in you can change it to a higher one easily.

[Kansas Ed]

If your front sight is dovetailed in you can change it to a higher one easily.

+1, and you can get a nicer front sight for less than 10 bucks at Midway...just add it to your next order. If it's pinned in there are options for that also.

Ed

[jlchucker]

If you go on the Marble's website, they have a chart there which will tell you (roughly) how much higher or lower of a front sight you'd need. Keep in mind that if you want a lower point of impact you'll need a higher front sight. Marble's rear sights come in two heights as well. You may need to replace yours with a new one. These Marble's sights are more or less period correct, seem to be well made, and easy on the pocketbook. I just ordered a front and rear sight for my Rossi trapper 357. The sights it came with are a bit crude, and the gun shoots about 3 or 4 inches high at 50 yd. We'll see when I get them put on. There are plenty of vendors of Marble's sights--including Midway. Midway's out of stock, though, so you may want to try one of the several other suppliers.

[FredGarvin]

Fred,

What caliber is the Rossi?
What loads are you using?
How tall is the front sight now?
Do you have the rear sight all the way down?
How are you aiming?

That does seem to be way high for normal iron sights, but without more info I can't say for sure.

I would suggest figuring out why it shoots too high before you go altering the sights.
For instance if you're shooting a .45 and it's shooting way high you might be shooting ammo the sights are not designed for.
Most, most guns are sighted for the most common and traditional load for that caliber.
If you use something else, then you gotta work with the sights.

Joe

All good questions, I should have included this info in my first.

The caliber is 357. So far, I've been shooting light loads for both my S&W 686 and the Rossi (125g Winchester white box and my own loaded 140 g Hornady XTP JHP (about 75% of Lyman recommended velocity/pressure [IMR4227, 2400, & Unique]). The rear sight is all the way down and the sight picture I've been using has varied from the front between the notch, up to between the horns, and beyond. I'm not sure of the from sight height but it seems pretty much middle of the road.

[J Miller]

As an experiment try some 158gr .357 ammo and see where it hits.

My sight pics with open sights varies with the sight design.
If its a bead with a "U" notch I put the bead at the bottom of the notch and put the target right on top of that. 6:00 hold.

If it's a post with a "U" notch I put the top of post at the top of the "U". There will be a point where the "U" notch stops and forms sort of shoulders. That's what I call the top.

If it's a post with a square bottomed notch I do the same thing as with the "U" notch.

Joe

[COSteve]

My Rossi 357mag carbine has a Marbles semi-buckhorn rear sight and a .450" high Marbles bead front sight (45-W 3/32). I aim with the front bead in roughly the center of the horns from both top to bottom and side to side for over 100yd shots and put the front bead in the bottom grove (just above the white diamond) for closer shots. You might want to give that a try, however, if you are going to use the full buckhorn as sort of a peep sight you'll need a taller front sight than .450" so you can place the bead in the middle of the sight at short ranges.

[FredGarvin]

Thank you all. I'll try heavier bullets and messing more with my sight picture before changing sights.