Tallest epoxy on 870 front sight?

[G.Mitchell]

I’m still working to sort out my sight setup for my 870. I plan to run an Aimpoint H2 but still want backup sights. I’ve got a receiver rail that has a nice U channel in it and was thinking with a high enough front sight I could still get bead sight accuracy with this setup.

What I don’t know is how tall a front sight I’ll need. My 14” barrel has the raised pedestal front bead so I’m looking for a front sight I can epoxy and cross pin over that base.

I know Wilson Combat makes a front sight but I’m not sure it’s tall enough and I don’t want tritium or fiber optic since I may need to file the height down to get the setup to work.

Any suggestions?

 

[platnumbob]

I can't give you much advise on how much height you would need for your 14" barrel set-up, but what I ended up doing was buying a 12.5" barrel that already had the proper sight height as it seemed easier. I previously had a 12.5 Norc bead sight barrel and it was not even close to POA. I ended up selling that and buying a proper 12.5" norc barrel with the tall front sight on it already, and it is pretty tall. I have a WC ghost ring mounted on my 870 receiver.

Perhaps look for used Norc barrels on the EE if no one can help you with a new sight post. I got mine for cheap. WC may also be able to suggest a product if you contact them.

 

[Butcherbill]

How high is the rail and the channel, can you measure it up and post a pic?

The magwedge rail mounted on my grizzly has a channel as well and the tall front sight post on the 12.5” grizzly barrel was pretty dead on with slugs and 00buck at 25-30y, I can measure the grizzly front sight and the height of the magwedge rail if you need a rough idea of where to start.

The difference between the 12.5” and 14” barrel shouldn’t be too much different.

 

[G.Mitchell]

Thank you both.

Butcherbill I’ll get some measurements and post here. Without the H2 I’m looking for a 25-30 yard rough zero so your setup may well get me what I need.

Hopefully I’ll never need the backup sight setup but anything can fail so I’d rather have something to fall back to.

 

[Butcherbill]

3/8” is the overall height of my rail from the receiver to the top flat section of the rail, 3/16” is the height from the receiver to bottom of U notch on the rail. 13/16” is the overall height of the front sight blade from the barrel to the top of the sight blade, if I recall correctly I was lining up the top of the front sight blade with the top of the tail. This was putting the white dot of the sight blade in the middle of the U notch more of less.

00buck and birdshot were spread evenly around the point of aim and slugs were point of aim in the 25-30yrd mark from what I remember, no chokes just an open cylinder.

Let me know if you need any other measurements etc, hopefully that will give you a baseline to get things lined up.

Oh, this is from the Scattergun tech front sights. They list front sight heights for both the 12.5” and 14” barrels, I don’t know if it’s an overall height or the height from the top of the sight base to the top of the front blade. I’ve been trying to find out the same thing for my 14” barrel but have finally got my hand on a set of Remington rifle sights I will be attaching to it in the next couple days.

 

[kevin82]

I can't give you much advise on how much height you would need for your 14" barrel set-up, but what I ended up doing was buying a 12.5" barrel that already had the proper sight height as it seemed easier. I previously had a 12.5 Norc bead sight barrel and it was not even close to POA. I ended up selling that and buying a proper 12.5" norc barrel with the tall front sight on it already, and it is pretty tall. I have a WC ghost ring mounted on my 870 receiver.

Perhaps look for used Norc barrels on the EE if no one can help you with a new sight post. I got mine for cheap. WC may also be able to suggest a product if you contact them.

Could you please post a pick of your WC rear sight?
I have the norc 12.5 and 18 inch barrels with the high front sight and have never been able to find a compatible rear

 

[Butcherbill]

Could you please post a pick of your WC rear sight?
I have the norc 12.5 and 18 inch barrels with the high front sight and have never been able to find a compatible rear

If your interested I have a grizzly rear ghost ring sight base I’d sell, I took it off the gun I posted above when I added the rail. I don’t plan on doing anything with it, PM your email me if you want to see pics of it. It’s in good shape, I have the mounting screws for it as well.

 

[G.Mitchell]

My Mesa rail is 0.24” to the bottom of the U from the bottom of the rail and 0.3” to the top of the rail.

The bead on my 14” barrel is basically flush to the top of my receiver height.

