I posted this question on the Marlin Owners' forum, but I thought I'd try here.

When mounting a Willams rear sight, the model that goes on top with the scope mount holes, will the factory front sight work OK on silhouettes, or will I need a taller front sight?

It's a XLR .30-30 24" barrel.

Getting packed and ready to head out for AZ on the 28th. Weather looks good here in Iowa so far, and I hope it holds along the route.

Merry Christmas!

Based on what you posted I assume you mounted a Williams FP-336-TK. When I put that sight on my 336XLR I found I couldn't get the sight low enough for the 50 meter chickens. I ended up putting a Marble 41MR sight on (.410 height) and it worked just fine. The sight that comes with the XLR is about .290 in height.

Good luck and make sure you come to the Lever Gun Silhouette match at Ben Avery on 1/28/12. The AZ State Championship is 2/10-12/12, with practice on the 9th.

Thanks for the info. Yes, that is the Williams sight I plan to get.

How difficult was it to get the factory sights out of the dovetails?

I'm sure planning on shooting at BA, and this Marlin represents my plunge into the lever game. I'm also planning to shoot the long range BPCR event. We'll be staying at Sun City West from Jan. through March, pretty convenient to the range.

Paul,

It's actually very easy to remove the dovetail sight. The problem can be that the ramp may come with it. That's what happened to me the first time I replaced the front sight on my 39A. The problem turned out to be VERY short screws holding the ramp on the barrel. Only about 1-1/2 threads into the barrel. Had to buy longer screws and ended up buying a Williams Front Sight Pusher since I knew I was going to be doing a lot of sight work before I was satisfied. That was 3-1/2 years ago and just used it again yesterday. Available from Brownells http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1615 ... ght-Pusher for $60.99. Expensive but worth it for one stripped out screw hole in a barrel. Of course it makes installation of the new sight MUCH easier also.

Obviously no such problem with a barrel mounted sight.

Merry Christmas and probably see you at Ben Avery.

Instead of buying one of those sight pushers, it would probably be better to just try to find someone in your area who has one already. I do agree that they are the absolute best thing in the world for inserting sights into ramps, and I too have had to deal with a stripped sight ramp screw due to trying to drift a sight out of a ramp. That said, I bought one of the Williams sight pushers and opened it up to be able to insert the globe sights a bit more easily. I encourage everyone in the area to just use mine instead of buying and modifying one of their own, though. That $60+ can buy a lot of bullets, powder and primers.