I've got a Dakota 76 in .375 H&H that I bought used in like new condition. Besides a nice wood stock and some other extras, it came with a set of open sights on the barrel. I'm going to hunt using a scope, but since I took it out to break it in today, I thought, I'd see how the open sights shot, just in case. They shot high. I am not sure what brand these are, but the front sight is a post and bead with no easy adjustment and the rear is on a sort of quarter rib with a sliding dovetailed sight that makes your rear sight. There is no vertical adjustment available.

This seems dumb, but since I don't know the answer, I'm asking. The rear sight blade is flat (meaning no V or indention of any kind and would be parallel with the horizon in a normal mounted position) with a vertical reference line in the middle. Is this some kind of new, supposedly quicker sighting system, or is this sight designed to be taken out, filed in a shallow V and sighted in by trial and error or is it designed to be filed down in the same shape it is in, that is flat? I would say that for me, as is, it is shooting roughly 6 inches high at 25 meters. Since rapid shooting tends to make you shoot higher than normal this is not good IMO. Comments or suggestions?

Your rear sight is the German style Klapvisier that has been used on Mausers, Brno's and Mannlicher-Schoenauers. It is most likely zeroed for 100 yds, using the most popular bullet weight and velocity for your cartridge. Windage is adjusted by tapping the rear base left or right. Elevation is adjusted by replacing the front sight, which should be dovetailed into the ramp. Contact Dakota for available heights.

The wide V is a British style for use on an express sight, where the standing blade is a v for close shots and the flip up leaves are a flat style for precision.

That sounds to me like an unmodified Dakota rear blade put into one of their quarter ribs. Does it have a set screw in front of the blade to lock it in place for windage? If that's what you have, get out your file...

Todd

Kurt C:

I didn't shoot it at 100 yards, but there is no known semi-hunting velocity load in a .375 that would be on at 100 yards. I was shooting a 300 FMJ at about 2150 (no use in beating me or the gun up for fun practice) and it was quite HIGH at 25 meters. The front sight is already sticking up a good bit farther than I would prefer, raising it is not a good option, but thanks for the information

Todd:

You've got it, it does have the allen head set screw locking the sliding rear dovetail in place. Do they normally file this flat or shallow v? I might just get out the old rattail file. Thanks.

Gatogordo--

That sight hasn't been cut to zero it. That's the way they come.

Once you settle on you hunting load you file the V in the rear blade to zero it wherever you want.

They're called Express sights and are designed for absolute dependabilty and speed under difficult conditions.

The formula for filing them is ----

Multiply the inches you want to move the POI by the sight radius and divide by the range in inches.

Most big bores shoot well enough at 50 yards to be able to zero (one inch high) in three shots.

Do as jack Belk sez except I personally would zero dead on at 50 as opposed to 1" high because when a Buff or Lion charges you will tend to shoot high anyway for a couple of reasons, one he is coming at you decreasing the distance while going up and down to a degree or head bobing in the case of a buffalo, and two you will take a corser not a finer bead during a charge...you just have a tendency to shoot high under pressure..my opine.