1907 WSL rear sight|Winchester Sights|Forum|Winchester Collector

Steve,  You may well already know this but, if you put a tang sight on your .351 SL and intend to shoot it, do be careful not to get your shooting eye too close to the aperture. I’ve shot a couple of 07s enough to know the recoil is surprisingly heavy for what is essentially only a .357 Maximum round.  Once that big lead bar in front loads up with energy, it doesn’t want to stop its rearward travel!

You will recall the story of gunwriter Captain Paul Curtis’s wife, who lost her shooting eye from the tang sight of a .300 Savage when taking an uphill shot at a mountain sheep. 

If you can learn the needed stem height for the 07, I think there may be other, more common, Lyman and Marble tang sights the bases of which could be modified (base cut down, holes welded up, re-located and drilled) to fit the length and mount hole locations of a drilled and tapped 07 tang. 

Show us pix as you go along. There are no voyeurs like Winchester voyeurs. 

Steve, it’s looking good already.  I know the 1905 32SL and 35SL were offered with straight stocks – I had one once –  but I’m not sure the 1907 ever was; at least I’ve never seen one. Of course, never say never for that period of time. I think then WRA would eat a dead rat sandwich if you laid enough money down. 

In any event, it looks right and sleeker than the weak pistol grip New Haven was putting on the sporting version back then.  There were so many optional front sights you could put on any Winchester of that period, including the Sheard, without a document to the contrary I’d call it factory and see how it shoots when you get the correct factory rear sliding leaf and ladder Bert named. I don’t think those are that rare.

But, if you’ve got a collimeter, see where the present bead falls on the collimeter grid when the bead is in the rear notch of the existing rear. You may be pleasantly surprised. At least you’ll have a better idea of how much adjustment range you need and may or may not have. If you have trouble seeing the existing front bead, I’d replace it with 1/16 or even a 1/8 brass or “ivory” bead.  Even I can see those on a 20 inch barrel. Let’s face it,  observation balloons and fleeing criminals are larger than woodchucks and prairie dogs. MARBLE MAKES GOOD CURRENT PRODUCTION SIGHTS. ONCE YOU KNOW THE OAH AND SIZE BEAD YOU WANT, YOU CAN BUY NEW AND VINTAGE FRONT SIGHTS OFF THE WEB. YOU JUST NEED TO KNOW THE NUMBERS. SHOP OAH AND STYLE, NOT PART NUMBERS.

To “shoot in” the correct height front sight, get one of those sectional plastic tab front sights from Brownell or make one. Put whatever rear sight you want to use at middle elevation and start shooting at 25 yards, cutting off segments of the front blade until the point of impact descends into the X ring. Mike the OAH of the remaining front sight, record the measurement in thousandths of an inch and go shopping. 

My own experience with an obviously tweaked set of irons on an old but originally expensive Winchester, has often been whoever did it was not an idiot. An 07 was never cheap. 

Caveat: I’m not part of the “it’s-all-original-or-it’s-trash” gang, particularly if I’m going to shoot it. And I shoot everything.