In the years since then, I have sold off all my modern rifles in favor of vintage, original Winchester lever guns about a century old, but there is one I will not part with … my Browning 1886 SRC. The action is a faithful reproduction of the original 1886 action, with a half cock hammer instead of the modern rebounding hammer, and no modern tang safety. For an 1886, it is a light, handy and fast little rifle and I cannot see myself ever parting with it this side of the Pearly Gates.
It has been 20 years since I got my hands on this little carbine and I am now 59 years old. The eyes do not focus up so close anymore, and the sights on this carbine have turned into a blur. The Old Timers had a solution for this problem … tang sights. The peep in the tang sight sharpens everything right back up, so I ordered a Montana Vintage Arms combination rear sight for an 1886 after hearing they produce a quality product. It came with the two mounting screws and two apertures, one with a fine peep for target shooting and one with a larger hole for hunting. Here is the MVA tang sight mounted on my 1886 SRC …
Boys, if you are want a piece of American-made top drawer quality, this MVA tang sight is it. The sight is quality in every way. The fit and finish are perfect. There is absolutely no slop or wiggle. The locking ring does its job with solid lock up and the post adjusts silky-smooth up or down with no play. The Browning 1886 SRC does not have the forward hole drilled and tapped for a tang sight … an oversight on the part of Browning’s design department. Nevertheless, other fellows said that the rear tang screw was sufficient to anchor that sight and they were right. It is rock solid with just the rear screw and when I tried it out at 100 yards, the three shot group was only ½” to the right of dead center … very nice. I will think about having a hole drilled and tapped for the front screw.
The next day after mounting the sight I had to go into town on some errands but stopped at the range on my way in. By the time I had adjusted the tang sight post to shoot slightly high at 50 yards, I only had time to take three quick shots at 100 yards and then I had to run to make my appointment in town. I was shooting a 405 grain plain base cast bullet over 26 grains of 5744 powder for something in the neighbourhood of 1,325 fps depending upon the temperature. When I literally ran down to the 100 yard target, I was very pleased to see a 3-shot group of 1 & 5/8”. Here is a photo of the target ….
Some Final Comments:
Montana Vintage Arms website is http://www.montanavintagearms.com/index.html
I am enormously pleased with this tang sight and Montana Vintage Arms' quality. The only suggestion I could make for improvement is to put a bit of a smooth radius around the rim of the screw-in apertures. The 1886 SRC is light and it bucks a far bit when the trigger is pulled. On one or two of those shots, my eye was a bit too close to the aperture and I put some scratches into the coated plastic lens of my glasses. I suppose this is the Old Timer’s version of the scope mark above the eyebrow that many scoped rifle shooters have enjoyed, and it is really due to being careless on my part. I’ll try to train myself to stay a bit further back from the aperture, or I may polish the rim of the aperture myself. I’ve experienced this with original tang sights as well, so it is not something unique to this particular sight. It really makes sense to keep ones eyeball further from the tang sight for safety reasons. One other comment ….. be sure to specify what type of 1886 your tang sight is for. The Browning (Miroku) made rifles use a different thread than the originals.
