1886 with bullseye sight

[Grizz]

Got digging around in the locker and found my Browning Saddle Ring Carbine and the Marble's Bullseye at the same time.... so I stuck it on there. This gives me eyeballs a better sight picture than the tang sight that I couldn't bring myself to drill the tang for.

972-.JPG

The front sight is a fine blade and it shows up well lit in the center reticule, and not as blurry as the picture. It is not easy to get that picture I discovered.

984-.JPG

Then I thought I should put the little fellow into a proper context:

987-.JPG

A food maker with a sun maker in a dry camp. Can't complain 'bout anything when I'm this blessed.

[Pitchy]

That looks like it will work good.

[turnkey]

Griff, can I ask where you got that? If so, is that the original front sight? I just got a 86 SRC of my own and I like the looks of your setup. I have to wear old man glasses myself and like you I really don't want to have to drill on my rifle.

[Mike D.]

I like that Bullseye sight,; it's gotta be a GREAT improvement over the pi** poor sights that come on these guns. Mine still wears the carbine sight but I'm gonna drill it and install an old Lyman 21N on it. It isn't "original" anyhow, it has been reamed to .45-90.

[Grizz]

Turnkey

That sight is made by Marbles and I got it from Midway. Brownells carries them also.

Regards
Grizz

[KirkD]

Grizz, have you had a chance to try out that arrangement to see how high or low the bullets hit at 100 yards?

[Grizz]

Mike D.

It's an improvment for me, but the ladder sight might be useful if you're shooting long range. I have seen vintage 86's with the same sights Browning copied. Those old guys had a lot better vision than I have.

I'm just glad to make the gun useable again. I might have to butcher the front somehow and put a fiber sight up there. I wish they had dovetailed the front.

[Grizz]

KirkD

Have not shot it yet. I didn't put the elvator in because I want to find out where it prints, may not need it. I'll be happy if its zero is around 75 yards. I prefer fixed sights and use holdover for the "experimental" shots. A holdover from handgun hunting I suppose.

Regards

[Old Ranger]

Had one of the Bullseye sights on my Marlin GG for a while. My eyes are a mess since getting up in years and diabetes added to the mix. The Bullseys sight was a real improvement for me. I have mounted so many different sights on this stubby weapon though I lost track of where I put that bullseye sight now. On the GG it was way too low and the sight was raised up to the near last notch on the elevator. Now if I can get another for my Browning 92, I think I'll set it up and go with it. That Browning shoots low for most standard sights with the very short front sight.

Marbles makes some fine sights and they are very well finished and fitting is a dream. The dovetail base is easy to file into a rock solid fit in usually under 20 min. or less. I do like the double step elevator too. It will not get loose or fall off under heavy recoil and it lockes the sight into position with a solid notch on either side of the sight base. Well designed and built. In fact the finish work on the sights are often far better than brand new weapons they're going on!

Wade

[Grizz]

Wade and All

I stand corrected, I think it is a Marbles sight, not Williams as I had posted.

My Dad told me my memory would be the second thing to go.............

Grizz

[Old Ranger]

Grizz,

No worries! I have that memory thing going on too....what the dickens were we talking about anyway? I don't have any trouble with the storing of my memories. It's when I try to pull that memory up is where I get into trouble! It's lost in my thick skull!

Have fun with that sight. Let us know how it works for you. Knowing how it did for me, I'm dying to find out how good you did with it on your piece! The elevation is something I'm most interested in too....

Wade

[Old Shatterhand]

Is there anyone who can give a short range report about this sight, or tell how well it works on game? It looks interesting, but I, perhaps falsely, suspect that the target will be a bit obscured. Does the height of the front sight need alteration?

Kindly,

Pete

[Old Ranger]

As to seeing the target, this sight allows a far better view than a semi-buckhorn. Clear sight of the game is not an issue. While my eyes were "in tune" with this sight, I was able to quickly get on target with several hogs with the Marlin Guide Gun. The Marbles Bullseye sight does sit lower than most replacement sights and thus for some, but I'm sure, not all weapons, a shorter front sight may be in order. The Browning I believe has a low blade sight and it whould do well with the Bullseye sight. The Marlin with it's ramp sight, has far too tall a sight to allow this sight to sit closer to the barrel. I was unable to find a workable bead sight that suited my needs, but this sight was designed with a "universal" height and nothing will fit all weapons and be perfect. But if one has a weapon that has less limited adjustment of how much front sight one may install, then I can see no issues with it at all. It is a remarkable fast sight that can provide some impressive tight groups on the range as well.

I have limited my game shooting with the Marlin 45-70 to about 125 yds. This is due mainly to my vision and of course the loads I use. I do not shoot hyper-velocity and tend to keep them in the range of a black powder velocity.

Wade

[stickfred]

You can check this post out, too, Old Shatterhand-
http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... s+Bullseye
Bottom half of the page.

[AJMD429]

Is there anyone who can give a short range report about this sight, or tell how well it works on game? It looks interesting, but I, perhaps falsely, suspect that the target will be a bit obscured. Does the height of the front sight need alteration?

