BSA Factory sporter sight repair

C

commonman

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
92   0   0
Location
Alberta
My old BSA has express sights with a flip up sight for past 300m. I'll not likely use it except it may come in handy for shooting reduced load, not sure. But I got this thing about making things work again.

Problem is that the elevation adjustment no longer stays where you put it. Its like it lost weight and the pants keep falling down. At first I thought I could just pinch the front and rear closer together but seems quite hard and worried that the little wings at the front might just break off. So next idea was to build it up somehow. Solder? Epoxy? other suggestions?

Took pics from both sides, hope you can see the elevation slide.

a4a2qw.jpg

aot34i.jpg
 
That screw should come out and allow the slider to come over the top.

Suggest wrapping the sight in a sandwich bag or such to catch any loose parts, if any were put back in by whoever was there last. Should be some form of a spring for the friction needed to hold it where set.

Standard rules apply. Look at it, figure out how it worked, figure out what's missing or not working, fix.
 
No spring behind that slider. It's there by very light if any tension only. I talked with a now deceased friend of mine that used those sights regularly. The sight on his rifle was plagued with the same issue. I thought it was worn out or broken.

"NO IT ISN'T" he loudly declared about his beloved Lee Speed sporter. Those sights were made that way on purpose. OK, that's his opinion but he had a lot more years behind that butt than I ever had and he learned to shoot long before my parents accidentally conceived me. He hunted Africa, South America, Viet Nam, Europe and of course North America with his rifle. It had Metford style rifling and he loaded the 303 Brit cases with 200 grain bullets. He lamented not being able to find good 220 grain solids any more. That was close to 35 years ago. I miss Rowen a lot more these days. So many answers in his head to so many questions.

He gave me a quick lesson and he not only explained it to me but showed me how to use the sight as intended. That sight was never intended to be used from an unsupported position. It was intended for use from either shooting sticks or prone position. Of course, it could be used rested off a bench as well, which is what he did.

He rested the rifle on a fore end bag only. With his left hand steadied against the side of the rifle, at the sight area, he used his thumb to carefully raise and hold the V notch at the elevation he wanted it. Awkward???? Of course but it worked well for him and I watched him shoot a string at 200 yards with open sights at 1 inch increments and in a surprisingly straight up and down line.

I now have a similar rifle and the rear flip up slider is exactly the same as your rifle's and Rowen's old Lee Speed. Actually I now have three rifles with the same sight and they're all loose. They all shoot very well with long, heavy, round nose, flat base bullets. To bad my eyes aren't up to it any more. I intend to take a Black Bear with one of those rifles this coming spring.

I have found that a piece of masking tape on the underside will hold the slider quite well. It's cheating and even though, like you I will be shooting powder coated cast bullets down the bore, I will likely need it after 100 yds.
 
The sliders are quite easily snugged up. I have adjusted several, most recently on a Martini just last week, and haven't broken one yet - although the risk is likely there. Remove the slider and place it face up and at a slight angle along the slightly rounded edge of a bench anvil so that it contacts the anvil at a point a little inside the web (outside edge) of the slider. Lightly tap the face of the slider directly over the edge of the anvil, repeat on the opposite side and test the fit. Don't go at it with a 16 oz shop hammer! It doesn't have to move very much and you don't want to over-do it, so several go-rounds are better than whacking the stuffing out of it. On several occasions, I have noticed sliders with a slight rearward side-to-side bow, and suspect it might be a design feature to increase friction.
 
Well lads thank you for the bunch of very interesting replies. You will be glad to know that out of deference to Rowen I have put away the epoxy that I purchased for the sight but did resort to the candle wax. Rowen will be glad to know that even so that sight seems to have a mind of its own and may require the gentle thumb pressure from time to time, especially on hot days. This rifle is in nice shape and shoots better than me. It seems to have been well looked after as it is the first 303 rifle I've owned that did not produce even a smidgen of copper stain when I first cleaned it, and I can't even remember how many 303's I have owned. Thanks for your help.
 
Geez, seriously? No spring?

Even the simple Colonials figured that one out.

Awright, learn new things... Thanks for squaring me away!
 
trevj said:
Geez, seriously? No spring?

Even the simple Colonials figured that one out.

Awright, learn new things... Thanks for squaring me away!
Click to expand...


No problem. IMHO they did it that way to keep size down to a minimum. Also, IMHO the regulated sight leafs would be on the optimistic side for the vast majority of us. Back in the day of those rifles, people didn't usually have more than one rifle unless they were wealthy. OP doesn't say which model of BSA he has and only shows the sights. Those sights are set up specifically for ammunition that has been loaded and regulated to them. They work pretty well within a couple of hundred feet per second on either side of that regulation out to 100 yds but then it gets tricky.

My old friend Rowen loaded his own because he couldn't find any commercial ammo that shot well other than Kynoch and that was prohibitively expensive because when he did purchase it before his out of country hunts, he had to order it from the company by giving them the commercial maker, barrel length, sight radius and bullet weight. They had his information on record and loaded weight/velocity accordingly in both solids and soft nose configuration. The cartridges came in metal tins of 100 cartridges each and he had to order at least 500 of each type at a time.

I have a couple of Martinis that Rowen had made up before I met him and one I did for him. The two early rifles are chambered in 7x65R and 357 Maximum. I did up a 257 Maximum for him. He had a lovely 1904 Mannilicher Sch that I would have liked but I was going through a divorce at the time he was selling it. He also had a lovely cape rifle in 500-450 Nitro Express, made by Holland and Holland in side by side configuration. He got enough for that beautiful rifle, along with 500 rounds of ammo to pay off the mortgage on my house back then.

I also have a cartridge board that he made up with one of each cartridge for each rifle he had owned, from a child in England to a farmer in Australia to a Scientologist in LA to running a small shop and retiring in Canada. He was the caretaker of our shooting range. Extremely interesting man and in his younger years had a huge appetite for adventure. He spent WWII as a radioman in the Merchant Marine and participated in five different convoy crossings to and from England from Canada and the US. He was injured during a torpedo attack and couldn't go back to sea so he ended the war at one of the radar stations as a civilian radio operator. He took to the sea again, after the war. He at one time had three wives simultaneously. One in Argentina, one in Australia and one in England. Had children with all of them, one of whom was married to the Mayor of Miami for about ten years. She also craved adventure. The man was a treasure trove of stories and one of the most amiable fellows I've ever had the privilege to know and keep close. His last twenty five Christmases were spent in my living room as a member of the family.
 
Source unknown but when a candle wax solution was suggested it was countered with bee's wax but it did have a friction application.
Similarly, another source was adamant about using bee's wax versus candle wax for the threads on archery both target points and broad heads to stop them from turning out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom