Spencer rear sights

[Fox Creek Kid]

Red Leg, my sight came Sat. & I sent you a M.O. today & I thank you. However, I have two complaints.

1.  The base I received must be for an original Spencer as it is drastically oversized for my Armisport carbine.

2.  It is a quality sight, of that there is not doubt. I only wish that someone would have pointed out to the machinist to have made the sighting groove a lot better, i.e., easier to see. I can't even see the groove when shouldered. I will have to do the same thing to this one that I did to the OEM sight, i.e., open it up. You did say, and I quote " The sight will be just like the original or better." http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,23891.0.html

I just feel as if I should post that the sight groove on this sight is not better than the OEM Armisport sight and a person will have to Dremel, mill or file it in order to obtain a decent sight picture IMO. That way no one will blindly purchase one believing that this sight solved the largest complaint regarding the OEM sight: the sighting groove. I have to be honest.

[red leg]

Fox Creek Kid,

The sight is much better, and it is just like the original. If you are dissatisfied return it for a refund.

Red Leg

[Fox Creek Kid]

Hi Red Leg, 

Sorry we couldn't do business.   I will mail the entire sight back today, and please return my postal M.O. as soon as received.

Thanks,

Fox Creek Kid

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[Des]

Received my sight the other day and am happy with the construction. The sight notch is like the original and I expected to open it up to my liking. I do have a problem with the base as it is way too large for the dovetail in my Taylor Spencer. What do you advise?


Des

[Herbert]

easy way to fit new sight,set sight base in vice so the dovtail angle on sight base is parell with vice jaws + the height of a steel enginers ruler laid flat on jaw top of vice remove ruler and file to jaw top ,check for squar both sides should be same,turn over and repeat it now should be a very tight fit diferance in dovetail width at base is 2mm ruler thickness is 0.994mm so you should have atight fit if to tight very carfuly stone being carful to keep squar best to do this with sight bass put back in vice as before,mack sure vice jaws are smooth so it wont mark sight bass, most vices have reversable jaws and jaws are to haed for a file to cut easly but go slowly just in case,you need jas as a marker for height

[Hoot-3rd Ga]

Red Leg: The sight is exactly what I expected. It is extremely well made by precision machining to be a high quality exact copy of the original. It is not the  poorly cast or stamped out part that came on the gun. To preserve the historical integrity of the part.........for it to pass as an original replacement part ..........the sight maker did not invent new improvements to the sight notches. The ladder does not lean or cant in the base and the slider fits at every location on the ladder. For custom notches to suit an individual shooter, an extra wide blank slider is available. I suspect that the Taylor's barrel dovetail departs from the width on original Spencers. . That accounts for the oversize fit to the dovetail. Herbert is right. In simple terms, just file or stone medal off the bottom of the base being careful to keep it square and flat, until it fits in the barrel dovetail. I wouldn't recomend changing the dovetail on the barrel.    Hoot

PS. There is no risk involved boys. If you get the sight and it isn't what you want.......just send it back. I've dealt with Red Leg before. He is an honest and fair businessman. Just be advised that some minor fitting is required to make it work on the Armisport. If you have an original that needs a new rear sight, the sight can be installed on the rifle/carbine in minutes.

[Two Flints]

Hello SSS,

Last week I posted the following:

Maybe info on correct installation would be nice to have included with sight, or posted on this thread.  Just a thought.

And now, Herbert and Hoot have offered suggestion for "fitting" the base on the Armi Sport Spencer barrel.  In hind sight (no pun intended ) maybe the "fitting" instructions should have been included with the sight, or at least posted on this thread. 

Another point, there is a specific way of removing buckhorn sights from my flintlock rifles in order to install a new one.  How does one remove the original sight from an Armi Sport Spencer; is there a correct method.  Looking down the barrel in the normal shooting position do you move the sight to the left or right in order to remove it (the original Spencer sight)?

Herbert & Hoot thanks for posting your "fitting" suggestions.

Two Flints

[Jimbo]

He guys, I just got my sight from Red Leg this morning and it is outstanding!!! So now for putting it on the gun ,
so far I have seen that you should trim the base down to size and not open up the dovetail, any reason
not to open up the dovetail, after seeing the new sight I'm sure that I will never want to use the old one again!

I ask these questions as my ability with a file is about as good as Wall Street's ability to manage
money so I have to let the gunsmitht know what needs to be done.
Your thoughts pls.
Jimbo

[Herbert]

if you are tacking gun to gunsmith for sight fiting i would advise to have dovetail in barell opened up this way you can also make sure dovetail is squar with action,mine was squar but old sight base had a lean on it new sight fixed that and i licke the tall slide that i put a 1mm hole in much beter for older eyes at 200 meters wich is my curant chalang

[Hoot-3rd Ga]

Jimbo: If you have a competent gunsmith, by all means have him open up the dovetail to fit the new rear sight. I am like you. I will never go back to the old sight. It's just that it is better to mess up the sight base than the dovetail in the barrel. The more I look at it, the more I am inclined to open up the dovetail myself.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    PS. This is written a few days later after I've had time to look at the sight compared to the barrel doveltail.  I did some measuring and now I believe the best choice for installation of the sight is to use a safe edge dovetail file(Brownell's) and carefully widen one side of the dovetail. I am going to do it under a bright, magnifying desk light so I can control it. You need to keep it square to the barrel.   

[Herbert]

i would advise anyone whow wants to open up barell dovtail to use a milling machune as you can square up dovetail to frame and barell at one pass problem is you have to have acess to gear and know wat you are doing, if you want to open up dovetail with a file youse a safe edge dovetail file you can buy from brownwells,leave one edge of dovetail as is and work very carfuly cecking for fit and square often ,this isant as easy as shaping sight base