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July 31, 2005
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Can someone post some good quality photos of the Winchester Express front sight? In my mind, it appears to be very similar to the Lyman #3 front sight. I don’t know which one was introduced commercially first.
Lyman #3
I call myself a collector as it sounds better than hoarder
January 26, 2011
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Bill
Here you go. This is an 1886 ELW which also had the three-leaf express rear and lettered as express sights (plural).
~Gary~
July 31, 2005
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I did find this illustration in the November 1887 catalog. It’s also shown as the #23 sight from the Madis “The Sight Book.”
I call myself a collector as it sounds better than hoarder
July 17, 2012
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Hi Bill,
I have the drawings for the #23 sight series. I am fairly sure the Winchester Express front sight (#23) came before the Lyman #3 since it was Winchester that patented the tin tip.
Per change of Product Notice 884 dated 12/20/10, the German Silver tip was replaced by a globule of tin which then necessitated adding the patent marking (prior sights with the screw-in German Silver tip were unmarked or only marked with the sight number)
Per the Change of Manufacturing Notice 12331 dated 2/11/29 the Lyman #3 sight could be substituted on some rifles.
The drawing change record dated 3/2/32 provides for obsoleting the sight
Not all the answers to your questions but hope it helps.
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
November 1, 2013
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JWA said I am fairly sure the Winchester Express front sight (#23) came before the Lyman #3 since it was Winchester that patented the tin tip.
Earliest variant of the #3 listed 1888, with ivory bead.
July 31, 2005
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I would think that Winchester would have had a patent infringement case against Lyman in 1888. The drawings in the Madis “The Sight Book” show 1902 patent dates. That was apparently just for the tin globule. By that time the cow was long out of the barn.
I call myself a collector as it sounds better than hoarder
November 1, 2013
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Bill Hockett said
I would think that Winchester would have had a patent infringement case against Lyman in 1888. The drawings in the Madis “The Sight Book” show 1902 patent dates. That was apparently just for the tin globule. By that time the cow was long out of the barn.
No US firearms maker was more litigious than Winchester, suing small gunmakers like my local hero Orville Robinson merely to crush them with legal expenses they couldn’t bear in order to put them out of business; which in Robinson’s case, they did. So you can be sure that if even the slightest grounds for a legit patent infringement suit against Lyman could have been dreamed up, it would have been filed & prosecuted without stint. It couldn’t, because Winchester’s Express sight was no more than a minor modification of a design in use since the time of muzzle-loaders.
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