Experiments with Buckhorn Sights (WARNING: Lots of Pictures)

[Woodtroll]

Folks, I posted this over on the Shiloh site, but thought y'all might be interested in it as well, since I have learned so much from you, and I thought that this would apply to leverguns just as well.

Some of you here provided a lot of good information concerning the use of barrel sights, which I have eagerly studied. Many of you have patiently answered my questions, sent me old pennies, and posted pictures to help me gain the most from my barrel sights. Y'all have no idea how much I have learned here, and how much I appreciate the help. I have continued to experiment on my own, using your ideas and some older ones as well, and thought you might like to see what I have come up with so far.

I have several problems with the sights on my Sharps rifles, at least as far as the way that they fit ME and my guns. Please understand that I am in no way criticizing the stock sights, but that I am trying to get the most from the barrel sights for MY uses, which are casual field shooting and hunting, at least with this particular rifle. First, the stock does not have quite enogh drop, even though I ordered and received the "old" Roughrider configuration with a little more drop. The sights sit a little low for a "natural fit" with my big ol' head when I throw the rifle up to my shoulder. Secondly, the semi-buckhorn, particularly, sits so low on the barrel that in open daylight I get a lot of glare off of the polished receiver ring in front of the breechblock, washing out the sight picture. Third, the factory sights, while generally configured right, appear to be bead-blasted for a matte finish- this gives a great non-reflective finish for the most part, but leaves a lot of tiny rounded surfaces at the edges of the sight that reflect light back, also altering the sight picture. I learned early in my trials that the edges of the sight need to be CRISP, and ALL edges angled away from the eye to avoid reflecting this light (picture the outer edges shaped like a funnel towards the front sight, and the inner edges like the sight notch funneling away from the front sight).

I had run across some references and pictures concerning the Freund "More-Light" sight, and thought that it would suit my hunting needs here in the Appalachian woods. Current copies seem to be of questionable quality, based on input from others, so I thought I would experiment on my own, to save some money if I was not happy with the results. So, with some flat stock, a hacksaw, a drill, and some files, I cut out a rough sight blade incorporating some of the things I had learned about, and gave it a try. Here is what I came up with (disclaimer: I am no photographer or computer whiz, so please be understanding! <G> I learned a lot just trying to get these pictures taken and posted!).

Here is the roughed out sight blade in the white, from the front. Hopefully you can see what I mean about beveling all edges forward:




Here is the stock Shiloh semi-buckhorn that I soldered the blade to. I went this route instead of possibly destroying a buckhorn sight if I didn't like the results:






Here is the sight blade soldered to to the semi-buckhorn sight. Remember that I was after a taller sight to get the sights in a more natural line with my eyes:



A rear view:



Installed:



And a poor photo of the sight picture. To my eye, the rear sight is not nearly as washed out as it appears in this photo. This was the hardest picture for me to get right. You can see that the hole below the notch makes it easy to see the whole sight base, which also allows more consistent holds at longer ranges when you have to hold the blade high up out of the notch:




In some limited shooting in various conditions, I have found that this sight works very well. Accurate enough for informal targets, and fairly easy to get repeatable reference points at different distances for consistent holds.

I am about typed out, but hopefully this will show you something that seems to work well for me. I have a little more experimenting to do with the front sight; the copper penny that worked well with a regular rear notch now reflects almost TOO much light through this rear blade in full sun conditions, although it does work well in lower light. I'll post again when I figure something out.

Y'all take care,
Regan

[2ndovc]

That's down right cool!!!!


jb

[Andrew]

Nice looking handy work. That looks like it would work pretty good for me too, but I don't get that picky about my sights....yet.

[Nath]

You are handy with a file Well done.
Be sure to tell us how she shoots.

Nath.

[1886]

I like it. Wish I was handy. 1886.

[Ben_Rumson]

Nice work.. Just like an old time gunsmith would have done it..Too many people think things have to be "Machined" to be done right

[JerryB]

That is a great looking sight, very similar to one that a friend made for a Kentucky pistol he made for me. You could sell those sights.

[Rustolium]

Good job man!

[Borregos]

Neat job.

[TedH]

Very nice work.

[O.S.O.K.]

Ah, another WECSOG member. Nice work there!

I'm going to make a blank to fit onto my Remington M81 when the tang sight that I found for it arrives. That won't be nearly as involved or complicated but I'll enjoy doing it regardless.

Thanks for the pics!

[gamekeeper]

Very interesting, thanks for posting. Great work.

[Griff]

Very nicely done. I just love a home remedy to a problem. And yes, even with proper (read generally expensive), lighting, the depth of field needed in the last 2 shots is just about impossible to get without a manually controlled camera.

[marlinman93]

Ingenious! Looks very good! Does the sight still flip up and sit perpendicular to the barrel with the extra thicness in the rear?

[Woodtroll]

Thanks for the compliments, folks. It was not my idea to post this to boast, but to show that the concept of the "More-Light" sight is indeed valid. I think one of the other important features on this sight is that the bottom of the inside of the buckhorn, as it extends out from the notch, is flat for a small distance similar to a revolver sight. Personally, I never could seem to get a repeatable sight picture hold with the stock buckhorn, as it was rounded/ sloped all the way into the notch, and just seemed inconsistent to me. This modification could easily be done to any existing buckhorn sight, using just a small flat needle file. The handwork really was not complicated at all, it just took a little time and the right needle files. The bulk of the work was done with a drill, chainsaw file, and regular smooth-cut flat file. I really feel like most anyone could accomplish this, and I wanted to show you that the idea works. More folks here seem to use barrel sights than any other group I know of. Even most of the Sharps guys use tang sights or even scopes, but a few have put a lot of work into re-learning the use of barrel sights.

Marlinman93- the sight WOULD still flip up and work if my design had been just a little better. This blade was just to be a rough attempt to test the concept, and I did not make the blade quite deep enough at the bottom to come all the way down to the base of the original blade. If you're familiar with this sight, you know that it needs this full shoulder edge at the bottom to cam past center on the pin, so that the spring holds it upright. However, the blade works well enough that I am leaving it for now. If I ever do another one, I will make it deep enough at the bottom to correct the "fold-up" problem, and I will also place the hole just a little lower in the sight notch, to make the notch itself just a little deeper and more prominent. Other than these two issues, I am very pleased with the way this experiment turned out. I hope it brings me luck in the deer woods.

Thanks again for the compliments, but honestly I just shamelessly borrowed the ideas from others. I'm just trying to repay you guys in a small way for all the things I've learned here.

Y'all take care,
Regan

[Ysabel Kid]

Very nice work!