With a straight edge from the top of the Mesa rail to the bead I think I need a sight height of 0.55” front outside the barrel or 0.654” measured from the inside.

These are rough measurements.

I’d prefer a taller front sight without any tritium or fiber optic type insert so I can file the front sight down if needed to get proper zero.

Does any of that make sense?

 

[Butcherbill]

Makes sense, I’ll try and put that 12.5”’barrel on my grizzly again and put a straight edge from the rail to the front sight and see how it lines up. Taller is definitely better, allowing you to file it down if needed to get your poa to match poi.

 

[G.Mitchell]

Makes sense, I’ll try and put that 12.5”’barrel on my grizzly again and put a straight edge from the rail to the front sight and see how it lines up. Taller is definitely better, allowing you to file it down if needed to get your poa to match poi.

Awesome, thanks.

Taller is better for sure, this is a more crude setup than what I’d orginally wanted but for backup sights I think it’ll be cost effective and efficient.

 

[Jaaska]

I have the Wilson ghost ring rear and front sight on my 14 inch 870 with a pic rail with a U notch allowing the sights to be usable . I put on a T2 micro with a QD mount so if i ever need the sights i can sweep the red dot off in half a second . I bought the rear sight jig from Wilson to properly drill and tap the receiver giving full use of the elevation . Lots of guys eyeball it and end up shooting way too high or way too low and out of adjustment . The jig solves that .

 

[G.Mitchell]

I have the Wilson ghost ring rear and front sight on my 14 inch 870 with a pic rail with a U notch allowing the sights to be usable . I put on a T2 micro with a QD mount so if i ever need the sights i can sweep the red dot off in half a second . I bought the rear sight jig from Wilson to properly drill and tap the receiver giving full use of the elevation . Lots of guys eyeball it and end up shooting way too high or way too low and out of adjustment . The jig solves that .

Good to know. Think the front sight would be usable without the rear sight just using the U in the rail? What height is your front sight?

 

[Butcherbill]

So with a metal straightedge on the top of the rail extending past the front sight on the 12.5” barrel I have a gap just shy of 1/8”, the front sight is just lower than the level of the top of the rail. When I shoulder and sight it the top of the front sight post lines up flush with the top of the rail, like so and I was on the mark between 25-30yds. So with a 14” barrel I’d start with a taller front sight than your level line from the top of your rail and file to get the point of impact where you want it at your set distance.

 

[supernova]

Just to throw another wrench in, have you checked out the Aridus CROM? It is a very low mount for a T1/H1 with an XS rear ghost ring integrated for a lower 1/3 cowitness. It's designed for your typical ghost ring-height front sights. They also have them for the trij RMR now too. I know its more expensive than your current plan but its definitely a solid setup.

 

[G.Mitchell]

Thanks Butcherbill, I appreciate the info and your feedback. The U in your rail is much deeper than the Mesa rail I’ve got. Trick might be finding a front sight blade that doesn’t have tritium or an insert so I could file it down.

Supernova I am considering the CROM as well. I’d prefer a rail that’s easy to remove the optic from. The CROM is also only going to work with an Aimpoint pattern optic or RMR type too. An XS rail or my Mesa rail would allow me to use a wide variety of optics and it’d be easier to remove the optic too.

I am trying to source a few different parts to mock up before making my decision.

 

[Butcherbill]

Thanks Butcherbill, I appreciate the info and your feedback. The U in your rail is much deeper than the Mesa rail I’ve got. Trick might be finding a front sight blade that doesn’t have tritium or an insert so I could file it down.

No worries, I know how frustrating it is to try and figure out a baseline. I’ve have been trying to get a front sight height measurement for the scattergun tech sight and nobody wants to take the time to measure it up, I’ve pm’d multiple people with them for sale on the ee and started a thread asking for a favour. Crickets...

Keep in mind that I’m not using the bottom of the U notch to line up the front sight, I’m using the top of the rail to line up the sights. I bet if you can find a front sight taller than the top of the rail if you run a level line from forward you’ll be on the money.

I’ve got my front and rear sights all fit and lined up and positioned on my 14” barrel, will be attaching them tomorrow. Hopefully it’s all in the right place and lined up correctly lol. Will be nice to have irons on this barrel finally.