I have a Ruger stainless Hawkeye in 264mag. Since Ruger is not willing to install open sights for me I'm looking for a competent gunsmith that can install a set of " North England Custom Guns" open sights. The front sight would be the banded press on style . The rear would require two holes drilled & tapped. You info greatly appreciated.

Anybody in your area should be able to do that. It's not difficult..

It's surprising though how few seem to be able to put them on straight!

+1 to both of these.

D'Arcy Echols (435-757-7170) put NECG open sights on my .375 H&H, and correctly.

Certainly helps having the right tools.





I did this set recently for an M98 project.

Found center on the barrel and drilled the hole using an end mill to allow for the maximum number of threads while maintaining sufficient wall thickness. Tapped the hole using a bottoming tap. Made a threaded aluminum fixture to hold the screw in the lathe so that I could cut it to the proper length. Tightened the screw down for test-firing. I won't do anything else until the stock is made.

Have you spoken directly with NECG ? I beleive they will install as well. If you can get time on D'Arcy's dance card, that would be a no-brainer...

I sent a rifle directly to NECG for sights. It wasn't a quick turn around, nor was it cheap, but I knew they'd do it right!

Just be aware the NECG sights are not stainless steel, if that's going to be an issue? Pretty basic gunsmithing job. Surely there's a smith in the area, able to do that simple a job.

Are you willing to try a peep sight? You can screw one on the receiver and then it's pretty easy to blue and install the banded front ramp yourself if you have a leveled vise on your bench. I've done four that way.

I put these Ruger front sights and X/S receiver sights on myself on Rugers, Winchesters and Browning X-Bolts. Buy the front sight base at Ruger ot Midway, Dremel the inside diameter for a tap on fit with epoxy and it won't come off unless you want to take it off. RJ

Winchester SS FW


Browning X-Bolt


Ruger w/ QD modified X/S rear sight


Original Ruger front sight base
forensic anthropology degree requirements

I have been wanting to do the same thing for my Ruger in 35 Whelen. Thinking a banded front sight and the NECG rear aperture that fits base that is machined into the receiver. My Ruger Scout rifle has a similar aperture sight that came with the gun and I fell in love with it.

Thanks guys for all our info & great pictures. Unfortunately MidWay did not have the size I needed. Ruger will not install or sell sights to me.They told me it was impossible. Not the best customer service. . So called NECG. They were great & lined me out to what I need. Sights ordered . .630 dia for the ramp front. The XLsize rear. I ordered the "Masterpiece " front & rear& front bead. A local smith has assured me he has installed these & has experience.As noted they are in the white, no stainless available. Ran me $229 with shipping. I also ordered a hood. .So it will be a bit yet till all is done. Peep sight is not an option as I will be using a scope. The scope will me mounted with Warnes Quick detachable rings. This way if my scope becomes damage it will be simple to switch to open sights. Thanks again.

You've already ordered but to add a note, the Ruger sight, while a nice looking sight, has the detent lock on the breech side. This makes it a royal PITA to remove the blade, especially if it is in tight, since whatever punch or tool you use to press the detent pin is now directly in the way of whatever you'll need to tap the sight out. I've worked with three different Ruger front ramps and replacement front sights are usually from a little to a lot oversize (or the dovetail is undersized, take your pick) so it takes a bit of fitting for them to slide in without excessive force. If you only ever install one front blade that's a moot point but I experimented with a couple of different front sights and posted a thread here a while back cursing the Ruger engineer who designed it that way - especially when their sights originally had the detent on the muzzle side.

The NECG Masterpiece has the detent lock on the muzzle side so it's easy enough to press down and then tap the back of the front sight to slide it forward. I only have a sample of one of those but the replacement sights from NECG were a perfect fit to their base, no fitting required and it took just light tapping to slide the base into the dovetail - not too tight but not too loose either.

Either one works well but I think you'll like that NECG Masterpiece.

I always solder sights on. In the cases that I use screws, it's to fill the holes in the already soldered sight base.

If you use solder the sight cannot ever loosen. If you need any windage adjustment at all (unlikely) it's easy to re-heat and move a sight slightly when soldered.
Zero before you install any screws. In that way you are 100% sure you have the sights in the correct place.
On a stainless gun like yours, you clean up the solder flow when the zeroing is finished and you are done. No refinishing needed on stainless guns.
If I do this on blue guns I let the customers know that a re-blue of the barrel will be needed. The reason you would use only screws is so you would not need to re-blue, but you don't have the strength or the security of soldered sights with screws only.

I( see that Midway has the Ruger stainless banded front sight in stock @ $39. . Problem is it is.550 inside dia... My factory 264 barre is .627 right at the muzzle tip.. An inch back from the muzzle the barrel is .633. Can the barrel muzzle be turned down that much to accommodate this Ruger stainless front sight. The banded front sight NECG is sending me is .630 inside.

The extension on the Ruger sight base is at the same level as the inside diameter of the band so the barrel would have to be turned down much further back to allow that to fit as well or it would have to be inletted to let the extension slide in. You can enlarge the inside diameter plus the contour under the ramp extension but then the band becomes very thin as reported by one of the comments on Midway. Brownell's or maybe Numrich has Ruger front sights for their magnum contour barrels which taper up from about .625" to .640" OD at the muzzle in the area the band would cover. Even then, IIRC, they are somewhat nondescript in their descriptions as to which one you get - the magnum or regular sporter size.

Thank's Jim . Good info to know. I very much appreciate your reply. I will check with Numrich Arms & Brownell's. I don't know if I;m having fun yet or not. If you find any info on a larger dia Ruger stainless banded site please let me know. I would like very much to installed the Ruger site since it is stainless & NECG is white ( unblued ) steel. I'm not in favor of a blued site on my stainless rifle. I guess I could just leave it in the white??

Well, darn, I have to take back what I said. Looking at Brownell's and Numrich for the Ruger front sight base they only have blued sights and apparently only with the smaller .550" inside diameter for the Ruger standard sporter contour. Midway shows a stainless base for the Number 1 medium sporter, that has a .675" OD at the muzzle, but it is discontinued. Nothing on ebay either.

Unless one shows up on ebay or someone knows of some obscure gun parts website that might have a stainless Ruger base it looks like the only real option to match the color is to leave the NECG sight in the white.

I checked them too. & came away with exactly what you found. I checked a couple other sites & found nothing. Guess I'll just go with the NECG .630 size. Was thinking maybe there is a coating available that could be close to stainless in color. Problem, it may look shade tree hokey. Just leaving them white seems to be the best way. I did notice Brownell's charges more for the NECG site's than buying them direct from NECG. Strange. Well thanks Jim your moral support alone has been great.