front shight

[welafong1]

dear sir madam
can any one tell me what the front shight and rear sights if any look like and there placement might be allso what is the placement for the barrel lugs and pin for the ramrod pipes on a becks boys rifle 
 thank you
Richard Westerfield

[dannybb55]

Well here goes:
 
 On old rifles the front sights were generally low and "fine". The front was a blade, silver or coin for civilian and brass or iron for military. The blade described a segment of an arc maybe 3/32 of an inch tall by an inch or so long. Some were lower. The base was of a copper alloy, easy to file and easy to solder and mostly duftailed into the barrel. The rear sights were a simple, nonadjustable v notched piece of iron, carefully filed and duftailed onto the barrel maybe 12 to 14 inches ahead of the breach. The rear sight placement has a lot to do with the shooters vision.
 Even though the American rifle has always been accurate enough to hit a nail on the head at useful ranges, if well made and skillfully handled, there has always been a crowd that thinks that the sights on modern long rifles need to be tall and ugly. To help them along there seems to be little published information showing the sights of original guns. I always thought that tall sights catch in the underbrush and carve up the hand and otherwise ruin the clean lines of a well built rifle.
 (If this has the feel of a battery 6 then feel free to return fire.)
                                        Danny
 

[Acer Saccharum]

I made a bunch of guns with tall sights, and frankly, I like this style at the range, when the barrel eats up and mirage plays with the number of sights you see. Or is that old age?

I have tended for more traditional height sights lately, because I have become more traditional as get into the historical aspects of the American 18th Century gun. My sights are still taller than most originals, running about 1/8 tall, a sort of compromise height.

Most early sights I have seen are VERY low. In general, these guns were not made as fine target guns, but tools to bring dinner home with. Or pick the enemy off at 200 yards.

[bgf]

A Beck boy's rifle should have sights designed and located similarly to a full-sized Beck, but scaled to its smaller size, I would think.  The problem you may run into is that it may put the rear sight too far back for comfort if gramps shoots it -- no problem locating it farther forward if necessary; just speculating and giving you something to check.  If it is going to be shot in matches, taller sights are an advantage for various reasons, but they may look ungainly.  If it is mostly for hunting, the old-fashioned way looks much better.  You can always create a set of more practical "target" sights later if the low type don't work for its eventual usage.

[dannybb55]

All this has been weighing on my brain these passed few years as my right eye has started to fog up. I had cateract surgery 10 years ago and my right eye did not come out as well as my off eye and focus goes out the window. After ten years we finally could get me on my wife's insurance and I got my eye lasered and now I can see my rear sight again. I remember seeing a few old rifles with a slice of iron in the old slot and the rear sight drastically moved. I wonder what there eyes were doing?
 During the 19th century shoots were a more casual affair with a shot being taken by each participant and the rifles allowed to rest/ cool between shots, and of course the barrel is cool on the hunt.
 My Deringer is getting a thick brass barleycorn front sight filed down real low and maybe one of those traditional looking peep sights from TOW if my eye demands it or one like H Deringer installed on his rifles if my eye will allow it.