I'm having a 400 Whelen Winchester 70 barreled action put together. It will have NECG sights installed for back-up sighting(scope will be primary). I haven't given it much thought, but when setting a barreled action up with open sights, what height do you set the sights from the centerline of the bore? I thought 1" was typical. Mine is calculated to end up around .970". I will have the gun properly stocked, I was just curious if there was a general rule of thumb on open sight height for bolt actions? Many thanks!

Rule of thumb for calculating trajectory of an iron sighted rifle has been 1" above the bore but the reality is that the sights should be mounted to suit the stock and also so that you can see them above the receiver. What scope bases you use also affects the height the sights need to be.

Usually with any sighting system the closer to the bore the better, but you get back to the stock design mostly where you what a good cheek weld on the stock and then the sights naturally lining up with the eye. All good in theory and then go and put high scope bases on and you are back to square one.

I think the real art / craft of fitting or even building a rifle correctly for open sights has been lost in the last 50 years as use of scopes has become almost universal.

My 1910 9.5X57 Mannlicher Schoenauer now shoots very high - over 12" after I restocked it with a straighter stock.

The old stock was low at comb and the felt recoil was terrible and hence the decision to go for a straighter stock design.

Who is "putting together" your rifle? Is the person experienced in building a rifle - getting the right weight / balance between wood, steel and the stock profile?

If you are doing this yourself, you might start a project thread and take us through the build process. I am sure we will all learn from the project.

If I was doing a project like yours I would talk to Wayne at AHR. He is very helpful.

Good luck with the rifle.

In a perfect world they would be the same height as the scopes center so that you wouldn't fight the comb height when switching between the two. The down side is that when they are high they come into the field of view and the focus of the scope below 6X. They also reach out and grab every branch and twig that goes by. Lastly, the taller they are, the more prone to damage they become. I guess if you wanted to get really technical about it. 1.5 inches would give you the maximum point blank range with most calibers. But that's pretty high. The rule of thumb is that they have to be tall enough to be used without removing the bases. Assuming you have some sort of in field removable or QD rings.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
My 1910 9.5X57 Mannlicher Schoenauer now shoots very high - over 12" after I restocked it with a straighter stock.

The old stock was low at comb and the felt recoil was terrible and hence the decision to go for a straighter stock design.

I'm curious how restocking would affect POA if the iron sights were not adjusted...

A bit of background.

I got the rifle with a replacement hardwood stock done by a village carpenter!

The rifle was a British import shot and regulated in Britain originally.

I have not chronographed my loads yet. It is possible that I am shooting 200 or 300 fps faster than the regulated load.

I need to go back to the drawing board and chronograph the loads and also confirm correct bullet weight and RN profile.

Got it, sounds like there are a few variables in play! Good luck with it.

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
In a perfect world they would be the same height as the scopes center so that you wouldn't fight the comb height when switching between the two. The down side is that when they are high they come into the field of view and the focus of the scope below 6X. They also reach out and grab every branch and twig that goes by. Lastly, the taller they are, the more prone to damage they become. I guess if you wanted to get really technical about it. 1.5 inches would give you the maximum point blank range with most calibers. But that's pretty high. The rule of thumb is that they have to be tall enough to be used without removing the bases. Assuming you have some sort of in field removable or QD rings.

The sights people use on AR-15s are high and flip up or down as needed. As an experiment I put them on a Remington 700 (attach to Picitinny rail). The front sight rail was held on with tape. The sight line at the same level as the scope worked well, did not have to jam cheek into stock comb to get sights aligned.

But they REALLY look like crap.

Mark

I have a few comments & questions

I remember the first stock bedding I did over 20 years ago. One key issue was to bed the action from tang to barrel ring & first 2 or 3 inches of chamber.

The Key was to put electrical tape & mould release on the bottom, sides & front of the recoil lug so that the lug only sat flush on the back part recoiling into the stock.

In some rifle it was useful to bed the entire barrel or just a little area at the tip of the fore-end.

The above rifle has s fore-end cross pin. It is a take down model & so it does not have any action screws.

It is bedded from tank to most of the barrel.

I need to check again if the cross pin eye stud is fully bedded and therefore it is putting pressure on the stock and throwing shots high on recoil.

Any comments or suggestions ???

I do not remember if I scraped off the bedding around the cross pin eye stud. It is 3 years since I did the bedding.

Brownells has a mathamatical formula for that in their catalog, and it works..

I usually buy the barrel band that fits my barrel, the use a .500 high partridge gold faced post from NECG, then use that with a Talley QD peep, and file it down to zero..keeps everything low..

The other option I use is filel the post down to flush with the top of the rear shallow V sight, take a sight picture like on a S&W revolver, its fast and as accurate as the peep..Works for me and keeps everything very simple....