New Savage MKII crooked rear sight?

[spamin8r]

Hey all, so I picked up a Savage MKII yesterday and I'm overall very pleased with how it looks.

Problem is, the rear sight looks crooked! Looking from the top down it is visibly to the left. I haven't shot it yet, but it won't take a genius to figure out that it probably won't exactly shoot dead on...

Has anyone else had this problem? Is the rear sight adjustable for windage? Should I send the thing back?

Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Chuck Dye]

On the MkII I bought the honorary nephew the rear sight is drift adjustable for windage. The front sight is also driftable. Had I not bought Kiddo a scope, I would have bought aftermarket iron sights, likely Williams to fit the existing dovetails. I might even have paid for a receiver peep sight and installation. All that being said, the kid shoots tiny groups with those cobby factory sights. Maybe something about young eyes...

 

[spamin8r]

After looking at it again it looks like the rear sight is just bent to the left at the base... Picture a clock where the minute hand is pointing at 6. Mine is pointing a little past that. Make sense?

I could drift it, and I suppose that would fix it, but I think I might try muscling it to the right to try to bend it back a little before I go tapping on it.

Any other thoughts?

 

[264killer]

some rear sights are brittle it may break, i would replace it with williams fire sight or what ever is available

 

[pikid89]

if your serious about using iron get a peep sight

10/22 guys (including me) have had great success with tech sights, and luckily for you, they have introduced a set for the Savage MKII

while not cheap at $75, you won't be disappointed, mine are bomb proof and think of it this way...for 75 bucks you could have a crappy scope, or for 75 bucks you can have the baddest irons on the block for the money, no drilling or tapping required
http://www.tech-sights.com/

they take GI front sight posts from AR type rifles, so if you have a fiber front pin or a tritium front pin or a National Match front pin they will drop right in

 

[spamin8r]

Ok, well I ended up gently bending the rear sight and drifting it. It lines up as far as I can tell but I won't be totally sure till I go out to the range tomorrow.

For those who are curious, I used a wood paint stir stick, a punch and a hammer to get the job done. I'll probably have to make more adjustments at the range, but it should be pretty close

I did look at some of the Williams sights and they look pretty nice. I can't go with a peep sight though because the rear sight is set too forward to get a good sight picture through the aperture. I did see some with picatinny mounts, but again, it looks like it might still be too far forward.

Anyway I'll report back tomorrow to let you all know how it shoots.

 

[pikid89]

the tech sights attach to the receiver, not the rear sight dovetail
it will give you far greater accuracy than even the best open top rear sights

 

[Chuck Dye]

The kind of peep sight I had in mind is like those used on target rifles, made by Lyman and others. To put one on the Savage would require a gunsmith to drill and tap mounting holes and would likely require relieving the stock some. To properly complete the job, a globe front sight is in order. All in all, a spendy process with results not likely to please a teenager.

 

[spamin8r]

Ok, range report!

I'd call it good. I did have to drift the rear sight a bit more though. Back to the left in fact. Seems I went a little overboard when I tapped them over at home

Anyway at 25 yards I was getting pretty good groups. At 50 yards I had to drift the sight a little more, and out to 100 yards a tad more still.

I was even able to nail the bullseye out at 100. The whole time I had a buddy spotting for me which made things go much quicker. I didn't have the best groups in the world... At first at about 25 yards I'd say I got maybe 4" groups, but after a while I was able to tighten them up significantly - hence my groupings out to 100 yards. At that point it was the shooter (me), not the rifle.

I'm now more concerned with the front sight. The day was overcast early on but then got pretty sunny. In both conditions I found acquiring a good sight picture difficult due to very low contrast with the black-on-black sights. Out at 100 yards holding focus on the front sight is near impossible. To fix this I think I'll go the poor man's route (I'm broke after all) and put a small dot of whiteout on the front sight for added contrast.

The other issue I had later was the sun gleaming off of the rear sight, further obstructing the view of the front sight. Not too sure what to do about that. The bluing on the rear sight is a little darker than the rest of the rifle... Not too sure why, but it is. Because of that it reflects more light.

@pikid89, Like I said earlier, I wouldn't be able to get the rear sight close enough to the eye for it to be effective.

@Chuck Dye, luckily the receiver is drilled and tapped from the factory (YAY Savage!), but even so, I'm still afraid it would be too far away from the eye. Maybe someone with military experience having qualified with iron sights could weigh in on what the "optimal" distance from the eye would be, but as I understand it you want it to be as close as possible. For example, if you're shooting an M16 the rule of thumb (again, as I hear) is to have your nose near touching the charging handle. That's pretty close! Any farther than that or you're going to notice a significant drop in accuracy... But again, having not served I really can't speak to that other than what I hear. I'm not saying it's out of the question, I just don't want to sink $ into a system that may not work as well. Know what I mean?

Anyway I really appreciate all your input on this.

 

[264killer]

use a small drill bit to drill a small hole in the front sight before u put paint on it, it will last longer

 

[Chuck Dye]

I don't have the MkII at hand, but as I recall, while it is drilled and tapped on top of the receiver for scope mounts and such sights as the Tech-Sight linked to above, it is not drilled and tapped on the side of the receiver for Lyman style peep sights. Those target sights mount at the rear of the receiver and can even extend aft of the receiver. On rimfires, where eye relief needs are minimal, they can use very small apertures allowing for high inherent accuracy. (Eye relief when I mount my M1 Garand is about 4½" and the inherent accuracy of that large aperture and wide front post is considerably lower.)