Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Iron sights on a Win Featherweight

I have a Winchester (New Haven) M70 Featherweight in 308Win. that I am setting up for a light weight all weather hunting rifle. I have a McEdge ordered for it and it will end up weighing close to 7 pounds scoped, maybe a few ounces heavier. I would like to have sights as a back-up on this rifle. I have many rifles with slick barrels and I just like iron sights. My scope mounts will be Warne Weaver type bases and rings will be Burris Super Low (no longer available) Zee rings with a Leupold VX-3 2.5x8x38 scope. In case of scope failure (I know, extremely remote) I can pull two screws and replace the scope with a pre-zeroed, XS Low Weaver back-up, which attaches with one screw. Now, for the front sight. After some measuring, I found that the muzzle diameter of my Stainless Ruger #1A is the same (.565") as the M70 FW in question. I ordered and have in hand the Ruger SS front sight base. It is a few thousandths of an inch undersized and I will need to fit it to the Winchester barrel. I will be remodeling the sight base to make it look a bit less Rugeresque for the Winchester. Now, I know what you're think'n. I will temporarily attach the front sight base to the FW and shoot it before permanent attachment. The rifle shoots sub MOA now and I just want to make sure that the barrel harmonics with the front sight base added, are not adversely affected, causing a decrease in accuracy. If it does decrease the accuracy it is a No Go. Let me know if any of you have added sights to a sightless rife before and what your experience was. Thanks, RJ

You are a smart man.

I have a model 70 ranger with a featherweight contour barrel that came with open sights installed from the factory. It's in a McMillan featherweight pattern stock now with a leupold 6x36 and dots. I shot it for a few years with no sights, just plug screws in the holes.

I now have it set up with talley lows and a hooded fiber optic front sight. The rear base is a custom made by Jim Brockman. It's got a pop up peep built into it that smooshes down when the scope is mounted. With scope, the gun weighs 7 pounds. The whole system works great.

I wouldn't trust the accuracy results you get from temporarily mounting the front sight. You won't get a true result of how your accuracy is affected until it's on for real. I say go for it. If you'd like, I can go measure my muzzle diameter and front sight height. I'm shooting 180s at 2730.

pabucktail, I think I will have to use the XS "try sights" the plastic front posts that you start off tall and clip them until the elevation is correct. Then you order the sight of the height that you end up with. I sure wish someone made a pop-up aperture sight bult into a Weaver base.

I saw a built in aperture for a Talley rear base used with Talley QR rings. That would be slick. Greg Rodriguez had that set up on his 338 Federal rifle in a McEdge.

It depends on what you want. If you never really want to use the irons, but rather just have them as an option in case your scope is kaput the weaver base idea is good, but then you have to worry about carrying the rear sight and making sure you have it all the time.

I like using open sights a fair portion of the time so the Talleys make alot of sense, especially with the integral pop up peep. I also have a .375 with Talley's removable peep sight,but I like it less since I have to make sure I'm carrying it all the time. And it has to be taped down because after alot of walking around or five or six shots it loosens up and falls off. Bye bye sixty bucks.

I decided that I am going to get one of the Redfield folding peeps that mount on the back of the rear scope base. That way I won't have to worry about having the rear sight with me. I have fitted the Ruger front sight base to the Featherweight and hope to get out to the range soon to shoot the rifle and see if the accuracy holds. I'll just tap it on and maybe put a small dab of epoxy at the muzzle to keep it from flying off when I fire it. I want to get the rear sight mounted to the rear scope base so when I test for accuracy, afterward, I can find out the proper straight up orientation of the sight base and figure out how tall of a front sight blade I will need.

Added wrap around front sight, island rear, one standing one folding, and a barrel band sling swivel. Everything still in harmony as the rifle shoots 160 TSXs into 3/4" ( 7x57)

I am pretty partial to NECG's stuff both fore and aft. But Talley's rear peep that drops into their base is pretty slick combined with an NECG front. My favorite NECG combo here on a pre-64 358 Win.

OK. I took the Featherweight to the range today to see if it would still be accurate with 2 extra ounces stuck on the end of the barrel. I threw a Ziess Conquest on it in Burris QD rings. And I wanted to get an idea of what height front sight blade I would need. On the first 3 shot group I fired, I pulled the second shot, I knew it immediately as the trigger broke. It was an inch and a quarter left of the first shot. The third shot went into the same hole as the first. The next group put the 3 bullets into less than 3/4". That's good enough for me. I attached the Redfield flip-up ghost ring sight to the rear scope base with a rubber band after I removed the scope. I found that my front sight blade will have to be close to .300" tall. After I got home and cleaned my rifles, I got out my German epoxy and attached the Front sight base to the featherweights barrel. It's not going to move. So, now I will drill and tap rear scope base for the Redfield flip-up sight and wait for my McMillan Edge to get here.