Guys,

Working with the M94 I restored over the winter, and I have an accurate load developed with it, but it's shooting about 6-8" high at 50 yards. If I take a 6 o'clock hold, it's about an inch or two high of center on a sheet of letter paper. I know this is a relatively-common occurrence. I've bottomed out the rear sight elevator to no avail. Using the sight height calculator available at Brownells, the "correct" height for the sight appears to be .500". Right now, there's a .312" sight on it that I installed. I get the math, but that sounds awfully high. I'd hate to swap the sight out only to have it shoot too far the other way. Does anyone have any experience with this issue, and does that remedy sound correct? The load I'm using chronos a 170gr. bullet at just over 2000fps, so it's standard ballistics.

All the time. Search for the sight correction chart; it is posted on the net. I would but no time now. It will tell you what height to get based on sight radius and shot error. and range.
Or just do some math and calculate it yourself. It's just angles.

If you ran the numbers right, numbers seldom lie. The only time they do is if the barrel has a curve to it and it's pointed in the wrong direction.

If you have a caliper, measure the diameter of the barrel at the rear sight blade and divide by two to get the radius. Set the rear sight to its middle setting and measure from the notch in the sight to the top of the barrel and add the radius. Then get radius of the barrel under the front sight. Measure from the top of the front sight to the bottom of the barrel and then subtract the radius. The two numbers you came up with have to be the same. Or close to it. You can look at the difference between the two numbers to find out how much taller your front sight has to be.

I measured my 94 sight radius and got a shade over 16"

Going to Brownells "Sight Correction Calculator":
http://www.brownells.com/userd...ghtCorrection_F2.swf

For 8" at 50 yards it shows a correction of 0.071", for 6" it is 0.053".

Depending on how your front sight shape is, I'd suggest experimenting with gluing a piece of fiber optic rod to the top of your sight, or just building it up with some epoxy putty. Might even be tempted to epoxy a tritium capsule on top. Especially if you have the hood installed it should look just fine if you use some care.
And if you don't like how it looks you can at least measure it and get the proper height sight.

I just use modeling clay for front sights to get the right height. Pinch it into a V and voila; you have a sight.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I'll goof around with it some more before swapping the sight out. Maybe do like some have suggested and install a second fake bead on the top to raise things up and see what effect that has. If I'm honest, swapping that front dovetail out was kind of a pain in the ass - the old one was REALLY in there, and the new one required a lot of fitting - so I'm not in a hurry to relive the experience.

The only thing I keep coming back to is what the previous owner(s) did for almost 70 years before I bought the gun. Did it always shoot like this? Did they just not care?

Brownells sells a bag of 12 soft plastic front sights with round dovetails and notches to cut..take 2 minutes to fit to a dovetail..Sight in by cutting the notches off as you go..when sighted in perfectly , mic the plastic sight and match it with the metal sight of your choice..

If Im using a peep sight I buy a .500 New England Arm gold faced partridge (post) and install it go to the bench and file it to zero..A great sight. I also like that post with a shallow V rear, taking a flush sight picture like you would a pistol..Its as fast as a receiver sight and as accurate..Old Texas ranger trick for fast and accurate shooting..and it works.

quote:

Originally posted by Clayman:
Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I'll goof around with it some more before swapping the sight out. Maybe do like some have suggested and install a second fake bead on the top to raise things up and see what effect that has. If I'm honest, swapping that front dovetail out was kind of a pain in the ass - the old one was REALLY in there, and the new one required a lot of fitting - so I'm not in a hurry to relive the experience.

The only thing I keep coming back to is what the previous owner(s) did for almost 70 years before I bought the gun. Did it always shoot like this? Did they just not care?

Maybe the previous owner shot heavier bullets that weren't as high shooting as your load, or maybe he just got used to it and used a different sight picture?

Probably used Kentucky windage

Front sights are always installed and removed from the right. If you try it from the left you will damage the dovetail. And the sight.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Front sights are always installed and removed from the right. If you try it from the left you will damage the dovetail. And the sight.

So drive them out from right to left?
Assuming rifle is butt down barrel up...

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Maybe the previous owner shot heavier bullets that weren't as high shooting as your load, or maybe he just got used to it and used a different sight picture?

Good thought, but I'm already shooting 170gr bullets out of the rifle - I don't see 30-30 bullets going practically heavier than that! I'm wondering on the sight picture myself. The only thing I can think of is either A: they got used to a 6 o'clock hold on the sights or B: they didn't shoot the rifle enough to care. It really hadn't been used that much; that was the primary reason I bought it. I'm going to go grab a box of factory 170gr ammo and see what that does. My load is 2000fps, which is pretty much baseline for a 170gr bullet and 20" barrel. Weird stuff.