I will be having open sights installed on the custom rifle I am having built. The rifle will generally look like a 1920s English magazine rifle from Westley Richards or Holland & Holland.

What do you feel are the best REAR sight and the best FRONT sight for a classic rifle like this?

Lots of good alternatives for the rear but for the front sight my choice would be the Holland and Holland Style Front Ramp with the silver bead and the flip-up ivory globe. I saw one years ago on a rifle--makes for a nice touch. They are available from NECG

As dian 1 mentioned above, NECG front and rear. Those sights are made by Recknagel in the fatherland. New England Custom Gun is the US importer/distributer. You can get them from Brownells.

Specifically a "Masterpiece" banded front sight, and one of their island rear sights with a standing leaf and one or two flip up leaves.

If you like peep sights (and what right thinking man doesn't?) Recknagel and Tom Delucchi make striker mounted peep sights that look totally tits, and work wonderfully.

Like, back to the future, dude.

LD

I believe NECG can specially import all of prechtl's old British sight systems, even thought they do not advertise it. Give them a call. You can check out those sight systems at:
www.golmatic.de/index_en.htm

I have been having trouble getting NECG to e-mail me back. They did once, but not again. I would love to have one standing and two down with a simple barrel band front.

You could go with an island rear sight base or a quarter rib assembly to hold your three leaf rear sight.

The barrel profile that I am having made is specially machined for the island base. I am trying to have NECG give me an estimate on installing the base, the leaf inserts and the band front sight, but so far no luck. They answered once that they carried the parts (which I knew), but did not give a quote for the work. Next I got a catalog, but no idea as to how much they charge to install the sights. Do they no longer do this?

I've had trouble with kept promises with NECG. I tried to find out about a Heym bolt action and left a couple of questions with a guy who promised to get back to me "in a day or so." He didn't. I decided not to buy one - if I was having trouble getting them to sell me a rifle, I figured, I could imagine the trouble trying to get parts. NECG seems competent, but not responsive, unless, possibly, you're buying a $30,000 double...

Jaywalker

If it was the Heym bolt gun that has been on thier page for a few years, I tried too, and ended up just buying another Mannlicher instead.

Mark at NECG has always sent me written service quotes by mail, after inspecting the firearm. Same goes for new rifles. Some years ago I inquired about Heym rifles and was eventually sent the complete Heym catalogue, with a current price list inserted.

If they offer poor comunication, why bother with them?

Order the parts from Brownell's and have a good metalsmith/gunsmith install them.

Good advice! I am hoping to have Mark Stratton do some of the metal work on this rifle. I imagine he would be able to complete this for me too. I would probably get a much better product on the end line.

DO ANY OF YOU HAVE PICTURES OF NECG 'MASTERPIECE' BARREL BAND FRONT SIGHTS INSTALLED, AND MAYBE ONE OF THE EXPRESS SIGHTS WITH ONE FIXED AND TWO DOWN? I AM ALSO LOOKING TO SEE IF ANYONE HAS PICTURES OF THE BANDED REAR SIGHTS IN SERVICE?

Is this is what you are looking for?

Yes!

Maybe not so many leaves, but I would like at least two folding and one standing.

Jens-- Is that one of the Lothar Walther barrels in the 5125 profile? Looks like the original profile used by Holland & Holland when they brought out the 375 H&H.

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
Yes!

Maybe not so many leaves, but I would like at least two folding and one standing.

Jens-- Is that one of the Lothar Walther barrels in the 5125 profile? Looks like the original profile used by Holland & Holland when they brought out the 375 H&H.

Well.......!

You are asking more than I know !

It`s my .416 Rigby, and Yes It is a Lothar walter barrel, but it seems more in profile with the original rigby rifle.
I have seen LW barrels with the H&H profile, but I am not sure what profile# my barrel has
or what number the H&H has..
I`LL post a picture with more of the rifle,
here on this thread.

Here is another....

I went out of bat power....I would have taken a picture of the frontsight bur tomorrow I will
try again.

Jens---

I love the traditional Rigby look of your rifle. I would like to see as many pictures as you choose to post. The stockmaker did a fine job too.

quote:

Originally posted by 333_OKH:
Jens---

I love the traditional Rigby look of your rifle. I would like to see as many pictures as you choose to post. The stockmaker did a fine job too.

here we go....







[IMG]

I would stay away from the NECG H&H flip night sight as mentioned by Dian 1.

I built a custom .458WM Mauser, open sights only, and thought the sight would be classy, traditional and functional. I got the banded version along with the adjustable Masterpiece rear. No problems at this point and it looked great.

I then was showing friends at the range how the front sight flipped over and as it clicked into place the little "ivory" bead snapped off where it protrudes out of the holder and whizzed off to the long grass. #$&@$! I then contacted NECG who sent me the replacement part, I had to pay for it (less than $10.00 IIRC) and installed it. Next demo of this feature, same snapping of the bead as it clicked into place! Double #&%! Two times was enough for me.

The bead is, IMO, too brittle to withstand the hood setting into place. I was very careful to gently flip it over and click into place.

I then decided to not use the original NECG replacement part. I decided to try a fiber optic approach and contacted HY VIZ who sent me a couple of short rods .135 and .175 in green to try. The .135 was perfect so I carefully drilled out the remnants of the old bead with a Dremel, trimmed the fiber optic rod so a little, 1/8"-3/16", stuck out in order to get the light. I then carfully superglued the rod in place and now have a flip over fiber optic night sight in addition to the original fixed silver bead.

I like the NECG products and have had good service from them but wish I had used the standard Masterpiece front sight with removable inserts. I do like the rear sight.

Just my thoughts and experience with this sight option.

Good Luck.

RCG

Jens--

Excellent Classic rifle!

RCG thanks for your help.