Range time and M95 sight fix
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:21 pm
Last weekend was a chilly 40 something, but no rain or snow, so I took my SMLE, M27 in 91 stock, M48, and M95 to the range. The main focus was to wring out the sight situation on the M95. Ammo was the usual Romanian 8mm, Russian light ball, 60s and PPU .303, and 1938 8x56R. I also shot about 30 rounds of my Liberty Tree "grab bag" 8mm. It all fired, but about six were delayed fire.....pull trigger click--boom. Sort of weird. I also shot a small portion (about 15) of some lat 40s Turk 8mm I bought a bunch of. No problems there.
My M95 rifle is like all others - sighted for just under 300 yards. I shoot at a 90 yard range - obviously not going to work. If you look at the pic of my first outing with it you can see I figured out a sight picture...sort of. Imagining the target is mounted on the stand in the picture, my point of aim to get center of mass hits was about three inches up from the bottom of the stand's legs! Obviously a new sight was required. I quickly determined that tall M95 sight blades are, for all intents and purposes, impossible to find. Looking at my Mosins and Mausers, I noticed that their dove tails are not much different that the Steyr's. On a hunch, I bought two Mauser front sight blades from Numerich. Close but no cigar. it slid into the dove tail on the rifle, but fell out. After eyeballing it a while, I figured shimming it might work. Since I didn't have any shim stock available, I opted to cut up a 9mm case (I have thousands) and trim a piece that would fit. With some mild tapping with my smith's hammer, the sight slid into place. Now my sight picture is collar bone high to get center of mass. Some astute filing is called for, as is some windage adjustment, to get it spot on. The fix is not permanent, so it doesn't hurt the rifle's value. The sight is not set as tight as the orininal, but it holds firm and didn't change point of impact after 40 rounds of punishing recoil.
I need to whiten the sights, and figure out what I need in the way of prescription shooting glasses so I can get a GOOD sight picture, and I should be able to tighten the groups.
My M95 rifle is like all others - sighted for just under 300 yards. I shoot at a 90 yard range - obviously not going to work. If you look at the pic of my first outing with it you can see I figured out a sight picture...sort of. Imagining the target is mounted on the stand in the picture, my point of aim to get center of mass hits was about three inches up from the bottom of the stand's legs! Obviously a new sight was required. I quickly determined that tall M95 sight blades are, for all intents and purposes, impossible to find. Looking at my Mosins and Mausers, I noticed that their dove tails are not much different that the Steyr's. On a hunch, I bought two Mauser front sight blades from Numerich. Close but no cigar. it slid into the dove tail on the rifle, but fell out. After eyeballing it a while, I figured shimming it might work. Since I didn't have any shim stock available, I opted to cut up a 9mm case (I have thousands) and trim a piece that would fit. With some mild tapping with my smith's hammer, the sight slid into place. Now my sight picture is collar bone high to get center of mass. Some astute filing is called for, as is some windage adjustment, to get it spot on. The fix is not permanent, so it doesn't hurt the rifle's value. The sight is not set as tight as the orininal, but it holds firm and didn't change point of impact after 40 rounds of punishing recoil.
I need to whiten the sights, and figure out what I need in the way of prescription shooting glasses so I can get a GOOD sight picture, and I should be able to tighten the groups.