Here is a post of mine on aperture sights - link = Thread on Peeps

I find the Marbles "Bullseye" sight to offer one of the best 'views' of sights I've used - better precision than an 'open' sight, and you don't have the entire lower half of your field of view blocked out like on open sights (and most 'peeps'). Windage is only drift-adjustable, but makes a great hunting sight. Anyhow - no gunsmithing needed, simply replaces your factory sight in the barrel dovetail; not the 'best' sight in all situations, but WAY better than the factory sight. In addition to the conventional elevation-adjustable model, a more compact fixed model is available (might be a great 'ghost ring' for a shotgun or hog gun if you wanted to swap front sights to get proper elevation). Note that some (?all) Puma's have wider-than-standard dovetails, and a bit of shimming is needed when swapping sights; I just slip a bit of thin metal or plastic under the sight before driving it into position. Notice how much of the field of view a 'conventional' open sight blocks - I did not change the front sight out, so the rear would block as high as drawn, and was the same width as the outer aperture of the Marbles.

It took awhile to get the picture just right, but THIS picture shows exactly what the sight picture looks like to my eyes:

It really has to be the fastest-on-target sight I've ever used; that large 'hoop' ring gets you on-target enough for a charging wild hog or bear (haven't hunted either with it, sorry to say, but maybe someday...), while just 'lingering' enough to center the bead in the inner circle gives you really good precision. I've shot many three-shot one-inch groups at 50 yards with the various leverguns I've got these sights on, and if it goes over two inches at that distance, it's my fault. Most of my guns aren't 'tuned' enough to keep from stringing shots after the barrel warms up.

My goal for the ULTIMATE rear sight would be to embed the 'Bullseye' aperture on a Williams FP base. That would require a higher front sight I think, but the Bullseye as shown above hasn't needed a higher front on about half the guns, but on the others a bit more height was needed. The sights are VERY tough spring-metal, and I don't think you could bend one easily. They of course could 'snag' more than some other sights, but in exchange for sticking out that extra 3/8", you have a far smoother surface.

Not the only sights out there, but one of the best, in my opinion.

One nice thing is that they are so inexpensive, why NOT buy one and try it...!

Notice there are I think three shapes and sizes - a long and short elevator version, and the fixed version.

[Grizz]

Is there anyone who can give a short range report about this sight, or tell how well it works on game? It looks interesting, but I, perhaps falsely, suspect that the target will be a bit obscured. Does the height of the front sight need alteration?

Kindly,

Pete

Hi Pete

I took the Marlin 39 to the woods. I got mixed results first time out.

I used this gun with a receiver sight at the only silhoute (sp) shoot I've tried and knocked down targets all the way out to 100m. I disappointed myself with my score, which I have managed to forget, but did note that two shooters had lower scores....

All this was the impetus to switch to the bullseye sight. Unfortunately the day was very dark, I had the gong in a very poorly lit location, and the the shooting positions I was able to take had NO light on the rear sight. In those conditions I had spotty results on the gong. I'll need to get some paper and work on finding out where exactly the point of aim is.

That said, when I could get the gong centered up in the outer ring and the bead on the gong, I was dinging it. I just don't know where my misses went. No, not her, she was holding onto the Dog.

So, eyesight is still an issue for me, I'm losing binocular vision, but I might not have done any better with the receiver sight just because of the low light levels. When I shot the steel targets the range faced west with the sun behind, lighting up sights and targets perfectly. And I still missed some of those stinkin' birds!

Hope this is useful. The bullseye is easier and quicker to use for my eyes, but I don't have it dialed in yet. Possibly a tang sight with a merrit (sp) insert would be better.

Best,
Grizz

[Old Shatterhand]

Thanks for your great answers and links! It is a rather informative read, and it is easy to decide to get one and make a test. Brownells take $16 and I am already up to order some other stuff from them.

[ollogger]

Docs pix is the way i see the sight also, i let that bother me til i took it off, then tried it on a 94 that wasnt D&T, well it was still blurry
then it dawned on me to focus on the target & where the front sight
is, that works much better, it took this block head awhile, but i like it now,


ollogger

[AJMD429]

Here's an updated 'range report' on the Marbles Bullseye.

As you can see, the little Rossi here strings .357 Mag loads a bit (dunno if it was because they were shots 4, 5, and 6, and the barrel was heating up, or just that they were Mag loads), but it surely likes the .38 Special loads. Shots were at 40 yards.

(click to see larger version of image)

Marbles Bullseye accuracy at 40 yards.jpg

That is as good as I could do with a scope, so as you can see, the Marbles Bullseye sight is plenty capable of precision shot placement.

The only part I hate is I just don't like ANY 'drift-adjustable' sights, including the 'factory' ones the guns come with, at least when it comes to sighting them in (once sighted in, they are kind of nice, as they STAY put).

Now I have to measure and calculate; to move the impact 5.4" at 40 yards (1440 inches), with the sight radius of 11.7", I need to 'drift' the sight 5.4*11.7/1440 = 0.0438". No problem; I'll just calibrate my drift-punch and hammer...

[Grizz]

I love the fixed, drift 'em type sights mostly 'cause, well, they don't drift.

just a brass rod and light tap, there's no calculatin' involved, just a little manual labor.

good shooting with that rossi. I haven't been out again. yet.

[Old Shatterhand]

---The only part I hate is I just don't like ANY 'drift-adjustable' sights, including the 'factory' ones the guns come with, at least when it comes to sighting them in (once sighted in, they are kind of nice, as they STAY put).

Now I have to measure and calculate; to move the impact 5.4" at 40 yards (1440 inches), with the sight radius of 11.7", I need to 'drift' the sight 5.4*11.7/1440 = 0.0438". No problem; I'll just calibrate my drift-punch and hammer...

One of the few advantages with metrics is sightsetting. If the distance to the target is 50 metres and the distance between bead and blade is 50 cm, 10 cm on the target is 1 mm on the blade - you don't need to calculate. I use a metric caliper to to lay out the drift, and mark with pencil how much to move the blade.

Pete