Can anyone, an actual gunsmith is preferred, tell me what is needed to mount an original Lyman cocking piece sight on my original Oberndorf Type B sporter? The rifle is a 9.3x62 in very nice shape and shoots like a target rifle and I want to keep it as original as I can, yet I love auxiliary "peep" sights.

Parts? Proceudures? Comments?

A "long" cocking piece and a dovetail cutter.

When I wanted one on my 1908 DWM my GS said his ordinary dovetail cutter would not look at the hardened cockingpiece and a special cutter would be needed or the cocking piuece would have to be annealed , cut, then re hardened.
We used the standard length cockingpiece, turned the rear down enough to fit a sleeve over with an offset lowered dovetail cut to sit the 'sight' as low as possible so a scope in qd rings could also be used if required.



Only had a 1/6 or so clearance under the scope so had an aperture made thatn sat lower in the housing and now all works fine.

Von Gruff.

I just annealed the rear of the cp when I installed this one. I like Von Groff's idea to mount it lower though.
Don

I bought one of Rusty Marlins first Rigby style sights and used a solid carbide cutter from Brownells. Perfect job and perfect rear sight. It's on a 375H&H that is built on a Westley Richards single square bridge action. Looks and works as if it belonged there.

I've owned original H&H and Rigby bolt peeps that used the spacer design. Not necessary on all long-cocking-piece rifles but they used this spacer design on the ones I've owned.

I'll bet Ralf can fix you up....
Regards, Joe

No, Joe, I asked Ralf and Mandy some time ago, last spring just after they changed the shop about doing these little specialty jobs for me and Mandy said they would. Then, perhaps a month ago, if that, I spoke with Ralf and he refused to do it. I have never had any disagreements with them and always paid in full and on time, so, I do not know why they have changed their minds.

So, when I bought this sight, I was under the impression that Ralf could and would do it, but, he won't and I have to find another person to install it. I think that one of the chaps who was working for him can, but, I want to get all the info. I can on this and then decide where to go with the over-all project.

There are two major problems with guns-hunting in Canada, one is the disgusting gun laws we currently are enslaved under and the second is a lack of even "good" gunsmiths. Guys like Ralf just concentrate on the highend custom market and do not want to bother with work of this nature....it's his right and I just have to deal with it and see what can be done. "C'est la vie".

quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
I bought one of Rusty Marlins first Rigby style sights and used a solid carbide cutter from Brownells. Perfect job and perfect rear sight. It's on a 375H&H that is built on a Westley Richards single square bridge action. Looks and works as if it belonged there.

Mine is one of Rusty's sights as well and it was because we would have had to get a carbide cutter in from the US( at $NZ200 landed) that had us looking at the sleeve and because we were doing that, that the lower seting came about.

Von Gruff.

Hi Von Gruff,

I allways wandered about the increase of the weight of the firing pin and the correspondig increase in the lock time using this peep sight...
What is your experience about these and the efect on the "practical accuracy" of the rifle?

Thanks!

PH

When I first built the rifle I used my 4.5-14 Nikon in a spare set of rings to do the load testing and at that time used a second cocking piece as the origional was away to get worked on. Going from the standard to the origional with the aperture fitted I there was no discernable difference in on paper performance so I would think that although the extra weight would slow lock time I could detect no decrease in accuracy potential. I did have a spring that seems about 25% stiffer and I would expect faster so this may help in this regard.

Testing under hunting conditions has given me aperture sighted kills out to 185 yds and that is the way I hunt with my 2-7 hunting scope carried in a german styled leather scope bag slung over my shoulder in case it is needed.

The cocking piece aperrture sight gives me a 32inch sighting radius for my 25in barrel and that in itself is an advantage.

Von Gruff.

Thank you Von Gruff!

Regards

PH

There is a "cap style" mount for the Lyman that fits over the cocking piece, has a set-or-through screw. I have one that shows traces of solder inside the cap. Looks a tad tidier than the Lyman dovetailed.

Aside, Rusty's sights are beautiful and very sleek.

quote:

So, when I bought this sight, I was under the impression that Ralf could and would do it, but, he won't and I have to find another person to install it. I think that one of the chaps who was working for him can, but, I want to get all the info. I can on this and then decide where to go with the over-all project.

Griffin and Howe.

NECG is agant for Prechtel who makes a new one, spendy however.

The ones I have seen used a simple somewhat thick steel disc turned to be a snug fit over either the full-size end of a long cocking piece or the turned-smaller end of a short cocking piece. The disc was attached to the cocking piece by both soft solder and a small longitudinal screw at either 6 or 12 o'clock. The offset screw apparently served as both a positive locator and a fail-safe secondary attachment, and the disc was dovetailed horizontally for the sight base.

Actually any local home shop machinist or any local machine job-shop can do this work easily as long as they have both the cocking piece and the sight in hand. The adaptor disc is fabbed to fit the rear end of the cocking piece and dovetailed to match the sight base, then the (temporary) 3-piece assembly is plumbed/aligned and the locator hole is drilled and tapped. The adaptor disc is then screwed and soldered to the cocking piece and voila!

I suggest cutting and fitting the dovetail in the disc first, then fit the disc to the cocking piece. You don't hafta ask.....

If you have a long cocking piece then it's possible to dovetail the rear of it for the sight, without interfering with the stock's wrist.

Modern epoxies, properly mixed and applied, are as strong as soft solder. For a stronger attachment you might try low-temp silver-solder, I've had excellent results with it and a propane torch will (eventually) heat things up OK.
Regards, Joe

For some great photos of some of these sights mounted on some great rifles, please see the sight thread on the Single-Barrel forum at the doublegunshop.com site. Lots of sights, lots of older custom rifles, lots of informed discussion, VERY LITTLE BULLSHIT OR SQUABBLING!!
Regards, Joe

quote:

lots of informed discussion, VERY LITTLE BULLSHIT OR SQUABBLING!!

Thats good stuff J.D