Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Williams and other peep sight aperture fix

Ok summer is over, back to posting relevant things here again. Here is a $.02 fix for a potentially bad day at the range or in the field. Any of us that have shot with a removable peep sight for any length of time have come across one that likes to work its way loose. The William's sight I installed on my Ruger 77/357 shown here kept working loose over the summer with all the plinking (and ground hog slaying) I was doing with this awesome carbine. Those engineers in the crowd may immediately say "loctite that sucker!" but I don't wish to do that as you may recall I can install a scope with the sight in place although the rear bell requires me to remove the aperture. A metal washer will beat up the aluminum sight base I think and there is very little clearance below the aperture drum and sight base. My solution is to simply stack 2 "O" rings on the drum of the aperture (or enough to give you some compression to act like a crush washer) this soft compression will keep the sight tight in the base and still allow for removal if the need should arise.

On the topic of removing the aperture, the former dovetailed rear sight on the 77 offers a good opportunity to take a dovetail blank drill and tap it for the same thread of the aperture (whatever that may be I do not know off the top of my head) and create a storage spot for a spare aperture, I believe skinner sights have this feature on some of their models and its a good idea so long as they stay put. Only thing is to make sure its not a snag point.




Apertures can work loose under lots of conditions.
 Prolonged range sessions or bumpy bush plane rides.

A number of "O" rings slipped over the aperture shank can keep from losing your zero or aperture entirely.

Much more secure and a worthwhile piece of mind.