Vintage peep sight madness...

[MDriskill]

Some gadgeteering from the dark recesses of accumulated stuff...and my sketchy old memory.

Back the day, Robert Law at Air Rifle Headquarters in WV commissioned Williams to make airgun-specific peep sights. These were similar to today's FP and GR series, but with fixed mounting rails that mate to each brand's dovetail spacing. They are secured by setscrews on top, to snug the sight up tight against the grooves.

This is the "ARH 624," a sporting peep sight (Weihrauchs had wider 13mm grooves back then, so the ARH peeps are a rare alternative to HW's own match diopter of the day). Seen here on an old HW 30.


Here is the "ARH 834T," the target version of the same sight, adding finger-knob adjusters and a taller elevation arm. Mounted on an old HW 50.
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Next, a challenge - a BSF S54 Match underlever. This eccentric design has: A) front sight that sits relatively low; B) barrel that drops down below the top of the receiver; and C) high rail for the rear sight...so any rear-mounted sight must adjust VERY low. BSF's classic match diopter works of course, but is fragile, has coarse adjustments, and doesn't take German eyepieces! ARH sold Williams sights for BSF barrel-cockers, but they won't go low enough for the S54. The one sight that WILL go low enough is the current FP-GR, but its tall elevation arm strikes the gun's wood (note: the FP-GR should work as-is for those versions of the S54 with narrower stocks).
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The solution was a mix'n'match. The base is from a brand new FP-GR, but the top is from an "ARH 833T." Quite happy with this, a tidy-looking setup with the bonus of better precision than the OEM sight.


Now as luck would have it...the other half of each sight was not wasted. The 833T's rails are about 11mm, so its base plus the FP-GR top sets up a 1980-vintage HW 35E with a nice long sight radius.


Here is the whole motley old crew with their new "eyes," ha. 

[Garvin]

Beautiful Mike! Sights whose quality actually matches the rifles wearing them. I've seen some vintage shooters using that cheapo Gamo FWB-copy diopter sight and it seems an insult somehow.

[Jason_Garvin]

Lovely pictures thanks,

Jason

[MDriskill]

Beautiful Mike! Sights whose quality actually matches the rifles wearing them. I've seen some vintage shooters using that cheapo Gamo FWB-copy diopter sight and it seems an insult somehow.

Thank you!

I have to agree on the Gamo sight...I briefly owned one, but it very quickly became one of the few sights I've ever sold.

[Back_Roads]

 Just a thought I have some local blacksmiths, that do things like wrought iron rails in detail, I bet they could hammer out a more than vintage sight

[WD Feese]

I have the same sight/hw 50s set up that was pictured above and last night it shot loose.  I found a little brass shim had been placed under the sight, I suppose to protect the receiver from screw marks.  Is this shim a part of the sight or did someone add it?  Looks like an add on to me.

[MDriskill]

The brass shim is definitely an add-on.

I should have mentioned before, that I ALWAYS use them with these fixed-dovetail sights! As you noted, the little grub screws will make nasty marks on the receiver otherwise. The old-school brand name is "K&S," which a local hobby shop will likely have in stock. But there's all kinds of the stuff online too.

On the old HW 30 in my pics, the sight's dovetail was a tiny bit wider than the gun's, making the sight hard to fit securely. A sliver of thin shim stock slid into the dovetail on one side solved that problem, too.

[WD Feese]

Thanks Mike. I will make another shim, I think this one was to short and was only under one screw.

[bantam5s]

Those look great.

I put a WGRS-54 on my early Slavia 618, that along with a taller front sight I made turned this thing into such an awesome little quiet plinker.

[baranjhn]

You come up with some of the nicest stuff! Thanks for sharing.