I know there are peeps for the Marlin 336/30AS with picatiny rails. I want a sliding range sight like on a SKS/AK/Mosin. Any ideas, anyone ever seen this done? Seems like with the 30/30 and 7.62x39 cartridges being so similar in ballistics that it might be a good match for a tacticool 16" lever gun, and also make my perfect SEast woods gun. Anyone know a cheap source of the parts I would need to make it happen? I would see this being tapping and screwed into the top of the receiver, with picatiny rails running in front to the old sight dovetail.
Ak Sight on Marlin Lever
- Thread starter D Boone
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Shear_stress
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AK rear sights are readily available from places like APEX Gun Parts, Copes Distributing, and K-var. However, I'd caution that the rear sight is one of the biggest barriers to getting the AK to shoot well and would be one of the last sights I'd want to custom mount on another rifle. It's your rifle, but if it was up to me I'd much rather go with a peep sight.
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Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
Interesting question!
The AK, Mosin, and SKS all use a sight base that is part of a larger assembly of the rifle, so it isn't something you could easily remove and bolt onto your lever gun.
Neither of those rifles is known for having sights that are all that wonderful to use. Most folks who really want to use iron sight for (more) accurate shooting with those rifles seem to choose to replace the sights you want to use with something else.
Further, if you have the standard express sights on your Marlin, the sight picture offered by a set of SKS/AK sights is going to be very similar, and probably a bit worse. Why go to the trouble?
The gradiations are largely pointless anyway. Once you get past 200 yds (maybe 300 if you're VERY good with the rifle) an open-sighted SKS or AK (or a 16" lever rifle) is going to be tough to make effective hits with. Inside of those distances, there's not much reason to adjust those sliding tangent sights anyway. They're not like dialing in a scope in 1/4" clicks. More like "near enough" at 100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters, etc, (you like meters, don't you?) with a cartridge that is similar to, but not the same as, the one you're shooting. The semi-adjustable sights that Marlin puts on those rifles will give you a finer set of adjustments that you may be able to use.
So, really, you've got between one and three useful adjustment points, and seven or more adjustment points that are "wildly optimistic" for the cartridge. In a military situation, there just MIGHT be some value in having a whole platoon set their sights to 500 meters to volley a lot of fire at a group of enemy soldiers, if they don't have an automatic rifle on hand to do the same thing more effectively -- but your lever rifle isn't ever going to be used that way.
I really don't see it as a valuable trade-off, even if it was easily possible.
Now, Brownells does sell a number of replacements for the original Marlin rear sight that might give you a better sight picture. And, of course, they sell a number of quite nice aperture sights ranging from quick-acquiring ghost rings (I like the XS sights) to the old school long-range, tang-mounted apertures which can be VERY accurate out to extreme ranges.
-Sam
The AK, Mosin, and SKS all use a sight base that is part of a larger assembly of the rifle, so it isn't something you could easily remove and bolt onto your lever gun.
Neither of those rifles is known for having sights that are all that wonderful to use. Most folks who really want to use iron sight for (more) accurate shooting with those rifles seem to choose to replace the sights you want to use with something else.
Further, if you have the standard express sights on your Marlin, the sight picture offered by a set of SKS/AK sights is going to be very similar, and probably a bit worse. Why go to the trouble?
The gradiations are largely pointless anyway. Once you get past 200 yds (maybe 300 if you're VERY good with the rifle) an open-sighted SKS or AK (or a 16" lever rifle) is going to be tough to make effective hits with. Inside of those distances, there's not much reason to adjust those sliding tangent sights anyway. They're not like dialing in a scope in 1/4" clicks. More like "near enough" at 100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters, etc, (you like meters, don't you?) with a cartridge that is similar to, but not the same as, the one you're shooting. The semi-adjustable sights that Marlin puts on those rifles will give you a finer set of adjustments that you may be able to use.
So, really, you've got between one and three useful adjustment points, and seven or more adjustment points that are "wildly optimistic" for the cartridge. In a military situation, there just MIGHT be some value in having a whole platoon set their sights to 500 meters to volley a lot of fire at a group of enemy soldiers, if they don't have an automatic rifle on hand to do the same thing more effectively -- but your lever rifle isn't ever going to be used that way.
I really don't see it as a valuable trade-off, even if it was easily possible.
Now, Brownells does sell a number of replacements for the original Marlin rear sight that might give you a better sight picture. And, of course, they sell a number of quite nice aperture sights ranging from quick-acquiring ghost rings (I like the XS sights) to the old school long-range, tang-mounted apertures which can be VERY accurate out to extreme ranges.
-Sam
Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
They do sell sights, however, they are generally selling the parts that mount in the sight base. The base itself is part of the front trunion (AK) or receiver (SKS). Not something that you could easily bolt on top of your Marlin.
-Sam
I had thought if I could find an AK/Moison sight block for $20 or so, it could be worth milling off the needed parts. I'm not a huge fan of peeps. I've always liked the idea of the old flip up cowboy rear sight with sliding elevation marks. Mounting it on the rear of the receiver would also increase sight radius. I think it could be a cool "something different" for a woods gun, and if I could do it cheap.....
Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
Yes, but mounting it on the receiver raises the sight pretty far above the bore axis -- quite a bit higher than where the sights normally sit dovetailed down into the barrel. You'd have to get a new front sight tall enough to match, or shoot way high all the time!
The longest sight radius, and probably the most accurate sight you can get for these guns are these:
Marvel
Lyman
They mount to the tang, behind the hammer and sit closer to your eye. A direct decendent of what the buffalo hunters used on their Sharps rifle to make solid hits at 1,000 yds.
Perhaps that doesn't fit the ideals of a "tacticool" lever gun, but it'd be a lot better than cobbling something together off an eastern bloc gun.
Whether you like apertures or not, it's hard to deny that they work VERY well.
-Sam
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