Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Best Aperture Sights?

What is the best peep sight made and readily available now?

What about a replacement front as well? Or is there a peep that works well with factory front sight?

Which sights adjust the easiest?

Really depends on what you want it for brother.

Fastest
Cheapest
Most accurate
Most durable
Want to use a scope and have backup irons
Low light
Long range

If you want a scope option then the Skinner Dovetail peep with factory front or blade front works very well and with the blade sight is pretty stout. You can slide a Hi-Viz front in there and its awesome and probably betwixed the blade and factory bead in durability.

XS Ghost are great too if you don’t want a scope

Both the XS and Skinner Dovetail rear adjust and install easy and once you set them they are set

Many options

This... Sorta...
Unless there is something with a click adjustment available...

I pretty much use XS Ghost front and rear and the Skinner Dovetail Peep with front blade painted white with appliance touchup paint.

The Skinner usually works fine with the factory bead front but I usually like to put my impact point on top of the post where the round bead kinda draws me to put the bead covering impact point. I have busted a couple of beads because I don’t use the hood. The blade just eliminates all of the thought. If the “dot” concept is what you are looking for, just replace the brass bead sight with a green fiber, its Super Fast.

This is the Skinner dovetail mount and front blade, its rock solid and very low.

The biggest turn off to the front sights is dickin with trying to get the right height, a major pain in the ass or stroke of luck for the fibers. The blade type is easy, you order one too big, set your aperture in the middle, and start filing at the shooting range until you get it where you like it, wipe some blue on the top, then paint it white. Then flood the front dovetail with red locktite, let it dry...Bada Bing.

I have had good luck with the skinner on marlins mount in the back scope base holes. they sell front sites to

Of the current production sights I like the Williams FP sight. I have them on eight rifles. Some needed a different front sight height, and some didn't. I'm using them on Winchester 94s, Marlin 336s, Savage 99s, and one 98 Mauser. Generally I've replaced the front sight even when not needed. The adjustments are repeatable, but I'm not sure if that is what the OP meant by easiest.

I ended up getting a Williams 5D for my Marlin 35 Rem years ago. Had to change the front sight out, otherwise it worked great. It came with 2 different size apertures, and was easy to adjust. Best "open" sight I ever used for deer.

William's 5d series
Got one screwlock friction adjustment on a 94 .30-30
they come with .090 aperture
Front sight is fuzzy with that size.
Ordered 2 .050 ones front sight crisp and precise.
Robs ya of about 15 mins of light at dusk and dawn.
Front bead sight jewelers filed into blade/ post.
Took 1/16th" bit and enlarged aperture hole to .0625
Front sight crisp, little more light transmission
Rifle is a 1 moa to 1.5 moa shooter at 100yds off a bench and bags with leverevolution 160gr
Had to do slightly filing front sight on range to get elevation correct.


Got one screwlock click adjustment on a marlin .375 I just got
Front bead sight jewelers filed into blade/post also
Same .0625 mod done to apearture.
Ammo arriving this week.
Gonna zero it 1.0 to 1.25 inches high at 50 yds intially.
More than likely I will have to do some slight filing on the front sight to get it correct at 100yds depending on initial downrange feedback at the distance
I might get lucky and it might be on at 100 after zeroing at 50 and not have to file any.

XS are my favorites and it's an odd instance when you won't need a taller front sight.

No major thing on the front sight. I learned that I could use a peep with a front bead some years back, but I'll always prefer a blade or post front.

I do kinda like the thought of a click adjustable aperture, but can't really imagine it'd be all that useful on a lever carbine. The XS set-up looks nice and simple.

I shoot 2 different cast bullets at different speeds and jacketed bullets at full speed in my 30-30 Winchester. The gun already has a Williams 5D. I would prefer the click-adjustable FP for moving around among those different loads

Ain’t dat the truth, I’ve installed near 100 sets over the years for myself and others and it happens more often than not. Luckily they send you a new sight quickly with a return envelope for your old one.

John, if you run your numbers through the ballistic tables with any of the receiver sights, measure your sight height because its not the 1.5” scoped default nor the .5 barrel mounted default, I think its close to an inch which does make a diff to us branch threading perfectionist.

Whether you go with Williams or not really depends on how rough you are with your guns or the type hunting, they can get bent, heavily scarred, or broken. I have some Williams sights on other rifles but none on my leverguns anymore.

Most folks can get by for life with these two items and the factory front

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/211355/williams-wdos-dovetail-open-sight-less-blade-aluminum-black

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/4...sight-ghost-ring-aperture-aluminum-black

What is the application? "Best" is a slippery target.

For a receiver mount on a lever action or general hunting rifle the Williams FP is the most precisely and easily adjustable and widely available for a variety of rifles.

