Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Peep sight or small scope on 1951 Savage 99...

Hello,
I posted a similar question a few years ago, but didn't act on it at the time, now I'm thinking about doing something before hunting season. My FIL left me his 99 in 300 Savage about twelve years ago. It is completely stock and has become my favorite whitetail rifle, but as my eyes get older (I'm 60), I have started to think about changing the sights.

One of the things I really like about that rifle is it's trim handling. It doesnt have a sling, I just carry it in my hand. I sort of hate the idea of putting a scope on it, plus I don't want to drill and tap the reciever, and some of those scope mounts that use existing holes seem sort of Rube Goldbergish to me, so I was thinking about a peep sight.

With contacts or glasses my eyes are correctable to 20-10, but my near vision is not good. Would a peep sight work with my eyes even of the rear sight, actually both sights would be a bit blurry? I still hit fine with the standard open sights, but I have to concentrate. I was hoping the peep sights would be a faster, throw-the-gun-up-and-shoot thing.

If there was a clean way to mount a scope, I would put a low power, maybe a 1.5 - 4 on it. Any advise would be most welcome.

John

A Stith or Boone Scope.
Steve

Stith is the best way to put a scope on without putting in new holes. They aren't too bad, a 1" Stith can be pretty decent but will run some $$.

Peeps will run a lot less money, but I have no idea if it would work well with your eyesight or not. Best best there is just buy one, mount it, and try. If it doesn't work, you can probably sell it for about the same amount.

Another thought, and for not a lot more than a 1" Stith setup, is to just buy yourself a nice, shooter quality 99F in 300 that's factory d&t.

John, the point of having a peep sight is that your eye automaticly centers itself to the aperture...you never see it or focus on the rear sight. Only the front sight matters.
A Lyman 56S or a Lyman 57SA would be the thing IMHO. A scope in a Stith mount would be your other option, but then the scope is in the way to carry the rifle the way you do.

Brian

You oughta try a peep sight first. I can still shoot fairly well with one on my 1899. That 26" barrel puts the front sight just far enough out that I can see it OK. On short barrels I'm screwed.

+1. I'm three years shy of 60 with edgy eyesight and I can use peep sights well, even on the 20" barreled H's. You may have to experiment with different aperture diameters to find the combo that works best for you. A slightly larger front bead or sourdough-style front sight may help too.

Like you, I'm willing to do what's necessary to avoid a scope to improve the "carryability" of a rifle that stays in my hands 100% of the time while I'm hunting. My theory is that the inherent awkwardness of a scoped rifle (coupled with the added weight) is why you see them slung over guy's shoulders all the time instead of in their hands.

Peeps work well out to 100 yds, about the farthest you need to shoot at here back east.

My eyesight is getting dodgy too so a scope is nice in low light though--I think a rear reticle a little large in diameter, about 5/8 through 3/4" might help with a peep too.

Personally, I'd go peep first and if it doesn't work for you, use a scope

Send me a pm if you want a scope mount you wont have to D&T

Don't go too big with that sight disc for hunting. Jockey the aperture diameter to suit, but don't use a disc that'll block out the whole world when you sight through it. I use a 3/8" disc with .045" aperture for most of my hunting.

Thanks for all the replies, I was leaning peep sight to start with. I would think they are good a bit past 100, maybe closer to two hundred as I've shot deer almost that far out with the stock open sights.

John

I like the .095 for hunting myself. Let's more light to my eye in low light conditions. And easier to get on a moving target.

JMO

Randy

I always remove the aperture disk if it is removable and just use the hole it screwed into. Seems to be just as accurate, no disk to block view, and quicker to get on target.

Like this? Worked, but I did better with an aperture in.

I have two apertures that I interchange. One with a quite small hole for the range and another larger used when hunting whitetail. The larger giving me better/faster target acquisition.

By the way....my eyes aren't the best either.

Peep sights are all right, except in real low light situations,dawn,dusk, but they aren't worth a damn if you are in a buck only area and trying to see antlers quickly! Don

That's why God created binoculars.

It is tough sometimes to get the binos up, assess the deer, put the binos down, pick up the rifle, and acquire the target before the deer disappears into the brush. This happened to me twice last year on nice bucks in the brush. Had I had a scoped rifle, I would have shot the deer at the point that I picked it up with the binos instead of having to hang them back up and then getting the rifle ready. The rifle is a 99F t/d in .303 Sav with a 20" barrel wearing a Lyman 1A.

Brian

I wear glasses to correct for far sightedness so close objects are a blur when I take them off. As I write this I'm sitting at my desk with a peep sighted Model G in 300 Savage in my lap. If I take my glasses off I can't read what I just wrote on the computer screen. But when I look through the peep without my glasses, I can see the sights and target just fine when aiming at a fence post about 100 yards across the pasture south of my house. With my glasses, things are even better. Now open sights are a completely different story. I can hardly use them any more even with glasses. I just can't seem to get them focused well enough to take a shot at anything past 50 yards.

With practice and use in the field you should find that a peep sight works pretty good. Sure they may not have all the advantages of a scope, but I don't really care, I just like using them. I have no problem hunting coyotes with my peep sighted 250-3000s and this Model H in 22 HP. They work just fine out to 200 yards or so which is perfect for me since I call most of them to within that range before shooting anyways.

fantastic picture... I think Gary should capture that one for a future book... maybe instead of ppl with 99s, its a book of hunting success with 99s!!

I've run into the same issues that Loggah and docost99 point out. There's no doubt that at dawn and dusk peep sights become difficult to use and a scope would allow for quicker determination of sex or antler size a lot of the time. I've been using peep sighted Savages the last few years because I enjoy the connection they give me with the past (I suppose hunting with flintlocks, longbows, pointy sticks and rocks is probably in my future as well). Hunting for me has also become more about the adventure, the stalk and the experience and less about increasing my odds for success. But I hunt areas with lots of game and that affords me those luxuries. There are times I've had to pass on a shot due to the limitations of a peep, no worries, there'll be another opportunity soon enough. If I hunted areas where you need to take advantage of every encounter or risk never harvesting an animal, then I can easily see myself tending towards a scoped rifle.

Another solution is to spring for a Merit Adjustable Disc. The aperture is created by a diaphragm that works like the f-stop mechanism in a camera lens. Select the opening that works best for the conditions at hand.