Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Henry Single Shot

Hey Tom, If you want to try some Cast Performance 300 grain WFNGC in your Henry let me know.

Nice work!

Another option on sone rifles is to install the Williams open sight with a peep insert instead of a blade. I did that on a Browning Low Wall .44 and was surprised at how well I could shoot with it. Now I have the same setup on a TC Renegade, but haven't shot it yet.

RR, yes i'd like to try some of those 300's,i'll run into you sooner or later!

Pappy,thanks for the info.

Interesting (heartening?) to see you like that setup, too. I've been using Mojo sights on my milsurps, they are an adjustable peep sight mounted into the original military rear sight fixture out on the barrel. I'll not claim they allow as much precision as a true receiver mounted peep but you can still do some pretty good shooting with them. IME they are way, way ahead of using open sights with a rear notch, especially as our eyes get older. Heck, I'd bet younger eyes could make even better use of them.

To get the aperture, centering effect, the hole has to be close to the eye. Mounted down on the barrel you have a hole, which is just an alternative to a notch. One may work better than the other for a given situation or shooter.

I was curious about this and got a fairly good discussion and pointers to literature when I asked about mounting a peep on a hand cannon pistol or long range single shot pistol. Bottom line, ZERO, benefit and nobody does it. I am sorry, I dont remember where I was. It is not a question of less benefit, there simple is none. None with regard to the aperture. Might be just the ticket for an individual for some other specific individual.

Autofive, got a question, wouldn't it be more beneficial to mount a scope on it for testing purposes? And then mount your open sights. Seems to me it would be easier to ring it out that way to get the full potential of the rifle. I'm very interested because I plan on getting a .44 also.

Thanks,
Doug

Okay, I'll agree to disagree with you. I see a terrific improvement over using an original notch rear sight, not just on well defined aiming points but in general field work as well.

The comments on a handgun may shed some light on the situation, perhaps the effect lessens the further away from the eye the aperture is placed. On my three rifles so equipped, the rear sight is approximately 15" from my eye. On a handgun that sight is some 26" away. I've already noted that the barrel mounted peep isn't as precise as a receiver mounted peep and that lessening could certainly be directly proportional to distance, but the centering effect is definitely there. You mount the rifle and focus on the front sight only, the eye still automatically centers it in the aperture which is just a fuzzy looking hole. Like any peep, your eye isn't shifting focus from the front to rear sight continuously. One caveat, obviously, is to match the aperture to the use. A small .05" or even .09" diameter aperture won't work, it requires what amounts to a ghost ring sight.

I've only tried it for me so can't say how someone else would use it but to conclude that there is no benefit at all for anyone - on a rifle - I cannot agree with that.

Douginla,I'm getting fifty yard groups with three shots just about touching with a couple loads,where I hunt eighty yards is a long shot,most are under fifty.For my purposes it is doing all that I need it to.By the way ,I'm heading down to Farmerville at the end of May.

Thanks, sounds like my woods. Even 80yds is a long shot.

I thought the same way until I tried it. It's likely not as fast as one close to the eye, but t does allow me to center it quite well, and the results on-target were quite acceptable. There are a couple of similar setups on the market, even for handguns. For my vision, it's better than an open sight.

EDIT: This is an expedient for rifles that aren't d&t for a receiver sight or, in the case of my Low Wall, where I was trying to have two sight setups for different loads available. Closer to the eye is better, but this works.

Auto,

You maybe onto something at a practical level. And you post a question,I cannot answer. The 'magic' effect is when the aperture is close enough to the eye. At that point you do not have to work to center the front bead in the hole to hit the aim point. The aperture is similar to using a 1x scope. At some distance, and I dont know how far, you want to keep the bead centered. That is line up 3 points, front, rear and target. The round hole may still be a significant help, without the effect. At the end of the day this rear hole sighting system is working for you and may help others.

I did some reading and there is a way to test. I dont plan to do this. Just for the sake of conversation I will toss this out there. On a target rifle, the shooter can line up the bulls eye. Then move his had side to side and the front bead will stay on the bull. That is the magic. The bead will be off center and yet the poi is he same. As some point, with the hole mounted at a greater distance moving the head from side to side (putting the bead off center) will change the point of aim.

That above head movement is the same method used to test for parallax when adjusting the Objective on a scope. In fact the above effect is parallax.

4Bore,your post sounds reasonable. All I know is that my set up works for me.I'll find out how well come November!

I handled one of these in 223 last week. I was pretty darned impressed. The wood had a lot of character. The fit was better than most #1s I have seen lately. The blue was nicer than The NEF and H&R single shots. As soon as I find one in 44 magnum with decent wood, I am buying it.

Wouldn't a peep on a handgun make it pretty much set for one yardage?
With a bladed rear sight there is a hard edge reference for positioning the front at varied elevations (some front sights have marks to help with that as well).
By holding the front high in the rear, you can shoot a longer distance and not cover up the target.

Shooting with both eyes open lets your off-eye see "around" the sights, so that's not an issue. Not everyone can do that, I know. At ordinary handgun distances, I don't see a problem, and even out there a bit, you can likely still raise that blade a bit within the peep, which isn't that tight (no reference line though).

HSM 305gr "Bear Loads" form cloverleafs in my Ruger #3. just got some Bear Tooth Bullets in 280gr lfn and 330 wfn both GC to try in it and my TC 444.

I've been looking for a Ruger No 1 in 45-70 for a while and just can't bring myself to pay what folks are asking. I recently bought a Henry Long Ranger in 223 and am very impressed with the fit, finish, and accuracy. I think a Henry Steel Single Shot in 45-70 for about a third the price of the Ruger may be the way to go.

Won't cost much to find out.

Picked up my 45-70 today. Should be fun......or not. Need time to test it out now.
Decent walnut, fit and finish are pretty good too.

Serial number under 10