If eye sight is an issue with the tang sight, but you still want a peep, then try a receiver mounted peep sight like a Williams or Lyman. As my eyes got older I switched from a tang mounted peep to a Williams, and it works better for me on a model 94 30-30. Just being mounted 3 or 4 inched farther from my eye made a difference. It is also much more convenient. Good Luck. Grant.
Tang sight on a lever action
- Thread starter Scrumbag
- Start date
Driftwood Johnson
New member
Howdy
When I first got involved in CAS I was regularly attending a match where we would occasionally have to take some shots at a big steel silhouette of a bear.
Most targets in CAS are very close, and there is no need for anything but open sights. But the bear was usually placed out 75 or 100 yards away from the firing line. I was shooting an original Winchester Model 1892 chambered for 44-40, and the 44-40 has pretty much of a rainbow trajectory.
So I mounted this Lyman tang sight on my '92 and sighted it in for 100 yards.
But I discovered right away that with the tang sight up the standard Semi-buckhorn rear sight on the rifle was in my line of vision when I used the tang sight. So I replaced the original Winchester Semi-Buckhorn sight with this flip up rear sight. When using the tang sight I would flip the rear sight down out of the way, and flip it up for all other shooting. You should take this into consideration if you intend to use both sights. To tell you the truth I don't use that rifle much anymore, and we don't shoot at the bear any more, so I should probably remove the tang sight and reinstall the original Sem-buckhorn sight. If I can find it.
Regarding danger to the eye with a Winchester Model 1892 or any replica of it, with the possible exception of those chambered for 44 Magnum or 454 Casull and maybe 357 Magnum, the typical chamberings for the '92 and its clones are 45 Colt and 44-40, and they do not develop enough recoil in a '92 for a tang sight to be a danger to the eye.
I picked up this antique Model 1894 chambered for 30-30 last year. It came with a tang sight, I'm pretty sure it is an old Lyman sight.
30-30 develops quite a lot more kick than 44-40 or 45 Colt. I tried the tang sight a couple of times, but didn't really like it so I flipped it down and used the original Semi-buckhorn rear sight when I took it to the range a few times. Even though this old '94 has a heavy 26" octagon barrel, it gives me a pretty good shove with standard factory 30-30 ammo. I would be a bit more leery of getting whacked by it in recoil than with the tang sight on my '92.
Regarding your use of a tang sight, it depends on what you use the rifle for. Tang peep sights obscure most of the target. This is of course dependent on how big the aperture is, but still they obscure most of the target. Very well suited for precision long range shooting from a bench, not so much for a quick shot at a bounding deer.
And frankly, as I found with my old '92, with rainbow trajectory cartridges such a 45 Colt or 44-40, not much use very far beyond 100 yards anyway.
Yes, your only options today are the Lyman sight which is only adjustable for elevation, or the Marbles one which is adjustable for both elevation and windage.
http://www.marblearms.com/peep-tang-sights.html
When I first got involved in CAS I was regularly attending a match where we would occasionally have to take some shots at a big steel silhouette of a bear.
Most targets in CAS are very close, and there is no need for anything but open sights. But the bear was usually placed out 75 or 100 yards away from the firing line. I was shooting an original Winchester Model 1892 chambered for 44-40, and the 44-40 has pretty much of a rainbow trajectory.
So I mounted this Lyman tang sight on my '92 and sighted it in for 100 yards.
But I discovered right away that with the tang sight up the standard Semi-buckhorn rear sight on the rifle was in my line of vision when I used the tang sight. So I replaced the original Winchester Semi-Buckhorn sight with this flip up rear sight. When using the tang sight I would flip the rear sight down out of the way, and flip it up for all other shooting. You should take this into consideration if you intend to use both sights. To tell you the truth I don't use that rifle much anymore, and we don't shoot at the bear any more, so I should probably remove the tang sight and reinstall the original Sem-buckhorn sight. If I can find it.
Regarding danger to the eye with a Winchester Model 1892 or any replica of it, with the possible exception of those chambered for 44 Magnum or 454 Casull and maybe 357 Magnum, the typical chamberings for the '92 and its clones are 45 Colt and 44-40, and they do not develop enough recoil in a '92 for a tang sight to be a danger to the eye.
I picked up this antique Model 1894 chambered for 30-30 last year. It came with a tang sight, I'm pretty sure it is an old Lyman sight.
30-30 develops quite a lot more kick than 44-40 or 45 Colt. I tried the tang sight a couple of times, but didn't really like it so I flipped it down and used the original Semi-buckhorn rear sight when I took it to the range a few times. Even though this old '94 has a heavy 26" octagon barrel, it gives me a pretty good shove with standard factory 30-30 ammo. I would be a bit more leery of getting whacked by it in recoil than with the tang sight on my '92.
Regarding your use of a tang sight, it depends on what you use the rifle for. Tang peep sights obscure most of the target. This is of course dependent on how big the aperture is, but still they obscure most of the target. Very well suited for precision long range shooting from a bench, not so much for a quick shot at a bounding deer.
And frankly, as I found with my old '92, with rainbow trajectory cartridges such a 45 Colt or 44-40, not much use very far beyond 100 yards anyway.
Yes, your only options today are the Lyman sight which is only adjustable for elevation, or the Marbles one which is adjustable for both elevation and windage.
http://www.marblearms.com/peep-tang-sights.html
Driftwood Johnson
New member
It is called the pin hole camera effect. Particularly useful for people with poor vision, particularly useful for near sighted (can only focus on objects close to them) individuals.
