I just built a peep sight for my mosin nagant. i made it from scrap steel no mosin parts were harmed . the peep replaces the rear sight. I drilled it .125, i can easily see the front post but the protective ring is blocked out. does this need to be bigger?. i will be using it for competition at 50, 100, and maybe longer. I built a peep because the first rifle I ever competed with was a lee enfield in 22lr in Air cadets and i have loved the aperture sight ever since. any help you could give me would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
what should I be able to see through a peep sight
- Thread starter mg4201
- Start date
peep sight
Most target shooters prefer an aperture in the peep sight that allows a view of the whole front sight, including the ring. For target shooting, this allows a "circle" for the front sight that helps in aiming. Also, a slightly wider field of view helps to keep you from shooting at the wrong target, and irritating the guy next to you who now has 11 holes in his target.
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Most target shooters prefer an aperture in the peep sight that allows a view of the whole front sight, including the ring. For target shooting, this allows a "circle" for the front sight that helps in aiming. Also, a slightly wider field of view helps to keep you from shooting at the wrong target, and irritating the guy next to you who now has 11 holes in his target.
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Several rifles have dual peeps, or dual aperture for battle shooting or fine shooting. I'm not sure what your experience is with this type of sight, but you may want to try out a few of them to see what works best for you before you drill out your first hole too big.
I think peep sights are superior to iron sights, although I don't use them on any of my Mosins. You should post a pic when you have your final version complete.
I think peep sights are superior to iron sights, although I don't use them on any of my Mosins. You should post a pic when you have your final version complete.
- Location
- In lalaland, that is Ottawa.
Peep Sight
Having more years experience with peeps than I wish was true, I have a few comments.
My first peeps were first on my dad's 46B Mossberg .22LR then the tangent peep on my prewar model 12 Martini Henry .22LR. In both cases, I would get my eye as close to the peep as possible, indeed, scratching my first pair of eye glasses. In both cases, I used a fairly large aperture and the peep cut out all vision in my right eye, thus teaching me to leave the left eye open and concentrate oin the master eye image.
As I progressed, my next peep, a Lyman 57 on a sporter P17 .30-06 (that was the peep expoxied later toi my 1885 Hi-Wall on the EE here a while ago) and needed to have about 3"-4" spsce for recoil. With this space, I needed a fairly large aperture.
Now, unless my knowledge of the Nagant is wrong, you have this peep set in where the open sight normally woul be, a fair distance, up to perpahs 14" from your eye. As Andy has said above, with such a pseudo-peep, it is really akin to the old buckhorn rear sighte except is is a circle not a U.
And you need the aperture just larhe enough to be able to see the front sight through it. This is why above, I am calling it a pseudo peep. A true peep, as close to the eys as the recoil permits, should be looked thought and not at.
The eye will automatically center the front sight for you in the center of the aperture, and it is better to have the aperture too large than too small.
Hope that this helps.
Having more years experience with peeps than I wish was true, I have a few comments.
My first peeps were first on my dad's 46B Mossberg .22LR then the tangent peep on my prewar model 12 Martini Henry .22LR. In both cases, I would get my eye as close to the peep as possible, indeed, scratching my first pair of eye glasses. In both cases, I used a fairly large aperture and the peep cut out all vision in my right eye, thus teaching me to leave the left eye open and concentrate oin the master eye image.
As I progressed, my next peep, a Lyman 57 on a sporter P17 .30-06 (that was the peep expoxied later toi my 1885 Hi-Wall on the EE here a while ago) and needed to have about 3"-4" spsce for recoil. With this space, I needed a fairly large aperture.
Now, unless my knowledge of the Nagant is wrong, you have this peep set in where the open sight normally woul be, a fair distance, up to perpahs 14" from your eye. As Andy has said above, with such a pseudo-peep, it is really akin to the old buckhorn rear sighte except is is a circle not a U.
And you need the aperture just larhe enough to be able to see the front sight through it. This is why above, I am calling it a pseudo peep. A true peep, as close to the eys as the recoil permits, should be looked thought and not at.
