Tang Sight vs Receiver Sight |Winchester Sights|Forum|Winchester Collector

Doesn’t matter to me, I just shoot the gun

  Does your model 64 have a tapped upper tang? If not the tang sight is not an option, you would have to go with a receiver sight. Much cheaper option. T/R

  Nice gun, it would look good with a Lyman tang sight to match. They are nice and won’t get in the way when you fold it back. Your point of carry is farther forward so not in the way. Not cheap, maybe $250, but easy to sell if change your mind. T/R

Bert H. said
This is just my opinion (preference).
 I have Lyman No. 103 micrometer tang sights on (4) different rifles.

405 WCF rifle

30 US (30/40) rifle

Bert
  

Bert. got one of those 103’s kickin” round you don’t want? sure would look good on a certain 30″ xh 45-90 I know about.

Nathan-

I have a couple of each of my shooter 1894’s and a tang sight on an 1892. I use a modern Marble tang sight and have a couple on the shelf for temporary use on rifles to be named later. I’ve also installed somewhat modern Williams receiver sights on 94’s with D&T’d receivers. I love seeing an original aperture sight on a rifle but the modern sights fit my purposes better if I’m adding one on a rifle I want to shoot. Like you I can only use the factory barrel sights with great difficulty and with dismal results these days. I don’t have a preference for the receiver sight or the tang sight, in most cases my rifles will only accommodate one or the other, not both. One consideration is that if your barrel sight does not fold down it may need to be removed, I keep a couple of sight blanks in my parts box for that purpose. Be sure to label the barrel sight when stashing it in your parts box!

Mike

I  use both tang and receiver sights on my lever action Winchesters, depending on where they are drilled and tapped.  (For the sake of authenticity, I put a Williams 5D-H on my Marlin Mountie because that is how the Mountie appears on the cover photo of Outdoor Life’s hunting and fishing anthology.)

What hasn’t been mentioned on this thread is the subject of front sights to go with your new aperture sight. You will almost always need to replace the factory front sight because now it is too low. 

I confess to a strong preference for the Redfield Sourdough when I can find one in the correct height. That is getting harder because they have been out of production so long. My Model 70 Super Grade ’06 is a 1950 low comb specimen I once scoped using Redfield low rings that barely cleared the bolt. For the last several years it has been happier with a like-new 48WJS-H and a .375 Sourdough up front. It just looks right and carries like a wand. 

For some reason, the Redfield 70 and steel 80 receiver sights seem to have been popular on vintage Model 64 and 71 Winchesters. I prefer them to the Lyman 56 and 66,  even though the 56 is the hot seller for those guns. I’ve used both and still have its original 56A on a Deer Rifle. It’s hard for me to read a blue steel scale. 

So when it came time to set up a newish (reproduction) Model 1886 ELW 45/70,  i installed a Redfield 70H with a brass-ringed .125 aperture but left the factory’s tiny front bead in place temporarily. Yesterday, with TxGunNut spotting, i tried 3 rounds of new Remington factory 400 grain CoreLokt at 25 yards, with the aperture cranked to mid-scale elevation. First two were 4 inches high and about half that much to the left. After 32 clicks to the right, the 3rd shot was over the bull but still 64 clicks high. A new Marble 3/32 “ivory” bead about .530 high is indicated.

If anyone asks you, that box of Remington ammo is not loaded to blackpowder velocity. Published velocity from a 24″ barrel is 1600 fs and you know it when you touch one off in a 7.25 pound gun with a steel shotgun buttplate. Mike prudently loaded me his magnum PAST shoulder pad, so the muzzle rise and blast were spectacular but not damaging. If I like this rifle as much as I think I do now, it may get the Teddy Roosevelt red pad. That’s the cool thing about Miroku Winchesters- you can improve them just like the old guys did and nobody gets the vapors.

While the Winchester bolt peep is compact, handy,  and cherished by collectors, it does not offer micrometer “click” adjustments. For that reason, I personally like the Redfield 70 or steel 80, with hunter knobs. Of course, once you’re dialed in, there’s little difference. 

For lever guns, I don’t like the target knobs that stick up and out. 

For those of us past our youth ( in my case, much closer to the graveyard than the schoolyard), any of the aperture sights is the difference between hitting and missing.