Skinner peep sight for Henry big boy 357 question

whacko

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1. Anyone use the skinner "express" receiver mounted peep sight?
2. How did they work out?
3. Did you need to install a taller front sight?
 
Not a great answer to your question but I put one my marlin 1984. I got the skinner front sight that slid into the dovetail although it was slightly taller. The instructions from skinner was to install the taller sight and file it for proper elevation (its brass). Somehow it came the perfect height. Get the aperture assortment. Awsome sight
 
Not a great answer to your question but I put one my marlin 1984. I got the skinner front sight that slid into the dovetail although it was slightly taller. The instructions from skinner was to install the taller sight and file it for proper elevation (its brass). Somehow it came the perfect height. Get the aperture assortment. Awsome sight
I'm looking at the one that mounts on the receiver using the pre drilled holes on the Henry steel carbine.

The stock front sight is a brass bead on the post. How do you think that would line up with a peep rear? Would it work or should I just buy the skinner front post?
 
The buckhorn style that was on the 1894 was in front of the receiver in a dovetail on the rear of the barrel. I think moving the rear sight to the receiver (pre drilled, blanking screws from fact.) raised it a slight amount necessitating the higher front sight. If the Henry is the same setup I'm pretty sure you need the higher front. Give it a try without though. You might get lucky. Worst case you are limited to the larger size apertures and it may shoot high. I'm sure someone who has the Henry and has done the swap will be along at some point to give you a better answer.
 
When I installed the skinner peep sight on my 357 henry I found I could see the stock front sight without issue.
Good to know.

So you had good luck with the Skinner peep on the receiver and keeping the stock front sight?
 
I've had good luck. I've shot out to 100 yards and haven't had any accuracy issues that couldn't be attributed to something like trying to hit a tiny target that I could barely see and using 38spc ammo, when I switched to 357 then it got a lot easier. Everyone who has tried the gun with the peep sight and factory front sight seem to like it. A few can definitely out shoot me with it which says that the accuracy issue is an shooter issue not the gun. At some point I'm going to order another sight to toss on the color case hardened 44mag rifle I got from the group buy.
 
I just installed the Skinner Barrel Mount Peep Sight and I find that the stock front brass bead works pretty well.
 
I
I just installed the Skinner Barrel Mount Peep Sight and I find that the stock front brass bead works pretty well.

I have the Skinner Express on mine. Carbine length, shoots fantastically well, did nothing to the front sight. It does group better with 357 vs 38, but it's a joy to shoot either. The peep sight beats the Buckhorn hands down.

The 38/357 is below its Big Brother, which is a scoped 44mag.
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The Henrys with the brass receivers sure are pretty but they would drive my OCDedness crazy...I'd have to shoot them with latex gloves to keep the fingerprints at bay. [thinking]
 
The Henrys with the brass receivers sure are pretty but they would drive my OCDedness crazy...I'd have to shoot them with latex gloves to keep the fingerprints at bay. [thinking]
The one I'm looking at Skinner for is a steel carbine large lever loop
Very handy rifle

The brass receiver would drive me nuts too
 
phenomenal. it will move the POI up a bit but i just learn the 6 o clock hold and am happy with it. sight picture is like 100x better than the stock buckhorn crap rear sight.
 
The Henrys with the brass receivers sure are pretty but they would drive my OCDedness crazy...I'd have to shoot them with latex gloves to keep the fingerprints at bay. [thinking]
The one I'm looking at Skinner for is a steel carbine large lever loop
Very handy rifle

The brass receiver would drive me nuts too
I'm eternally grateful OCD will never be a term used to describe me:)
 
An alternative receiver sight that I haven't tried, and which is less likely to require a new front sight, is the Ranger Point Precision receiver sight.

I like the Skinner Express receiver sights (which I've installed on 4 different Henry Big Boys), but I change the front sights, anyway, and I don't even actually know whether I had to at this point. Well, I did the first time. That much I do remember, but after that, it was automatic because I realized by comparison how I felt about Marble's front sights with 3/32" brass beads. I much prefer the 1/16" bead versions, if I were to go with one that style. Instead, I have installed the Skinner front sights and filed them to size. It has not been without mishap. I overdid it on my first one, a brass one that I really didn't like being brass, anyway. Brass seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn't look that good to me from the side, and I found that I wanted it painted orange on the blade edge, anyway. I salvaged the too-short sight by filing the blade off entirely, polishing it, and making it into a dovetail blank. Now it looks great! Eventually I drilled and tapped it to store an aperture.

There's some craftsmanship to filing the Skinner 0.5" wide sights if you want to get it looking professional, but I do like the sight picture-- just a simple blade on a platform, not obscuring much of the view on either side of the point of aim. The 3/8" wide ones can be ordered to height, and they'll also work, albeit maybe with a little of the flat in the dovetail on the barrel showing on either side. I've also installed Lyman Globe sights, even bought a variety of finer inserts, but I discovered that I prefer a blade without any kind of shade over it. Also tried an XS front sight, but the wider blade with the narrow white line in it did nothing for me, and the damned thing was designed to be glued in rather than fitted (I used a brass shim instead of glue to make it tight).
 
Damn you NES! I was kicking around the idea of Skinner sights for my group buy Big Boy and just reading this thread confirmed I need the peep sight!
Ordered!
 
Does Williams make a rear sight with the adjustable “target knobs” ?

then you can just zero as needed.
Log your zeros for other ammo also?
 
I set up a Williams Foolproof rear sight with the target knobs and a Lyman 17A front globe sight on my Marlin 336. They work great together.
 
Does Williams make a rear sight with the adjustable “target knobs” ?

I'm guessing the one that fits on a Marlin 336 would work on a Henry 30-30 or 45-70 lever, but I don't think the Big Boy screw spacing is the same. Pretty sure it's not, or else I'd have leveraged that fact when I was making a low pic rail for mine to mount a red dot. I looked but couldn't find a Williams peep sight specifically for a Henry Big Boy.

Incidentally, before I decided that I didn't like red dot sights on my lever guns, I always thought about making a minimalist plate for mounting a micro red dot directly on a Henry Big Boy without a Pic or Weaver rail, the idea being to try to get it as low as possible so that one could still get a decent cheek weld. I see that Henry now sells one made by Skinner for use with the Leupold Delta Point Pro, if that's anybody's cup of tea. Not sure if it's low enough for the cheek weld, anyway, but some folks might not care so much about that. Or you can buy a riser pad of some sort.
 
I set up a Williams Foolproof rear sight with the target knobs and a Lyman 17A front globe sight on my Marlin 336. They work great together.
I have that combo on more than one rifle. I really like front globes and rear aperture adjustable sights
 
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