help me understand tang peep sights

[surfclod]

How does this work?

I have never actually handled a rifle with a tang sight installed so forgive my ignorance.

The videos I have looked up show the sight being raised from the folded position until it is vertical where there must be a notch that a spring loaded ball goes into to hold it securely.
(Kinda like on a breaker bar for a socket set has a spring loaded ball to hold it in the 90 and 180 degree positions)

Am I on the right track??

If that is the case, is the angle of the tang similair on all brands of lever guns? It would almost have to be in order to be perfectly vertical with a "universal" set up such as Marbles sells with a separate base and posts.

I want to mount a tang peep sight on my recently acquired Henry .22, now I could get the proper Marbles part from Brownells but it is over the $100 limit. The Lyman No. 2 for a Win 94 on the EE looks very tempting (I can drill and tap to make it work) but not sure if the angle will match.

P.S. I hope this is the correct place to post this question. I figured folks here would be the most knowledgeable on the subject.

 

[ben hunchak]

On my Tang sights(they are not Lyman or Marbles) the spacer that has the indent, can be rotated so that the sight is straight up and down. My sights are the tall type made for the old Sharps, some are soule type, made by MVA.

 

[surfclod]

On my Tang sights(they are not Lyman or Marbles) the spacer that has the indent, can be rotated so that the sight is straight up and down. My sights are the tall type made for the old Sharps, some are soule type, made by MVA.

Okay that makes a lot of sense. There are so many black powder originals and reproductions out there that it would be hard to get the correct angle if it was at a fixed position.

Hopefully I will get a change to look at one in person.

 

[fingers284]

I may be of some help on this subject as for the most of last summer I was involved in a project that required an accurate bore c\l to tang angle measurement of a lot of old rifle models with a drilled tang.
Most early rifles have a different angle from bore c\l to tang. Even rifles from the same manufacture will vary from model to model , even from style to style in some cases. An extreme example is the Win 92 rifle and carbine actions are different ( by 2.5 degrees). when i first noticed the difference I thought one of my guns must have been bent at one time or another (taking into account that most of these old guns were somebodies saddle gun for 30 or 40 yrs and subject to god only knows what abuse), however after checking a few guns owned by others I found that the difference is real. The early Winchesters (1873 tru to 1895)vary from 16.6 deg. to 21 deg.
The early Marlins 1893 and 1895's are different by 2 deg.

2 deg might not sound like much but it is quite noticeable when mounting the correct sight.

I'm sorry that I didn't try the Henry but I did try some replicas mainly Uberti,Pedersolli and Browning and they fairly well followed their ancestors. Shiloh's and Pedersolli Sharps are basically the same as well as the original Remington RB and the Uberti RB.


If I were you I would find a source of old Winchesters that may be the same as yours (friend, gun show, gun store) and lay your rife on top matching bore to bore and hammer to hammer so those two areas are side by side as close as you can get them, find the gun that the tangs line up as well (not the stock,THE TANG) and buy the sight for that rifle

 

[fingers284]

As an added to the above on the Win 92 rifle & saddle ring carbine, some where along the ser# line, they may have been changed to be the same action. My SR carbine is second yr production and the rifle is after the turn of the century. What I am saying is that all the carbines from friends and gun shows that I have compared my Rifle too have the same difference. If your mileage differs and your guns are the same measurement I would be very interested in hearing from you as to what ser # range they are in.

I have never seen a 92 carbine or 92 rifle sight being differentiated in a catalog or a sporting goods store. a 92 sight to them is just that ....a sight for any 92 . I can tell you tho that a 2.5 deg. tang difference will change an aperture picture from round and very clear to slightly oblong and cloudy around the edge. If you are young with good eyes the end result won't make very much difference... you will probably hit your target. But as we all get older our eyes change and that is when it will make a noticeable difference eventually to where the sight will be unusable.

 

[surfclod]

Thanks for the help.

I ended up ordering a Marbles tang sight that is designed for the Win 66. It looks like it will be a bit different from what would be ideal (Win 66 tang angle vs Win 94/92 tang angle) but I can shim or remove some material to make it work. Since there is some variance in even the same model, it seems like shimming, or trimming is just good gunsmithing to get the aperture exactly perfect.

The 1866 model was on sale at Brownells (almost half price) so I was able to get it as well as a tap and screw set for under the $100 limit. I realize it will require some effort to make it work.

By just tracing some pictures on my computer screen I can see that I will have to do some work to adapt the proper angle but I am a farm boy and have amazed many folks with what can be accomplished with the judicious use of a quality file set.

 

[vagrantviking]

Being a little bit off on the angle forward and back is really not a big deal as long as it resets to the same point every shot. It will just not allow quite as much light as it could.

If its too far off it will get dark or irritating and shimming up one end or building an angled base would be a thought. Just make sure that you keep it very straight sideways.