Sighting in your shot for Cowboy Silhouette...

[bigdaddy]

All,

I know that with smallbore silhouette you have an adustable scope.

But with Smallbore Cowboy, the sights are so much less adjustable, what do most do?

I've also heard of Tang sights. I went to the Marbles site to see their tang sights. Do most use Tangs?

If I buy a Henry lever action for Cowboy SS would I need to immediately replace the sights?


Thanks.

[Jason]

I use a Williams FP receiver sight with target knobs on it. I like it much better than the tang-mounted sights.

[Evelio Mc Donald]

Bigdaddy, the Henry rifles that I had my hands on, do not have a dovetail cut in the receiver, and are not drill or tap for the Williams or any other adjustable sight. My personal opinion, go with a Marlin.
Evelio.

[Jason]

While I do agree with Evelio that the Marlin is a much better choice for cowboy silhouette, the two Henry rimfire leverguns that I've shot lately both had grooved receivers. They weren't drilled and tapped for receiver sights, but newer Marlins aren't either. Now that I think of it, the Henry rifles had receivers that seems to be made of thinner metal, unlike the Marlins. Neither had receiver or tang sights, though, so I'm not sure if the metal would be strong enough to clamp down hard on the dovetail with a receiver sight or scope mount. The website says that they are all grooved for scope mounts, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are strong enough to support one well.

If you are seriously considering getting a Henry specifically for silhouette, I'd advise going to match and finding someone there with one set up for shooting silhouette. They might work just fine if set up correctly. I'd find one to try to out to make sure before I sunk a lot of money into it, though.

[lone ringer]

bigdaddy, if you buy a rifle like the Henry that only has grooved receiver you can buy a Williams sight that attaches to the groove. I just did it for a friend that bought a Winchester lever action in .22 Mag that was not drilled and tapped for receiver or tang sights but had a grooved receiver for a scope.

The Williams sight in my opinion is more precise but the Marble's gives you a longer sight radius by a few inches. My preference for the lever action.22 matches is a Marlin 39A specially if is an older rifle without the safety and rebound hammer.

We are not limited to lever action rifles in SB, we can use an autoloader or pump action rifles as long as the ammo is fed through a tubular magazine. I have some friends that have had good success using Marlin autoloaders and this year at the Cowboy Lever Action Rifle Nationals Lon Pennington won the SB match using a very old Winchester pump action rifle that looked like a gallery gun.

[Evelio Mc Donald]

Jason, you are probably right, the only Henry's I handled were the GOLDEN BOY'S and I know that those did not have a receiver dovetail, or were drill and tap. For those Henry's with a dovetail, Williams does make a rear sight that will fit on any size of dovetail. The new 39A Marlins are drill and tap on top of the receiver, and they come with a 3/8 dovetail base that will fit the existing holes.
Evelio.

[Jason]

Ewww.. I don't think I can adequately express my opinion of the Golden Boy rifles other than "I have no desire to own one" without using profanity. With the quality of firearms you build, you should allow those Golden Boys around your real guns.

[Evelio Mc Donald]

Jason.
I don't own any Henrys guns, like I stated earlier, the only ones I handle were the Golden Boys, the action is surprisinly smooth, there are a lot of folks out there that shoots them. I know that the other earlier models shoot great, Again I can't say one way or the other, I was just stating the fact that you could not put a after market sight on the GOLDEN BOYS .
Personaly I am lucky to have two Winchester 5422 one in 22LR and one in 22WMR both the Legacy models, also one in 357mag. 44mag. 45LC ,and 30.30 all Legacy models. What can I say, I love them, I would not trade them for anything else.
I still recomend the Marlins either 39A or 336 for a new shooter trying to get into the sil. lever action competition.
Evelio

[mordecai]

My sight-in system for open sights is to start short (and have glass).

Pick something pretty close first - like 10-25 yards and make sure your groups are as tight as possible. Really get a feel for the action, trigger and the ammo groups for any wind you may be in. Then start putting 5-shot groups on the 40, 50 75 & 100 yard spots, checking the groups with glass as you go. I find it nice to use photo-copied silhouettes to shoot at as well. You not only should be able to find your settings (or in my case, hold-over), but you can really get a feel for what the rifle is capable of doing, as well as how the ammo is performing (I personally like High Velocity LRN; shoots a little flatter and hits the rams harder).

I've been using hold-over for a few years now because I haven't had the time or the patience to get the elevation changes working the way I like, and I seem to be hitting 80-90% of my shots with hold-over anyhow. It will be nice, however, to be able to fire when the post is on the animal for turkeys and rams.

[jnyork]

I shoot quite a bit of lever action silhouette with a Marlin 39a, a Uberti '73 in 44-40 and a Winchester 1886 in .33 WCF. All have Marbles tang sights. Almost everyone I shoot with uses the Marbles. They are a quality item. Nice firm clicks and very dependable to return to zero. For smallbore, almost every lever gun shooter uses a Marlin 39a, only one Henry in our group of about 35 shooters.