express sights for remington

[csmiffy]

I have a remington 700 in 416 Remington. Bought about 1995 I think. It has standard remington open sight (removed at present) and always considered getting some more classic express sights for it. I do realise I should be measuring the OD of the barrel to get the right heights etc.
Whats everyone's recommendation?

 

[sierraone]

Unless you have a gunsmith in New Zealand who is very good, if will get expensive. I don't think you want to send your rifle to the U.S. (importing and exporting will be involved) (big expense alone).
If you have a good smith near your home area, you and he look at what is available from New England Custom Gun in New Hampshire. They have all manner of rifle sights on line. Depending on the sight you want and other factors, rebluing may be necessary. Hopefully you have a smith there that can do the work and you or he just have to order the parts. If you have to send the rifle to NECG, you'll spend more money than the rifle is worth by far. Good Luck.

 

[csmiffy]

Yup have some very capable smiths around so that isn't an issue. I have looked on the NECG website but not recently. Nope definitely not sending the rifle to the US from NZ lol

 

[sierraone]

Yup have some very capable smiths around so that isn't an issue. I have looked on the NECG website but not recently. Nope definitely not sending the rifle to the US from NZ lol

Very good. Then you and he just have to decide what you want and order it.

 

[1dirthawker]

@csmiffy,

i just recently had remington sights put on my ruger m77 9.3x62, i just filed the rear sight with a triangle file to an express sight shape. then touched up my filing with a cold blue. was not too hard.

i'd just put the original sights back on, and get to work with a file, i am walking, talking proof that a monkey can do it!

 

[nztimb]

How is your cheek weld with the scope. Will it allow for a lower hold without mashing your cheek? Are they Talley QD rings so you can access the open sights?? I take it that you have the front sight and reshaping the rem rear sight notch to a wide shallow V along with the rem front sight may be the most simple (and cheapest) solution initially as much as anything to make sure you are on target with your current load. When you have that in hand you could look at the NECG site for an island sight with blank blade. A lot of the US companies will not ship gun parts. I can help with that in need be.

 

[csmiffy]

@Von Gruff thanks for that, that is a great offer, just have to see what happens Had a bit of a look last night and if I had the coin now there is a blemished model that would do although I will say it really only needs a fixed blade and maybe a single leaf. not the fundage at the moment
Whilst it may be a long time before I ever get to the dark continent, the reality is the scope will be perfectly fine unless up close and nasty and really only need a couple (or one) sight blade. The 416 is flat enough to not worry too much to a couple of hundy if that happened with the scope off.
And no, not going for apertures.
I suppose i was hoping for an aftermarket direct screw-on replacement for the originals but a modified factory one would probably suffice just not have the classic look.
A friend has the rifle at the moment so can't quite confirm how close it is to the eye looking down the scope with a tight cheek weld but it was pretty close.
The mounts are circa 90s Warne detachable with the narrow parallel square section, maybe 11mm?
I wonder if I could make something like the Brno rear aperture for right at the back, just have to find a way of keeping it handy for a quick fit. Something like the Rigby style in the grip cap.
Just an add at the bottom of that, being in NZ it can be a right PITA to ship stuff out of the US.
They don't always do it, things get lost or UPS stop doing it etc.
Then there is the added sweetener of our local postal service getting cranky about firearm parts which came about after that knobhead shot up the mosque 2nearly 3 years ago.
Cops got persnickety about it all and suspect they gave NZ post some suggestions.
There better not be any mention of firearm parts in there or it turns to poose real quick. Thats domestic stuff as well-even scopes. some creative descriptions are the go
I have been in the position where I haven't had to import stuff so it hasn't affected me but it is a big problem here

 

[nztimb]

Yes on a single blade, No need for multi blades and even before scopes were common and reliable a blade sighted for 100 yds is still good for 150 - 200 yds on the big stuff.
I like the aperture sight but a bridge mount for the larger bores because it is more robust than the bolt mounted unit. I have the Talley aperture for the 1916 Erfurt small ring I built my 6.5x57 on and the little unit sits in the cartridge slide I made to suit. Probably never need it but a pleasant exercise getting it sorted.. Not hard to make a bridge mount to fit your bases so if you have the front sight you are good to go without the need to import.

 

[ChrisG]

Soldering on bases and sights is the simplest, strongest and cleanest way to attach them to a rifle barrel. The great thing about this is that you can do it at home!

Tin the underside of the sight and wipe excess off while the solder is liquid, then scuff the barrel down to clean metal (make a border smaller than the sight with electrical tape first so you don't over-scuff), tin the patch on the barrel, put the two together, heat them up and voila, you have a soldered on sight. If the sight is canted a little, heat it up and bump it over. If your gunsmith drills and taps your sight off center (its happened to me twice even though he used a jig) thats it. You now have a hole in your barrel and probably will have to solder it anyway to get it right.

I've done a few of these and they come out great. Easy as can be. The only issue is if you ever wanted to remove them, there is a solder patch on the barrel which will require a lathe to remove. But most old express rifles have soldered on sights.

AVOID letting your gunsmith braze sights onto your barrel. Remington uses hammer forged barrels and the intense heat of the brazing will cause the rifling to open up a little at that spot and you'll have a loose spotn in your bore.

 

[csmiffy]

@ChrisG yup. Not really worried about doing that, just preferred a bolt on-bolt off option. As a hint you dont need to machine the lead solder off. Had to do the exact same thing to a barrel on my 270 project. Heated enough with a small gas torch and a quick wipe with a damp rag. Worked a treat and yes the cold bluing I had took just as good there as other bits and pieces I have used it on

 

[ChrisG]

@ChrisG yup. Not really worried about doing that, just preferred a bolt on-bolt off option. As a hint you dont need to machine the lead solder off. Had to do the exact same thing to a barrel on my 270 project. Heated enough with a small gas torch and a quick wipe with a damp rag. Worked a treat and yes the cold bluing I had took just as good there as other bits and pieces I have used it on

The solder actually bonds to the steel forming a sort of amalgam with it. It shouldn't wipe off completely when heated (or it wasn't properly soldered to begin with). Heating and wiping is how I typically tin steel for sight installation. It should leave a shiny hair thin coat of solder on the barrel. If you had tried to actually blue the steel (produce magnetite on the surface), it would have failed if it was properly soldered. Cold blue works because it isn't actually bluing, but simply using copper sulfate and selenous acid to deposit a few nanometers of copper selenide on the surface. This works on lead and tin based solders as well, which is why it worked over whatever residue was on the barrel. Typically, either a vigorous filing or sanding will remove the solder because you have to get back down to bare steel. Then rust blue or hot blue it.