Peep Sight for Marlin or Winchester

S

Swamp Yankee

New member
Does anyone have experience with, or care to make a recommendation for, an aftermarket peep sight for the Marlin 1894P? While I'm asking how about the Winchester 94 Trapper as well?
As always thanks in advance for the response.
 
Ashley Aperture Sight

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IMO the Ashley Aperture Sight represents the current state-of-the-art. Dealer price is $67.50 for the set. Gonna get one from Brownells for my Marlin 39AS as soon as I figure what else I need to add to my ever growing list of stuff to order. -- Kernel
 
With a Williams FP-94SE sight mounted on a Winchester 94 you won't have to replace the front sight post like you do with the Ashley. You save about $50 this way. They probably make one for the Marlin too.
 
Holmes

> Wild West Guns, a custom Marlin shop.

Not for nothing but Jim West, owner of WWG, became known through out AK originally for his race guns and other Smithing Skills. Great Smith! He did some work on my wife's Hi-Power. Only problem though was when he was working on it the magizine safety fell out ;) .
 
Williams FP

I had a williams foolproof with the firesight front for my 1895G. The fiber optic front bead didn't subtend very much, and showed up extemely well without the hood in daylight. It was an exellent, accurate target sight. Mounted on the receiver without any gunsmithing, and seemed fairly sturdy. I replaced it with a scope because the I got the rifle to use as a woods gun, and I couldn't discern the front sight until about an hour after legal shooting hours. I know the peeps are tempting, but for a hunting rifle (not target, plinking, or dangerous animal defense) I would really recommend a scope (mine is the Leupold 1-4X with a heavy duplex (the shotgun scope)). I still have the peep for when I get another Marlin lever to use as a fun gun (such as a 1895SS converted to 50 Alaskan or a 357 mag plinker).
 
TomB,
I looked in the Ashley Catalog and on the page listing the Ashley aperture Ghost-Ring Hunting Sights it says:

"Minimum gunsmithing for most installations"
"Matches most existing mounting holes"

I went with the Williams after Representative from Ashley told me I'd need a new front sight for my Win94.
 
I have the WWG peep on my co-pilot and I like it. It got dropped off a small cliff on kodiak and it busted the fiber optic front but the back was fine. Its strong.
 
For the Win 94, 99% of what tuc22 said. The Williams works with the stock front sight for near standard 150-170 gr 30-30 loads. If your '94 is a 30-30 an your appetite covers a wide range of 110gr plinkers and hunting loads, you may need a different front sight.

Tom
 
I have William's sights on both my Marlin 336 - .35 Rem and Winchester 94 - .375 Win. I am well pleased with the sights on both rifles and am thinking of putting William's peeps on a recently purchased Encore rifle barrel in .45-70 Gov't.
 
Brownells also sells the Wild West sight. I looks hell for stout, kinda homely though. If I got one I'd still want to replace the front sight. Dealer price should be about what they charge for the Ashley.

On thing about the Ashley is it's a set, it comes with a new front sight, you don't pay extra for it. Personally I don't care for the Marlin front sight and would replace it no matter which way you go. The standard Marlin front is a brass bead on a post, not the best arraignment to use with an aperture. I have a Williams FP on a 336, paid about $45 for it from Brownells, by the time I replaced the front sight it cost about what an Ashley would. The Williams is a good sight but as a general rule I consider steel parts superior to aluminum.

Another route you might consider is a tang sight, like a Marble or Lyman #2, also sold by Brownells. Their advantage is they increase sight radius even more than a receiver sight, which can lead to better accuracy, plus they look cool, like a real cowboy gun. -- Kernel
 
I have a Williams receiver peep sight on my 1894P, and I sure do like it. Got it from Brownells, and it utilizes existing holes in the side of the receiver. Took about 5 minutes to install, and I've been using it since the gun was new. Never even sighted in the factory sights.
 
I just installed a set of Ashley sights on my .444 Marlin. I saw the article in the American Rifleman a month or two ago on the .450 Marlin, liked the set up and bought the whole thing. I have had two Lyman peep sights (Model 57) fail due to recoil; both of course, days before a planned hunt when I was making my last minute checks. I bought the Ashley ML-0014-5 Ghost Ring set. It did not require gunsmithing. It came with very detailed instructions. On my Marlin I have four screw holes on the top of the reciever for a conventional scope mount. The Ashley rear sight has a pin that goes in one of the rear scope mount holes and a screw that goes in the other rear hole. The front sight required that I remove the two screws holding the factory ramp in place, remove it, and simply screw the new one in place. They are very big on using Loc-tite on everything and include it with the sights. I also installed the Ashley Lever Scout Mount which is a scout scope mount. It has a piece that is drifted into the dovetail exposed after drifting out the factory rear sight. The rear of the scope base is secured by the two holes in the reciever originally intended for the front of your scope base. I am awaiting delivery of a Leupold M8-2.5x28mm IER Scout Scope. I am going to mount it to the Ashley rail using Leupold QRW low rings (these are quick release rings that fit a Weaver base). This will enable me to remove the scope and use the ghost rings if and when I want to/need to. You are, of course, supposed to be able to then replace the scope on the mount, secure the two levers of the rings and have the scope return to zero. I have found on my Remington 700 ML that this is not the case, but it is fairly close.
 
Wild West Sight

I just put a Wild West rear sight on my 1895G and so far I love it. It is very well made and very rugged. It is all steel and everything is parkerized. It sort of reminds me of an M1 Carbine sight. Elevation is adjusted via a ramp set up. Windage is adjusted by loosening a set screw and drifting the peep right or left. Unlike the Ashley, it sits low enough that you don't have to replace the front sight if you don't want to.
 
A couple notes on changing the front sight. The front sight of the Ashley set is far superior to the factory Marlin sight in my opinion so I would have changed it anyway. But, I called Ashley and asked them which set I should use and they told me to use one set up with factory ammo and a different set up if I was handloading because the factory front sight wasn't high enough when shooting higher velocity hand loads. I found this out already when trying to shoot 180 grain bullets. This problem would be much more critical with the .444 than it would be with something like a .30-30. There is only one mainstream factory load for the .444 (yes, I know there are some other high end loads available from some small companies) so the factory sights were designed for use with the Remington 240 grain load. However as a handloader, I can use bullets from 180 up to well over 300 grains all of which are significantly hotter than the factory load. So....changing the front sight on my gun was a good move, your milage may vary depending on what gun you have and what loads you are using.
I also have a Winchester Trapper in .45 Colt and would really like to change out the sights on that also. However, I would like to stick with something that goes with the style of the gun. I went to a rifle silhouette match where the competitors use mostly lever action rifles on big bore pistol targets set at the pistol ranges. I ran into a couple problems. First I found that the factory rear sight elevator was made of plastic and didn't like being adjusted frequently to compensate for the different ranges. The edges of the steps became rounded so that the elevator would slip under recoil causing me to have to readjust it after ever shot. At the 200 meter range I did not have enough elevation with the factory sight. I had it up all the way and was still holding three feet over the target. This of course makes hitting anything difficult since you can't see the target when holding that far over it.
 
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