Drifting Sight on Marlin

[Pistol Ranch]

A new Marlin 336W followed me home on Christmas. Test firing (2 rounds) I find it shooting about 3" to the right at 50 yards.
I know I need to drift the rear sight to the left; I plan on using a hardwood dowel and a light hammer blow to move the sight.
Hazard a guess on how much to move the sight??
Anything I need to know before I make a mistake??

Thanx, P.R.

 

[rondog]

I wouldn't worry too much. If you go too far you can always move it back. I'm sure someone makes a "special tool" for this, but you'll do fine. I have the same problem with my Winchester.

 

[MEHavey]

	            Sight Radius	Range	  Error	    Correction
                 	24"	         50Yd	    3"	
                       610mm	       45,720mm    76mm       1.0mm

Assuming the above:
Exactly 1 millimeter (¾ of a standard paperclip)

 

[Jim Watson]

A 24" sight radius on an open sighted rifle with 20" barrel may not be a good assumption.
It will lead to overcorrection.

And why figure it in French?

But as said, he can always come back.
Best to take tools to the range; whack and shoot, whack and shoot.

 

[rcmodel]

Just be sure and use a lead pencil and make a witness mark on the barrel where it is now, so you know if it moved or not.

rc

 

[MEHavey]

A 24" sight radius on an open sighted rifle with 20" barrel may not be a good assumption.

                    Sight RAD   	Range	Error	Correction
inches/Yds          	16	         50	 3	
mm	                  406   	45720	76	0.677

OK.... 2/3rds of a millimeter (half a paperclip)

And why figure it in French?

I'm not. I'm figuring it in units of paperclip.

 

[rcmodel]

So, thats what UPC Code stands for! :banghead:

rc

 

[Pistol Ranch]

I figured it like this...

24 is to 1800 (Ratio of sight radius to target distance in inches)
As X (Unknown) is to 3"( Bullet strike on target)

Multiplying and dividing (3x24/1800=.040")

Paperclips I have measure .048"..So 83% of a paperclip should do it!

P.R.

 

[Pistol Ranch]

A question for rcmodel..If witness mark is on barrel, it will NOT move when sight is drifted. If witness mark is on BOTH sight and barrel you can see movement. Did I miss something??

P.R.

 

[ronto]

You may want to consider a Williams FP peep sight. The FP greatly improved my accuracy over the factory sighting system. It has micrometer type adjustments for windage and elevation and a locking system to keep it at zero.

 

[rondog]

A question for rcmodel..If witness mark is on barrel, it will NOT move when sight is drifted. If witness mark is on BOTH sight and barrel you can see movement. Did I miss something??

P.R.

Well, if you put the mark on the barrel next to the corner of the sight, or even at both corners, you can tell it's moved.

 

[MMCSRET]

I have to inject an opinion here and it is not a humble opinion. The drifting of the rear sight on a Marlin or any other open sighted long gun should not be over thought and definitely should not be over complicated by words and numbers that are totally unnecessary. So there; KISS is highly applicable in this case.

 

[Pistol Ranch]

MMCSRET:
I totally agree that the problem is not an earthshaking one.
Consider this, if you define the problem as getting the bullet to strike anywhere near the center of a 100 yard target and the KISS solution is to move the rear sight in the direction you wish to move the bullet impact, moving the sight a RANDOM distance will eventually solve the problem. I am not a big fan of expending a box (or boxes) of ammo to achieve what appears to be a KISS problem, hence the math. Turns out the sight radius on my 336W is 16-1/2".
With no micrometer adjustment available on a dovetailed sight, I need to move exactly .0275" for a fix on my rifle. I know that .0275 is about 5 thousandths short of a thirty secondth of an inch. Dang if I can figger out how to move the sight measured in thicknesses of a paper clip or a sheet of bond paper:banghead:

P.R.

 

[MMCSRET]

That's where I have to disagree!!! I am a fan of expending ammunition, that's why I cast and hand load. Sighting in a gun is fun, I get to shoot more and that is never a bad thing. Sighting in and check sighting is all part of the enjoyment. How can it be bad?????

 

[Pistol Ranch]

MMCSRET:
I hear what you are saying, and I like to shoot as well. I also reload,but not with cast bullets.
You ask, what can be bad about shooting a lot?? With CAST bullets, the chance to lead up your bore is greatly increased over the use of jacketed rounds. With my Marlin using "microgroove" rifling, those grooves are not very deep and will fill with lead in short order. To properly clean a Marlin, some disassembly is required (i.e.the lever,bolt and extractor) in order to approach the job from the chamber end. Again, I am not a fan of rifle disassembly in order to perform a cleaning task. That's what I consider bad
I consider you lucky to live in Montana..before I bought my West Texas ranch, I had looked at a similar set-up in Montana. Unfortunately, the Hollywood crowd decided to pay big bucks for property that had at one time been reasonably priced. End of story!

 

[MMCSRET]

PR: my marlins work fine with micro-groove and cast. It is a matter of fitting the bullet/load to the bore.

 

[Mauser lover]

My guess about how far to move the sight... one-two whacks. Of course, it will be halfway between those two whacks, so you will spend an entire weekend trying to get the sight into that perfect place, in-between those two whacks.

Is a standard paper clip the small one, or the big one?

And hard cast is fine on Marlin guns. They have been using hard cast for over a hundred years and it hasn't been a problem yet, if you do it right.