The eye will automatically center the front sight for you in the center of the aperture, and it is better to have the aperture too large than too small.
Hope that this helps.
the peep sight is done except for black oxide
I am having problems with my home computer right now. The hard drive just quit. so it could be a few days for pics. I finished the mount about ten minutes ago. the nice thing is I built it so I could replace the whole peep with one screw so if it gets drilled too big no big deal it is 10 minutes to make another. Thank you all for your help I will post pics as soon as I can.
I am having problems with my home computer right now. The hard drive just quit. so it could be a few days for pics. I finished the mount about ten minutes ago. the nice thing is I built it so I could replace the whole peep with one screw so if it gets drilled too big no big deal it is 10 minutes to make another. Thank you all for your help I will post pics as soon as I can.
"...drilled it .125..." Actually might be too big. Try it though.
While not a Mosin, the Mk I Lee-Enfield sight had an aperture that was .010" diameter. The Mk's III and IV were 20 thou. Reasonably good pictures of these sights are here. Give you an idea, if nothing else.
http://www.enfieldrifles.ca/ti14.htm
These guys make a peep sight that goes on the existing rear sight base. $64US though. No idea if they'll ship here either.
http://www.mojosights.com/mosin_nagant.html
A net search for 'Mosin Nagant receiver sights' turns up all kinds of sites about putting peep sights on a Mosin. Some of 'em are daft, but not all of 'em.
While not a Mosin, the Mk I Lee-Enfield sight had an aperture that was .010" diameter. The Mk's III and IV were 20 thou. Reasonably good pictures of these sights are here. Give you an idea, if nothing else.
http://www.enfieldrifles.ca/ti14.htm
These guys make a peep sight that goes on the existing rear sight base. $64US though. No idea if they'll ship here either.
http://www.mojosights.com/mosin_nagant.html
A net search for 'Mosin Nagant receiver sights' turns up all kinds of sites about putting peep sights on a Mosin. Some of 'em are daft, but not all of 'em.
MauserMike
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
Where on the rifle is the aperture? It almost sounds like you have it up where the Mosin rear sight would be. It has to be close to your eye.
On the Lee-Enfield Number 4 Rifle, the rear aperture ("peep") was large enough that if you got your eye close enough to the thing to actually USE it, you couldn't even see it. It was simply a convenient hole to look through; you did ALL your aiming with the FRONT SIGHT.
The "problem" with "peep sights" is that people try to line up the "peep" with the front sight.
NEVER works. The human eye just can NOT focus on 3 objects at the same time; the limit is ONE.
So you IGNORE the rear aperture and look through it (and it has to be BIG enough for this) and you switch your point of focus between the target and the front sight. When THOSE TWO line up, you squeeze the trigger and the bullet should go where you want it to go.
But the REAR aperture is just something to look THROUGH. Of course, it also HAS to be aligned with the front sight in order to do its job..... but that job was done when the rifle was being set-up. Shooting the thing, you look through it and, otherwise, ignore the thing.
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The "problem" with "peep sights" is that people try to line up the "peep" with the front sight.
NEVER works. The human eye just can NOT focus on 3 objects at the same time; the limit is ONE.
So you IGNORE the rear aperture and look through it (and it has to be BIG enough for this) and you switch your point of focus between the target and the front sight. When THOSE TWO line up, you squeeze the trigger and the bullet should go where you want it to go.
But the REAR aperture is just something to look THROUGH. Of course, it also HAS to be aligned with the front sight in order to do its job..... but that job was done when the rifle was being set-up. Shooting the thing, you look through it and, otherwise, ignore the thing.
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I know that the peep should be back as far as possible
but I really don't want to drill and tap the reciever at the rear. As the mosin has no bridge any thing I put on it will look like a turd on a wedding cake. I will build 2 more tubes with different size apertures like .090 and .150 and i will see which one works better. thanks to all ho contributed I appreciate it.
but I really don't want to drill and tap the reciever at the rear. As the mosin has no bridge any thing I put on it will look like a turd on a wedding cake. I will build 2 more tubes with different size apertures like .090 and .150 and i will see which one works better. thanks to all ho contributed I appreciate it.
