When you can't find (or afford) a vintage receiver sight for your Model 71 or 1886. |Winchester Sights|Forum|Winchester Collector

Price and availability are serious obstacles to getting a Lyman 56W or a Redfield 70F for the wide receivers of a Model 71 or 1886.  For displaying an 1886,  a Lyman 21 or 38 is more authentic, although the Lyman 56 was catalogued for the 1886 in the last couple of years of that rifle’s production and is not “out of place” on it. 

For actual shooting of either model rifle,  there can be little argument a micrometer receiver sight with hunting aperture is a superior instrument, if used correctly. A tang aperture is marginally faster at the closest ranges but not by a lot. Anybody who has struggled to sight in with a Lyman 21 or any non detent-adjustable aperture sight  will find the Lyman or Redfield top shelf micrometer sights a luxury. 

In my experience, many people object to micrometer receiver sights because the one they tried and gave up on was fitted with a long range pinhole aperture that few can use and nobody over age 35.   

Today, preparing a Stevens bolt action 22 as a gift, after fitting it with a Lyman 57 and a 3/32″ ivory bead and installing a blank in the rear barrel sight seat, I screwed such a pinhole aperture into a surplus sight bridge i use as a fixture, clamped it into my drill press, and enlarged the pinhole to 0.120″ with a #31 drill bit.  

That size aperture is what I use in my favorite Redfield 70 EH, the one I’ve installed on a couple of 1894 carbines, a Standard grade Model 64, and a Browning 53 32 WCF, all used successfully or game. 

I guarantee, if you will look at a 3/32 white bead through a 0.120 aperture, you will like it! What’s more, you will be pleased with the groups you can shoot at 100 yards or even 200! 

My point is, a Lyman A coded 56 or 66 and an E coded Redfield, although intended for the 92/94 width receivers have plenty of windage range to work well on the Model 71 and any 1886. They are no longer reallyy cheap but they can be had on eBay  …. or, better, from our own Ben or Erin when they have them. 

If you find one you want that’s a little tired, remember there are LNIB sights coded for unpopular guns or guns everybody scopes. Buy them cheap as a parts source. The Redfield 70 EH mentioned [and illustrated below]

 wears a like-new staff a/k/a “bridge”, new knobs, elevation screw, detents and knob attachment screws, all from a 70 BRH I bought for parts 20 years ago. The parts were identical in all respects and swapped right out.