Savage 1899 "F" saddle ring - Front sight

[Wyoredman]

Help!

I bought a nice Savage 1899 "F" saddle ring carbine in .303 Savage from an estate. Blue Book serial number list says it was made in 1913. The gun isn't a collector, but it is in good shooter shape.

I managed to find some ammo on the net. Took it apart (not the rotary mag), cleaned it and took it out last weekend a shot a 10 rounds through it.

It shoots and operates perfectly.

The problem is that the rear buckhorn sight is at the bottom of the adjustment and it still shoots 18" high at 75 yards. That is too high!

Do you gun smith fellas on TFL recommend I find a taller front sight? If so, any ideas where to get one? How much taller would I need to go to drop point of impact 14"-18"?

Any help would be appreciated!

[Smoke & Recoil]

An old trick is to fabricate a temporary front sight taller than needed and trim until you find a good height...keeping in mind that you can rise the rear sight for later fine tuning.

[bamaranger]

Ya'think?

There are online sight height calculators that are easily manipulated, even by dinosaurs like me. You enter sight radius, , dx shot and amount of adjustment required and it tells you how much of a change you need on your front sight. Digital geometry. If I can do it anybody can.

Several options once you've established how tall a sight you need. If you desire a period front, Ebay, Gunbroker, Numerich Arms, Bob's Gun Shop in Royal AR, are all possibilities, as well as others.

Skinner sells a blade front, their "Guide" model (?) in several heights and widths that might suit if you are satisfied with a contemporary sight. Buy over size and file to zero.

I'd think any decent 'smith would have a collection of front sights that could be made to fit................ might be another option.

I went through a similar process with a gun in my assortment recently. I added a taller front, step 1. By discarding the step elevator, and removing the fine adjustment plate out of the rear leaf , I got zeroed as well.

I've long admired the saddle carbine 99's. Best of luck with your project.

PM inbound as well

[Wyoredman]

Thank you Bama. I guess it never crossed my mind to google a sight height calculator? Doing that next!

I did reply to your PM. Thanks!

[Unclenick]

It's an easy calculation. Divide the distance between sights (the sight radius) by the distance to the target with both in the same units (inches, feet , yards, millimeters, whatever), and multiply the result by the the change in elevation you want. That gives you the change in sight height.

Example: Suppose your sight radius is 20 inches and your range is 3600 inches (100 yards). Divide 20 by 3600 to get 0.00555... you want to bring point of impact down 18 inches, so multiply 18 inches by 0.00555... to get 0.1 inches. So you have to raise the front sight 0.1 inches.

If you are going to hunt with this rifle, you might consider Jeff Cooper's advice to sight it to average 2" high at 100 yards. That will keep you within minute of deer to past 200 yards without adjusting the sights.

BTW, when you are looking for your point of impact, don't shoot small groups, as the center moves around some from one small group to the next. The statisticians will tell you that you need 30 to get a good average location of your bullet holes. But try use 10 at least.