Buckhorn Sight Picture

[cliff355]

Recently I read on the forum that a Buckhorn sight can function as a forward-mounted aparture or "peep" sight and this had never occured to me. So, this morning I pulled out a Browning B-92 and old Winchester 94 which appear to have "buckhorn" sights. That is, there is a big "U" with a tiny notch at the bottom, presumably for the bead or front blade to fit into.

It is quite difficult to see the front blade in the B-92's bottom notch. This carbine's front sight looks like a block with a small blade extending from it. When the blade is in the notch, there is almost no space on either side, making sighting difficult.

If the sight is to be used as a front-mounted peep, what sight picture should I be looking for? Should the "block" be located at the bottom of the "U" with the tip of the blade in the center of it?

Maybe I'm a little bit confused, and possibly these aren't the true "buckhorn" sights referred to, but any comments would be appreciated.

 

[Z_Infidel]

What you are looking at is probably a semi-buckhorn sight. A full buckhorn has round sides that almost form a whole circle. Most lever guns are equipped with the semi buckhorns from the factory.

 

[iamkris]

I fitted a Marbles full buckhorn rear sight (the "ears" form an almost complete circle about the size of a dime) and a Marbles Gamegetter front blade with brass bead on a Rossi Winchester 92 clone in 45 Colt. Here's a pic of what one looks like.

.

This is the lever gun I use in Cowboy Action Shooting. I use the sights as a ghost ring and find them very fast, easy to pick up and surprisingly accurate for the 8-12" steel plate targets that we use. I can consistently hit anything I aim at out to about 75 yards when shooting fast.

If I was intent on using this for aimed fire at smaller objects at further differences I'd use the little notch at the bottom of the rear sight...but that's not what this gun is for.

I would agree that what you have is a semi-buckhorn sight

 

[cliff355]

Iamkris:

Thanks for the illustration. My sights are definately "semi" rather than full buckhorns. Pardon my ignorance, but what is the rationale for a semi buckhorn? It seems like a "V" notch of some kind would be preferable to that tiny notch in the bottom of a "U." Right now I am inclined to put on a full buckhorn like you did, unless there is some semi-buckhorn technique I'm missing.

 

[Z_Infidel]

iamkris:

I also ordered one of those sights from Marbles, but I haven't installed it yet because I'm thinking of buying a tang-mounted peep sight that I can remove the aperture from and use as a ghost-ring. Do you find that the full buckhorn, being forward mounted, obscures your sight picture more than a rear-mounted ghost-ring sight would?

Also, can you explain the differences between the stock front sight and the GameGetter? Thanks.

 

[cliff355]

I have been thinking about those tang-mounted sights too, and was wondering if it would be necessary to remove the "semi buckhorns" to get them out of the way. Neither of mine are fold-downs.