Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Interesting peep sight...

That's really about the only thing that makes sense.

Not saying you guys are wrong but that's a crazy way to solve the simple problem of windage and elevation - which is a linear and not a circular or eccentric movement. The only other thing that occurred to me was perhaps the rings adjust the aperature size. But that sight also presents a colossual solution to a problem that was soved in a simple way many years ago - and like years before it was invented.

And that's a crazy looking peep sight.

I think its an anti-aircraft sight! Mybe the inventor had visions of mounting Sagvage 99s in the noses of P-40s or the tail positions of SBD Dauntless dive bombers.

I misread the serial number of the rifle. Soooooorrry. Thought it was 583xxx, it's 683xxx - so a 1953 rifle.

Couple more pics:

Has anyone been able to come up with a picture of the PEEL peep for the 99?

I finally found an example of this sight, now that I got it in my hands I regret buying it, it's a real POS! I believe they were intended for bolt action shotguns or other guns with a wide rounded top, like pump rifles and shotguns. The bottom is curved and fit the contour of a Savage 170 (same receiver as the pump shotguns). The one on the 99 is on an adapter that was probably not of factory issue and the sight was probably never intend for use on a 99. Still don't know who made it, I also doubt they ever actually patented it. This sight also is rather larger and would easily to bend out of shape with the thin sheetmetal construction.

These sights are not very good, it's hard to adjust and after adjustment when tightening everything down the sheetmetal base flexes and everything moves a little. The adjustment consist of inner and outer eccentric rings secured by a strap. There are indicator marks on the strap going both way from the top marked at the 5 & 10 positions both sides. To adjust the elevation the outer ring is turned a number of marks in either direction which will raise or lower the aperture by moving it in an arc - so both the elevation and windage settings change - the inner ring then has to be turned the same number of marks the opposite way to put the aperture back on vertical center. The outer ring is split so when the strap is tightened if clamps onto the inner ring. None of this works very well. Although windage could be adjusted with this sight having the aperture other then centered would mean any change of the rings would affect both elevation and windage and it would be total guess work on which ring to move and how far.

The rings have a wider space in the knurling @180° for indicator marks to set the rings - with them set at 0 the elevation is in the middle of it's range. This example has had a corner of the base cut off.



A couple other 'possible' uses where there might be a reason for the cut corner, one to clear a safety and one to clear a bolt handle keeping the sight as far back as possible, the radius on the mounting bracket is to larger for these 22's and the sight would rock if not shimmed.





The large opening around the small sighting aperture does help get on target fast by giving a wider view. This is not a new idea, here is a 'Killdeer' sight from the early 1900's that offered something similar.

These are old photobucket pictures so I'm not sure how well they will display, is at all.
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Link to the patent if the pictures don't show - uspto.gov=00810761

I can't believe you found one! Amazing.. and that is just as bizarre as we originally thought.

Coming up with that sight took the long way around the block to solve a problem that was solved by taking the shortcut through the alley decades before the inventor's boots ever hit the ground. Wow!

...well, some people just don't learn, I bought another one of these stupid sights..... It does answer one question though, it appears they were intended for use on 99's and the adapter base was not a one-off item.

This one is a little different, in the thinnest part of the outer adjusting ring there is a flat filled with white paint, the inner ring has screw driver damage there so I don't know if it had that feature too. The mounting holes for attaching to the base are slotted giving a little windage adjustment there, The holes appear to be punched out obround and not round holes that were opened up. With it mounted it actually seems to work OK for sighting if you could ever get it adjusted. I wear tri-focals and looking thorough it makes a fuzzy circle that my eye centers the front sight bead in and you can still see around that making it easier to find the target point.

At first I thought this might just be the same sight pictured in the first post and who ever bought the rifle got rid of it until I found this thread again.



















...still don't know who made these, or when, or (most importantly) WHY!

Great, now I have to have one. Thanks Gene

Very nice! First, I'd have walked past it 50 times on a table and never recognized what I was looking at. And second, I'd never have been brave enough to tear it apart.

Great find!

Why?

Probably because "somebody" had the belief that if they built it, consumers would embrace it such that "somebody" would sell a pile of them and make some money. Look at the Boone Saturn, an idea that was put into production and apparently embraced by very few consumers.

This is why i come on here,never saw one of those before.Great post !

I like it. It looks like an aircraft bomb sight

Gene, your group of 99's for displaying sights is growing nicely.

Thanks for solving another mystery.

... that 1899 no longer has that sight on it, my sight collection is growing but not my 99's, that gun has had several different sights and scopes on it, it's the one with the 5/8" Malcolm side mount scope setup.

I still don't know the who or when on this sight, I looked through patents 15 or so years ago but stopped at 1945, I recently got bock on the US Patent Website to look from then on and found they had totally changed the the format of the site and the format of all the search filters. I think I have it figured out now.... but it will be awhile before I sit down and look through them. I found over 900 firearms related patents containing the word 'sight' that were issued between Jan 1, 1945 and Dec 31, 1965 and there may never have been a patent issued for this sight. They now have the option to search application, which would turn up a lot more, but again, there may never have been an application for this sight filed.

If anyone wants to look at some sight patents go to the USPO website and open the 'Advanced Search' then from there 'Enhanced Search' and type in - 42/$.ccls. and sight and @pd>"19450101" and @pd<"19651231" You need the periods before and after ccls, $ is a wild card to cover all subcategories, 42 is the classification for most firearms related patents. It took me a lot of tries to finally figure there new format out and get results, so I made a copy -

Being from Wisconsin, I'm thinking that I might look through patents the next time the Packers play, it will be far less frustrating, and there may still be more to look through next spring when the Brewers start to play again....

Well, that worked, took about 20 minutes, I found the 900+ number of 'finds' for the word 'sight' included multiples in single patents, so the number of patents was much less, 15 to 25 a year. I guess I'll need to find another excuse to not watch the Packers Sunday.

Here's the patent for that sight, filed for in 1952, so very close to the time of the rifle that is shown with one in the first post - .uspto.gov/Pdf/2770041

Added- that type of 'aperture' is not something new, here are a couple that are quite similar -
uspto.gov/Pdf/0845491
uspto.gov/Pdf/0810761 I have an example of this sight, never was used. Mine has the 'aperture' as shown in Fig 4.

Herman Boll, Oregon.

Figures it was an Oregon thing.

Good find! I'd have guess mid to late 30's, maybe 40's.