Receiver sights are not so obsolete

Shooting Industry, Sept, 1990 by William Schumaker

Today's gunsmiths probably install more scopes than any other types of sights. This does not mean receiver sights, often referred to as peep sights, are dead. Knowledgeable, practical, gun educated hunters have them in their working batteries of game getters. They are less cumbersome, faster, easier to manipulate into and out of gun cases, saddle scabbards, other fast handling needs, plus are easier, faster and cheaper to install than scope and mounts.

Receiver sights such as the Williams Foolproof are nearly foolprOOf! They have only two installation holes. Once zeroed, the adjustment locking screws prevent rear sight movements, even if moderately abused! Hunters working in slight, though dense cover, seldom get shots beyond 200 yards. Receiver sights with adequate size rear apetarures are faster and more effective than scopes, especially of the 3-9 power variety. They are too often carried at the maximum power at the instant an under-the-nose brush shot surfaces. Inadequate field of view is often responsible for misses.

Consider Peep Sights For

Heavy Hitters

Guns such as the .375 H&H mag., .3 3 8 Win mag., 8mm Rem. mag., .300 Win. mag., .300 Weatherby and many others have a habit of making half-moon scope cuts over the shooting eye, regardless of how much effort is taken to provide customers with proper eye relief stock lengths. Big antlers create haste and breed carelessness. Often those eye-cutter shots are at close to medium range game, when their appearance is exciting.

An excitable hunter for whom I built a .358 Norma Magnum got a scope recoil cut from a sloppy rifle butt partly positioned too low on his shoulder. It created a flinching problem. He sold the rifle. A receiver sight might have prevented this. It would have been less expensive to install and less costly to purchase. More experience, with proper shooting positions would likewise have prevented this eye-damaging flinch reaction. Metallic Sights For The .375

Ruger

A friend with tribal hunting rights uses a Ruger single shot .375 H&H magnum rifle, fitted with a Williams FP RSS receiver sight. He owns a custom .30-338, plus varmint and other scoped rifles, yet finds the receiver sights more effective for medium and short range big game. An on-the-cattle-range farm worker, he finds the compact receiver sight handles better going in and out of saddle scabbards, gun cases and farm vehicles. There are no lenses to fog in bad weather, or become damaged. George says, "I don't care about the tle ones. If I can't SEE their antlers, they deserve to survive."

Installation requires drilling and tapping two holes, (No. 31 drill and 6-48 tap). Williams Gun Sight Company (P.O. Box. 329, Davison, Mich. 48423), advises the hole drilling should be . I 00 below top of the flat portion of the receiver of Ruger No. 1 and 3 single shot rifles, in order to give proper sight alignment.

The Williams FP sight can be assembled, positioned onto the side of the action, outside marked with lead pencil, then gently removed. Then the elevation-windage unit is removed in order to open the attaching holes in the base. Remember that the first left-side hole should be scribed, drilled and tapped before the elevation-windage unit removal. This permits squaring up the base on the firearm and getting an accurate positioning for the second attaching screw, when that first screw is in place.

No experienced gunsmith or beginner who follows instructions should have any problems with this. Bore-sighting, then zeroing with actual firing is a routine shooter-gunsmith service customers appreciate. (Those who do or have attempted to do this themselves are even more grateful. It's not as easy as some presume). Be sure to advise your gun owners to fire their own guns and make or have someone help them make final adjustments for their eyes and ammunition and shooting habits.

Pistol Scopes vs

Peep Sights

A 14" .30-30 barrel, for a Contender single shot pistol equipped with a Guide-Line Williams receiver sight, and a low Williams front sight ramp with a post altered for the red Lee insert, is a fantastic game getter. Knowing the advantages of a large rear sight aperture for hunting, I've left the screw-in sight aperture out of the sight. This gives a rear sight opening of 3/16" with a light outside rim to minimize visual interference for fast moving shots. Another trick we've often used is to take out the aperture and drill-open it with about a 5/32" drill. This helps a lot. Also, cutting off the entire outside shroud of that aperture and leaving a 5/32" center opening is good. It gives less visual on-the-side interference and is accurate for game hunting.

Front ramp and rear Williams Guide Line sight installations are routine gunsmithing work. Compared to super-accurate calibers, total accuracy might not be comparable scope-wise with the metallic sights, but more than adequate for game hunting.

Installation of the front ramp and rear receiver sights require caution in selecting front ramp and sight height, as calibers and recoil influence this. While the Guide sight has both windage and elevation, as does their FP, there are limitations. Bore-sight, zero-fire and proceed with caution. The Guide-Line can be fitted to numerous arms, such as the Ruger Mark 11 target pistol and H&R single shot rifle, besides countless others listed on page 18 of Williams 1990 catalog. Gunsmiths can adapt these to many other firearms installations.