Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters peep sight on savage 99

I recently inherited a savage 99 3oo it has a Lyman SA tang sight
In 50 yrs of shooting I am sorry to say I have never used a peep sight. How do I find out how one is used & adjusted if needed?

To use one, just look through the hole and line up the front sight with the target.

Your sight should be easily adjustable for elevation. Usually there is a long, knurled "nut" on the stem. When you turn it, the aperture will move up or down. If the rifle is shooting high, adjust the aperture lower.

Some tang sights have windage elevation as well, usually through turning a screw at the base. If not, then windage is adjusted by shimming one side of the base of the sight. Loosen the mounting screws, then insert a shim (a trimmed piece of beverage-can aluminum works) on the OPPOSITE side of the way you want the bullets to move. Then tighten the base screws down, and test-shoot.

I used peep signts on my 30-06's and 22LR's in the 1950's and found that I could shoot well with them. Older eyes now make me look through scopes.

thanks-your getting me closer!. Do I forget about the rear iron sights on the barrel that I see when I look through the peep? Should I remove the rear iron sight.? The peep seems to be threaded on the inside -is it missing an aperture? When looking through the peep hole you just put the froont sight on the target-no lining up? it seems to easy.

Yeah, it is pretty easy. Ignore or remove the open rear sight.

Your sight did have a smaller aperture in it at one time, but for general shooting that doesn't make any difference.

One thing you should know: Many modern targets are designed for scopes, not iron sights. A big, dark bullseye works best, if you can find one. Sometimes the front sight will have to be darkened temporarily, in order to see it against the paper. Some people use the smoke from a match or candle, but I oftgen make a little, temporary hood out of masking tape to shade the front sight.

Or get some black paper and put a small paper plate on it. That makes a great target for sighting-in irons.

I just went to the bench. When I turn the knurled nut you suggested the sight moved up 1/32 of an inch at most probably less. Is that all its supposed to or does it need some cleaning or adjusting? I would like to try the 300 on some whitetails. but wondering if at my time in life a scope might not be a better
choice for my eyes ,as you indicated it might be difficult to pick up the front sight in difficult light conditions.

That might be all it moves, and it might need cleaning. Where did it shoot?

I have generally found that most people can shoot a lot better with irons (and especially a tang sight) that they would suppose, given a little practice. I don't know how old you are, but I hunt with iron sights every year still, even open sights, and I'm 56. There will come a time when I can't, but it;'s mostly a matter of learning how--and gaining confidence that the bullet will indeed land where we direct it to without any magnfication or reticle.

Yeah, you will lose a little shooting light at each end of the day. If you don't want to give that up, then take a scoped rifle. But an awful lot of deer are taken during the rest of the day, and if you take one with irons it will be a lot of fun....

Up to about 200 or so yards a peep is as good as a scope in most instances...If your has the apature insert that screws in then take it out...Now all you have to do is forget the rear peep hole and look through it and put the bead on your target, your eye will automatically center the bead..It is a fast sight and very accurate. Adjustments can be made by twisting the knobs up and down and laterally just like a scopes adjustments..Most peeps are set up for 1/4, 1/2, or 1 inch increments, depending on make, but at any rate that is easy to determine.

Ray, I concur with you. When the light is good and the front bead is fine enough, I can shoot aperture sights almost as well as a scope out to around 200 yards or so. In fact, I can hit fast-moving targets and shoot offhand better with an aperture than a scope. My theory is that the magnified aiming error that appears in a scope causes the brain to feed a magnified offset to the hands, and we over-correct. But with an aperture, you see error X and you move offset X, and the rifle is on target. Does that make sense?

JB, open sights cost me a deer just last night. They are ultra wary right now following the MI regular firearm season, and they are not coming out of the woods to glean in the corn fields until right at dark. Both the brass blade and the V notch on my smokepole were just blobs. Every year I threaten to get a new one with 209 priming and a scope.

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amen to that....
i took my only elk, my first mule deer, and my last two whitetails with a peep sighted 99 .300 savage...
i'm 50 and weld for a living... my eyes are going, but i can still do a receiver sight....

With a tang peep sight be very careful when shooting prone or
up hill, you can be blinded by the sight recoiling.
Yes it has happened.
Good Luck!

I normally use a fairly small aperture, in a relatively large disc, even on a hunting rifle. The reason being it focuses the light a bit (as opposed to a large aperture or none at all) allowing me to have the front sight reasonably well focused as well as the target. I give up a few minutes of shooting time in the morning and evening which is OK. I'm the same age as you John and wear contacts to correct nearsightedness. The scrip for my contacts is strong enough to preclude focusing on any iron sights and a "ghost ring" aperture becomes a "no ring."

My optician gave me a scrip that allows focusing pistol sights and 25yd. targets all reasonably well, but it's useless for general wear/hunting.

Re: adjusting a tang sight for windage. If the gun is capable, why not drift the front sight a bit instead of shimming the tang sight base? Adjusting a canted tang sight for elevation sends the POI off on a tangent, making sighting in very problematic. I got tired of fighting that problem on my 1899H Savage (no adjustable front sight) and sprung for the Lyman 30 1/2 tang sight adjustable for windage. A bit expensive, but problem solved.

Shimming a tang sight doesn't make enough difference ine levation to matter. I have drifted the front sight on some rifles but sometiems enough windage is involved to loosen the front sight, resulting in some minor gunsmithing to make it stay put again. Also, some rifles don't have driftable front sights.

I also have a Lyman 30-1/2 in my "Savage collection" and it makes life better. But not all tang sights are windage adjustable.

Bought a 1950 Eg model 99 in .300 a few years ago, came with an old weaver KV-60 scope on it....Took it off bought a new Marbles tang sight for it ( IMO 99's just look "right" with a tang sight) which is windage adjustable and removed the aperature to make it a "Ghost Ring". The rifle is much lighter and handier w/o the scope. The 24" barrel gives a long sight plane which is good for accuracy. As long as the front sight is focused sharp in your view your good to go... My 53 yo bifocal eyes can still make out the front sight.

Last time I was walkin in the woods I found a plastic water bottle on the ground and set it up in front of a stump, paced 50 long paces brought the rifle up and squeezed off the shot when the sight picture looked good... the bottle just sat there, thought I missed so I paced off 50 more steps and did it again....same result, bottle still there....Hmmm another miss! Walked over and looked and lo and behold both shots hit about 2 inches apart right thru the bottle.

I smiled put the bottle in my pack for later disposal and have decided to leave it just the way it is, just the peep no scope... It's now my still hunting rifle for woods shooting.... Peeps are better sights than most realize and quick to get on target!... Practice and shoot it as is, enjoy and good luck on that deer...

I like peeps too.
Trouble is (and my eyes are only 4 years younger than youra, is that in poor light I have a hard time finding the front post.
You can buy replacments now that are better than the old ones and that helps.
I would like to get another .308 lever and if i do I will try a good peep set up and see how i can do with it.
..tj3006