For a set and forget an XS or a Skinner will both serve well and are extremely strong. The Skinner will generally sit lower and both companies offer replacement front sight blades, the Skinner flat black .1" wide front blade makes a nice sight picture, the XS sights almost all have a white stripe down the blade which some folks swear by. The Skinners generally cost less for the basic sight and front blades and has very personalized customer service, XS can be kind of a pain to get a hold of sometimes; my experience with them varies from answering the phone right away to ignoring repeated phone calls and emails. Andy at Skinner will get back to you with a personalized email generally the same day you send one, I've had replies from him even on a Saturday.

If you can do simple algebra (X" over sight radius = Y" at 100 yards) you can adjust the XS and Skinner by thread count, although the Skinner windage is purely guess and by golly without a measuring device of some kind. They work, but a Williams has fairly accurate clicks for both elevation and windage.

If you're looking at a tang sight I can say with some certainty to stay away from the Marbles - it wobbles in the upright position. A soule sight of some kind is extremely precise but you pay for it. Various small makers offer those and you can start in the $200 range and go all the way up to $500 or more. I have a Lee Shaver "economy" Soule - $260 - but even at this level it offers extremely precise vernier adjustments.

Strong, set and forget - XS or Skinner.
Precise adjustments - Williams
Really precise adjustments - Soule type.

I have the exact opposite customer service as above, Skinner never answers my calls nor returns any email other than the auto reply.
Even after assuance from the lady on the phone, I still get nuthin.

But, I still buy from them

Being a long time fan of traditional lever guns and aperture sights I've tried about every combination available over the years. All my lever guns now wear Williams FP receiver sights in the rear and Williams green fiber optic fronts. The combination of precision and visibilty in low light simply cannot be beat.

I agree with blackheart on the green for sure and Williams has a ghost ring with fiber on each side too for real dark conditions. The problem is we all have a different opinion of low light.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/9...wgrs-ghost-ring-aperature-aluminum-black

In my case in low light I can see the green glowng but can’t see the animal, but with a scope I can see the animal.

I'm gonna go both ways here...
Probably got something to do with driving a Subaru

Got two marlin carbines coming. A 336 and an 1894. One is due for delivery tomorrow, and the other is patiently waiting for me to arrange funds.

I do believe that the 336 is going to have a Williams FP on it. And maybe a fiber optic front or maybe not.

The 1894 will likely find itself wearing XS sights.

Subaru can go where a locked-n-cocked jeep won’t on several occasions.

Never seen a Subaru win any mud boggin contests around here. Always a Jeep or Land Rover.

Strictly off-road a Jeep. When you take into account most places we travel are some kinda improved surface or trail...AWD.

I’ve seen locked n cocked jeeps slide off the road in ice and snow on the way to a ski slope whilst the subaru goes up without spinning a tire.

Blasphemy.

I have skinner and williams, williams is easier to adjust, its bulky and somewhat slower to get on target because the sight is hanging off the side of the gun, this causes you to have a split second longer to think am I looking at this centered. I also think the fiber optic front sight that comes with the williams is a POS, skinner is harder to adjust is a cleaner install. I also like the skinner front sights better, I recommend the bear buster front sight, your not having to dink around trying to file the dovetail just right, It also just ends up being a cleaner look with the bear buster. The skinner is also a cleaner rear sight setup too. IMO you are going to want to use a skinner front sight anyways because I didn't like what williams sent out. So with that said you might as well just go skinner for both front and rear. Also skinner does offer a model that allows putting a scope on as well if that is something you have interest in. perhaps for load development or something like that. If I am doing it over again, I go skinner with the bear buster front.

But does the bearbuster work with the rear Dovetail peep or is it too high, dats da question. I’m also confused on this adjusting thing. Are y’all talking about making changes or setting it initially. By gosh they are all easy.

I could never get someone on the phone or email at Skinner to talk about the bearbust front

A couple of myths about peeps:

The closer to the eye, the more fast and accurate. Nope, my dovetail peeps are just as fast and accurate

Is my front sight centered? If you are focusing on that, you are using them wrong

A smaller ap is more accurate. Nope, the eye still centers the front, the width of the front has more effect on accuracy.

Tag.

the best thing about the bear busters is you get rid of the dovetail base. Now if your site is dovetailed right to the barrel you are out of luck. You need threaded screws to hold on the bear buster. The older style rifles have the screw spacing closer, I am talking marlins, here. the newer ones are spaced further. with the older guns you are only able to use the 1 screw bear buster sight. the newer guns run the 2 screw bear buster. I love my peep's for targets that are not moving. However I think I may actually like the buck horn style for fast moving targets like jack rabbits. but it depends on the buck horn. I think a bead with more of a notch rear that doesn't have large buck horns would be best for that. kinda like the factory marlin sights. I picked up an old waffle top 336 and the regular sights on that I might really really like for fast moving jacks. But this was only spending a day with the skinner in the sage brush. it just seemed easier to track a running jack with the factory sights.