A very small aperture actually bends the light rays near the edge of the hole, bringing distant objects into sharper focus than normal. This effect was discovered with very early cameras that had no lens at all, just a pinhole (very small) hole. The pinhole would act like a lens and focus the image at the rear of the camera, but it would be inverted. I was terribly near sighted for most of my life until I recently had my cataracts removed. I have known since I was a kid that if I was swimming without my glasses I could hold my hand up close to my eye and form a very small hole between my thumb and first two fingers that would bring objects into focus almost as well as the very strong lenses in my glasses.
The same holds true for a small aperture in a peep sight. In addition to the eye tending to center the front sight in the aperture, a very small aperture will focus the target better. I have a tang peep sight on my Sharps and I can choose different aperture sizes depending on the lighting conditions.
Here is a link to the type of adjustable aperture I have on my Sharps. Rotating the knurled disk rotates in different apertures of different diameters. Not applicable to a Model 1892, but a small aperture in a tang sight on a '92 will help extend the focal length of the eye. But the pinhole camera affect only works if the hole is close to the eye.
https://www.buffaloarms.com/target-iron-sights/hadley-eye-cups
2 Ways.
1st. The fact that the sight radius, the distance between the front and rear sight, is longer than with a barrel mounted rear sight producing a shorter sight radius giving a more precise aiming system as even a 1/16" vertical or lateral displacement with a longer sight radius results in a lower angular diversion from centerline. For example, my 24" Rossi levergun has a 20" sight radius with the barrel mounted rear sight but a 30" sight radius with a tang sight.
2nd. The target aperture, held close to one's eye, enhances the Depth of Field (DoF) meaning that objects much farther from your eye appear to be in focus. It's an optical principle used by photographers to adjust the area in focus. With a small enough aperture held close to one's eye, you will be able to see the front sight and the target clearly.
As used in photography, DoF is defined as:
"A basic definition of depth of field is: the zone of acceptable sharpness within a photo that will appear in focus. In every picture there is a certain area of your image in front of, and behind the subject that will appear in focus."
The smaller the aperture, the longer the DoF. That's why you should have shooting glasses that are tinted yellow and never wear sunglasses to shoot as you want your iris to be as small as possible to give you more precise DoF.
DoF enhancement can be experienced easily and for free if you have some electrical tape and a hole punch. Punch out some 1/4" black tape blanks and then put a tiny hole in the center. Then tape them to your shooting glasses where you sight through to shoot.
(Usually about here for right handed shooters)
I have blended lens with astigmatism correction and am close to being legally blind without my glasses but with a target aperture or these glasses, I can see my front sight and the target clearly.
The black tape is too close to your eye to focus on it so it sort of disappears and you just notice that the area inside the tiny hole is clear. So clear that you can see your front sight (no matter if it's on a 2" revolver or 30" rifle) and the target (no matter if it's 10' or 300 yds from you) clearly.
It's free to do, give it a try.
Steve, that's all true. I tried one like that when I was shooting master class pistol competition scores. Didn't help at all because I correctly focused my aiming eye on the front sight and the rear sight notch was virtually as sharp without that iris on my glasses, bullseye was a bit fuzzy and not sharp. Same thing with rifles. Records were set as matches were won without the iris stuck on our shooting glasses. Nobody cared if the target bullseye and rear sight aperture was a little out of focus. Middle of the aperture field of view is the same place regardless of its clarity or focus.
But it doesn't make the LOS (and LOF) cone you aim with any smaller. It just makes the angle error between LOS and desired aim point easier to see.
But it doesn't make the LOS (and LOF) cone you aim with any smaller. It just makes the angle error between LOS and desired aim point easier to see.
Last edited:
The knob on the side doesn't turn?
http://www.marblearms.com/standard-peep-tang-sight.html
http://www.marblearms.com/standard-peep-tang-sight.html
I have loved those pop-up sights ever since seeing Augustus McCrae and Burt Lancaster as Valdez. But you really have to know your range with a cowboy caliber rifle when reaching out so I have always been a little skeptical as to actual practicality. I can remember Burt Lancaster as Valdez calling the range 1200 yards, then dropping the bad guys one shot each with his Sharps. Hmmm . . . .
My lever guns use XS peep sights or ghost rings and they are plenty accurate. My 30-30 uses an XS ghost ring tapped for a brass peep and is 2.5 MOA-ish out to 200 meters. Beyond that the front site is just too fat, at least for me.
My lever guns use XS peep sights or ghost rings and they are plenty accurate. My 30-30 uses an XS ghost ring tapped for a brass peep and is 2.5 MOA-ish out to 200 meters. Beyond that the front site is just too fat, at least for me.
That's because you have good eyes and are good at aiming. You are fortunate, however, many of us don't have the vision we once had. In my youth, I had 20/12 vision (I could see at 20ft things that average people needed to stand at 12 ft to see [sort of telephoto]). Now my vision is not good and I need the help of a smaller aperture to help clear things up. In addition, at 72, I'm not as steady as I once was and a much longer sight radius helps reduce the angular displacement error (both vertical and horizontal) so that I can aim more precisely.
Being able to see the front sight and target more clearly and being able to sight more accurately are what the tang sight with target aperture helps with. An XS sight or peep sight on the barrel is too far from your eye to help with DoF at all and the short sight radius makes it harder to aim precisely so those are mainly useful for those younger folks with good eyesight.
(And yes, I'm jealous of you who still have your youth and great eyesight as I once had.)
Arrowhead37
New member
I have five different rifles equipped with tang peep sights. Having almost 83 year old eyes makes anything else but scopes problematic as in I can't see regular iron sights worth a hoot anymore even with my progressive bifocals. I've never had an eye problem with these sights. One of the rifles is chambered in 50-140-550 Sharps and if that thing won't hit you in the eye I don't believe there is much danger.