The Skinner sight is well made, but perhaps not too well thought out. It's also a bit too much sight for the caliber that I'm slinging. (Currently have it installed on a .357 rossi 92 octagonal with a 24in barrel)
Was slinging the rounds out to 500 yards with it last fall, but noticed that the sight on the ladder itself has a generous amount of side to side play once you lock the screw down on it. There is also a substantial blind zone in the adjustment at the very bottom of the ladder. Would make more sense with a more potent cartridge perhaps.
Are you referring to the side to side wobble of the "ladder" when it is in the raised position? If yes, I find that's a very common problem with this type of sight in general. Applying a very slight downward bend, as mentioned above, will tension the sight and cure this completely.
Buffalo Arms has selections, but a friend tried the Winchester Re-Pro iirc and it had no detent in the slide or was weak enough to allow movement from recoil
Skinner, Red River and Smith are options, also Taylor And Co may have something
I lucked out and found an old Skinner with lock screw, here on CGN in the EE
for any real precision though you are better off with a tang sight
mho
I have also seen a sight like this that had literally no provision for holding the slider in place on the ladder. No detent, no screw, nothing. It was very close to useless; it would require finding the correct position on the slider and carefully marking it, and then "returning it to battery", so to speak, before each shot. Would never buy one like that, but fortunately they don't seem to be common.
The Skinner has a screw lock, which is probably ideal. Easy to experiment with various elevations, allows having multiple range settings easily available. The sights pictured in the OP have a spring-clip that also works well; I've never had one of those become misadjusted by recoil or handling, and they're very quick to change settings in the field if desired, no tools required.
Certainly, these are not the equal of a proper Soule or other tang sight. But they are a huge upgrade from any open sight, they fold down to a much more low-profile, snag-free configuration than any tang sight, and they cost a fraction of the price. They're not for extreme long-range precision, they're a hunting sight pure and simple and they excel at that role.
You have to be very cautious with those screws on some rifles, on a light "small dia. " contoured barrel. When the dovetail is cut , sometimes the steel remaining between the bore center-line and middle of the dovetail cut isnt very thick and n overly ambitious tightening of that screw can dent a bump into the bore channel.
That's a scary thought...but I don't think it's a huge concern if common sense is used when tightening the set screw. All it does is bind the sight into the dovetail to prevent side to side motion. Mine are a friction fit in the dovetail already and require some finger pressure to move. The set screw only needs a couple inch-pounds of torque to lock them down.
In fairness, I've never used one of these sights on any barrel that might be considered small diameter. The barrel pictured above is more the style on which these sights seem appropriate; plenty of steel there. There's likely more steel between the bottom of the dovetail and the bore than many barrels have with no dovetail cut at all.