XS used to make the Cowboy Express that was faster than crap but the front dot was large.

I have a 1976 vintage model 94 that has the failing blueing on the receiver that I bought very reasonably, and would like to use as a foul weather hunter. I would like to replace the rear sight with some sort of peep sight, and retain the factory front sight. What would be my best bet?

Plans are plans, but reality came down to me ordering an XS set for the 336 too. Hope to have the new sights within a couple of days, but I decided to try the carbine with it's factory sights today.

Wasn't hitting anything much at first, shooting offhand at 50 so i put it on some bigger steel and figured out I was almost 6" high. Dropped the rear down and fired up again and the smaller steel started ringing. Albeit I was hitting to the left of my POA.

Tried some 170 gr Remingtons, and some150 blue box Federals, and couldn't tell a lick of difference while shooting offhand at 50. I will need some trigger time with this one to make it really useful.

The XS sights for the 336 came last week and I installed them over the weekend. Easy installation and a nice crisp sight picture.

This morning I had a little time to kill and found myself at the range with a few targets. 3 rounds at 25 yds made a tight cluster about an inch and a half or so to the right of center.

I had played with the adjustment screws at home and realized that my old BSquare screwdriver set lacked the correct size tip to fit the adjustment screws properly. I tried to file a tip to fit but it didn't really work right, so I simply bulled ahead and buggered up both screws.

I called XS and told them how i screwed it up and they sent replacement screws and filled me in on where to find a screwdriver that fit. Seems like a good bunch, and i surely like the sights they build.

I have another carbine coming and ordered another set of sights for it while I was on the phone with them.

I just put a Williams FP-71 on my Win 1886 Extralight 45-70. I like it.

Hmmm, not quite.
The smaller aperture does two things (1) it sharpens the image and (2) it forces your head/eye alignment into a smaller arc of error. If your sights are set for target style work, the width of the post doesn't become a hindrance until you have to judge holdover. And if you're trying to shoot the 45-70 at 200yds, holdover is an issue.

The key factor is consistent head position. I.e. you need a repeatable cheek weld. I put a big brass tack on my Guide Gun to be a "kisser button". I've used the Williams Firesight combo for a long time and it is very fast and accurate to 100yds. And it isn't as clunky as the 5d.

Lyman for me and if you can locate one of those Merit shutter apertures they are the tits. MB

Just ain’t da case for me

Steelhead recommended XS sights several years ago and they made a huge difference in speed and accuracy for me. They've very easy to acquire and shoot accurately and a better fit than a scope or red-dot for what I'm choosing to do with a lever-action.

Dang dats purdy

I'm glad I decided to turn that Marlin1895GST into a shooter instead of a safe-queen. I picked it up from my buddy Freedumb1 who used to post here but passed away last November and I think of him every time I see it so it get's plenty of attention. Last year I added a Levergun Leather sling to complete the package.....

I put a Williams on the rear of mine, and a sight made by XS with a narrow white stripe up the center of it.
At the time, XS sent me a plastic front "try" sight you cut off and measured.

Nebraska, its better to use them

Awesome Marlin...

I like either an XS or Skinner on the rear with out an aperture insert and an XS with white line and flat post top on the front. I have resisted the urge to scope a lever action with an exposed hammer and a tubular magazine.
I mostly carry my 1895 Marlin f45-70 or a little Mod. 94 Win. in .44 Magnum on summer jaunts when not hunting. I trust either one more then a handgun.

If all goes well I will soon be the happy proud owner of a Mod. 94 Win. in .356 Win. It will get Mag Na Ported and an XS or Skinner receiver sight and the XS white line post on front. Then I will load up some 220 grain Speer Flat Points and try to poke a hole in a moose this fall and may even stumble on to a brownie as we hunt the same place! I'm excited and will get some trigger time in with it after it arrives.

Regarding front sight height I have used the algebra method but it does not take into consideration barrel dwell time or recoil impulse. The best method is to shoot your intended load with the rear sight in the mid position. XS used to include a plastic front sight that fit into the dovetail. Cut the plastic post with side cutters until you determine the proper height for your load. I have also filed a roofing nail head to fit in the dovetail when the XS trial sight was not available.

Wild West Guns makes a heavy-duty steel ghost-ring sight that is fully protected from bumps with high sidewalls that uses the two back scope mount screw holes, its a nice compact sight but not cheap (though well worth the cost),. they also have a nice fiber-optic front blade sight that can be purchased as a package. I use this set-up on my 450 Marlin Scout rifle, doesn't interfere with the scope use, quickly pull the scope and the irons are already mounted. They don't provide a lot of adjustment so front sight choice is important. Would work really well with a small Redfield or other brand front globe sight also.

Phil