I'd say that technically what you just made would be better described as a ghost ring rear sight. A peep sight is more a smaller aperature mounted back near the shooter's eye.
A big advantage of a true rear mounted small aperature peep sight is that for folks like me with a little bit of astigmatism the peep sight acts like a small iris opening to reduce the effect of the poor vision. In effect it sharpens my eyesight when I use a true peep sight. If I were to use your forward mounted ring sight I, and folks like me, would not gain any advantage of sharper viewing.
Having said this I'm keen on seeing what you did. My own recently acquired Mosin has something wonky and I need to do something to the rear sight to move it to the left and down to get things onto the bullseye without needing a lot of "Kentucky windage and elevation" added to the sight picture.
A big advantage of a true rear mounted small aperature peep sight is that for folks like me with a little bit of astigmatism the peep sight acts like a small iris opening to reduce the effect of the poor vision. In effect it sharpens my eyesight when I use a true peep sight. If I were to use your forward mounted ring sight I, and folks like me, would not gain any advantage of sharper viewing.
Having said this I'm keen on seeing what you did. My own recently acquired Mosin has something wonky and I need to do something to the rear sight to move it to the left and down to get things onto the bullseye without needing a lot of "Kentucky windage and elevation" added to the sight picture.
Now we have the correct nomenclature. He said from the outset that it was to be mounted on a Mosin Nagant where the rear sight had been and since that's far from the eye, it can't be a peep sight. There are several situations where a peep sight can't be used despite its advantages (e.g. not wanting to drill and tap, or for Cowboy Shooting). A good discussion, but having no pictures from post #1 has done a disservice to this thread.
Here's what i like on my Winchester M1892:
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Andy I think you are right
The mojo sight is what i based this off of. In my defence, I did try to buy a mojo but no one will sell me one here in Canada. I am going to wait untill I sight the rifle in to modify the sight as you suggested. I am inexperienced with building sights do you have any other suggestions? I appreciate your input and help so far. Thanks
The mojo sight is what i based this off of. In my defence, I did try to buy a mojo but no one will sell me one here in Canada. I am going to wait untill I sight the rifle in to modify the sight as you suggested. I am inexperienced with building sights do you have any other suggestions? I appreciate your input and help so far. Thanks
PerversPépère
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Shawinigan (Quebec)
To be really effective, the peep sight should be situated near the shooter's eye and be of smaller diameter. This has the double benefit of lengthening the actual sight base and giving you an increase in depth of focus by the iris effect.
A smaller peep is naturally auto-centering. You don't have to worry about your rear sight, just get the front sight post on target, focus on the post and squeeze. That's what makes No.4MkI Enfields so effective.
A middle barrel "peep" is a joke. You can see that on some Arisakas, they just make it difficult to see the target.
PP.
A smaller peep is naturally auto-centering. You don't have to worry about your rear sight, just get the front sight post on target, focus on the post and squeeze. That's what makes No.4MkI Enfields so effective.
A middle barrel "peep" is a joke. You can see that on some Arisakas, they just make it difficult to see the target.
PP.
Andy has a point, as the sight is raised up for longer range shots the hole down the tube will be out of alignment and your "view" will go from a circle to more of a football shape.
I guess we don't know what you may have done to avoid the issue but a way to prevent the occlusion that would occur with a change in angle would be to drill your small original hole through the rod and then drill a second bigger hole that is just a little smaller than the OD almost all the way through so there is only about 1/32 inch of the small hole left. On top of this if you were to drill the rear with a centering drill it would aid in avoiding the sun from over your shoulder from glaring on the rear face.
Here's a picture of what I'm thinking....
I guess we don't know what you may have done to avoid the issue but a way to prevent the occlusion that would occur with a change in angle would be to drill your small original hole through the rod and then drill a second bigger hole that is just a little smaller than the OD almost all the way through so there is only about 1/32 inch of the small hole left. On top of this if you were to drill the rear with a centering drill it would aid in avoiding the sun from over your shoulder from glaring on the rear face.
Here's a picture of what I'm thinking....
