[InTheBlack]

I see lever action Cowboy-era rifles advertised with "buckhorn" sights and "leaf" sights etc. Sometimes the sights are not specified.

I'd like to learn what styles of sights were used on what sort of guns, and get a description or image of each.

[Wil Terry]

HUNDREDS OF COMBINATIONS.
Order out a Williams and Lyman catalog and read to yore hearts content. Another good source with pictures is the Brownell's Catalog. After you've read all this information and passed a quiz and review start hanging out at a good gunstore and look at all that is available there.

[six 4 sure]

Marbles has a fine selection of sights for lever-actions. www.marblesoutdoors.com As to what was used? I think the opions were endless.

six

[InTheBlack]

So basically you're saying that I can put a Leopold Vari-Lux IV dot scope on my lever action and go shoot it in SASS...

[Wil Terry]

What was intimated if not said outright is you can get off your duff and find all this yourself if you really care about the subject. We ain't here to spoon feed you like pablum to a baby. Books have been written on this subject and mine is right here beside me as we speak. It is available for free at a place called the LIBRARY. Have them cross index iron sights for you. Once you have read the book and all those catalogs you'll be able to ask an intelligent next time.

[InTheBlack]

Such dangerous sniper training literature isn't allowed here in the Socialist Republic of Maryland. Someone might figure out how to hit their target. Out here the local library has video cameras monitoring what you browse in the stacks, with color TV's displaying the whole show while you wait at the checkout.

Once they get the grant for the facial recognition software you won't even have to go to the checkout counter anymore.

Simple question. What kinds of sights did the lever action guns of the late 1800s have? Are the repros usually correctly sighted? There seem to be two types used; what's the difference?

[Wil Terry]

HOW IN THE WORLD CAN A GUNNY LIVE UNDER SUCH APPALLING CONDITIONS AS THAT?? Thank GOD I live out west!!
Why don't you toss both middle fingers into the air and get out of such an anti-American hellhole like that?
Okay, most modern leverguns are now coming with the Buckhorn style rear sights to look like the old style rifles. These are without a doubt the lousiest open sights even invented! Of course in cowboy action shooting it doesn't matter as the targets are so close you can hit 'em without sights.
The front sights are usually a post with a bead on top though the Rossi's have a square front post with an excellent sharp square sight picture. The Rossi also has a square rear sight with a square notch that gives excellent results for my old eyes, actually the best of any open sights on any modern levergun.
With all that being said once you're in the game you'll want better sights and that means aperture sights on the rear, tang apertures if you want to shoot cowboy action. Me! I don't really like tang sights as they get in the way of my gun hand and scratch my glasses. I do love the Lyman and Williams aperture receiver sights which grace most of my leverguns. I sorta like the Lyman best but that ain't no big deal either.
Remember this: the sights on a rifle or carbine are easily changed and there is a shiqload of choises to replace those factory sights. DO NOT make or break a gun deal on a levergun just because you don't like the factory sights. Buy the levergun you like best, for all the right reasons now, and worry about the sights later.
Keep me posted.
PS: get those Lyman and Williams catalogs too...no foolin', do it now...

[InTheBlack]

Thanks for the summary, its what I needed. I have the catalogs; just didn't know which types were more historic. The CDNN catalog has a couple of Navy Arms 1892s; but it looks moot since I just paid $550 to get a line repaired on the car A/C. Ticks me off to be charged $90 for 3 lbs of Freon 134a, and then insults my intelligence when they tell me its "better quality" than the stuff in the 20 lb tank that cost me $80.

Any tricks to installing a tang sight to that its nicely lined up?

[CMcDermott]

Most lever-action guns came with the tang already tapped for a tang sight, the modern Winchesters with the tang safety being an exception and modern Marlin's usually come tapped for receiver, not tang, sights. If you do need a tang sight for Cowboy shooting I prefer Marbles tang sights over most Lymans because the Marbles are adjustable for windage, LYmans #2 isn't. So if you (or your gunsmith) do get the sight a little off verticle drilling the second screw hole in the tang, you have a chance of using the windage adjustment to get it on target.