Classic vintage aperture sights

[Josie & John]

I'm another aperture sight enthusiast, with four of my little collection fitted with them, a Haenel 311, a Webley Service, and a couple of early BSAs. The aperture is the only sight on the 311 and is very easy to use,as is the one on the Service,and I find them so easy and accurate. However, much to my frustration,I find I can't use the BSA ones (I think they're both 22s) as the rear sight, further along the barrel, blocks my view of the front sight. If I wind the bit with the little aperture up as high as it will go, the front sight is still eclipsed by the rear. Any suggestions please, Gentlemen of the Collectables? Removing the rear sights seems rather drastic, but I just can't see over the top of the things and I would rather like to actually be able to use the old sights, rather than just admire them.
Thanks
Glyn

Hi Glyn,

There are two options. Firstly, have two zero points for the rifle. Short range with the open sight and longer with the aperture. That way, the open sight will not clutter your sight picture when using the aperture. Alternatively if you want to use the aperture for short ranges, you can carefully remove the open sight blade, screw and spring but leave the sight body in place. I would recommend oiling and wrapping these valuable components in greaseproof paper and then storing them behind the butt plate/ plug of your BSA. That way they stay with the rifle.

Best regards,

John

[Mzee]

Hi John,
Thank you for your advice. I'd worked out the two zeros option for the Service & thought I'd do the same with the BSAs, then ran into the problem of not being able to see the front sight properly. Actually, one of them is the lovely 1906 model you kindly sold me last December, the other being a big Standard. The moving part of the sight (the bit with the aperture) winds right up to a click stop on the 1906, but only as far as the 40 mark on the Standard then seems to get stuck.I'm a bit wary of dismantling it to clean out any dirt which might be clogging the slide, so I'll try some thin oil & a toothbrush & see if that frees it up for a start. It definitely doesn't move as smoothly as the 1906 sight.
Thanks again & best wishes,
Glyn

[Josie & John]

Hi John,
Thank you for your advice. I'd worked out the two zeros option for the Service & thought I'd do the same with the BSAs, then ran into the problem of not being able to see the front sight properly. Actually, one of them is the lovely 1906 model you kindly sold me last December, the other being a big Standard. The moving part of the sight (the bit with the aperture) winds right up to a click stop on the 1906, but only as far as the 40 mark on the Standard then seems to get stuck.I'm a bit wary of dismantling it to clean out any dirt which might be clogging the slide, so I'll try some thin oil & a toothbrush & see if that frees it up for a start. It definitely doesn't move as smoothly as the 1906 sight.
Thanks again & best wishes,
Glyn

Hi Glyn,

You could try coaxing some plus gas penetrating oil in to loosen the sight but to be honest I have never had much success with it myself. You're right to be careful as I have seen lots of broken screws on these BSA aperture sights.

Best of luck,

John

[Abasmajor]

Photobucket has raised its ugly head and taken your post away.

Hello,

Here are a couple of pictures of the No 8 & No 12 sights fitted to my BSA Improved Mod Ds removed by Photobucket and now linked via Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=PICT0009.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=010.JPGs

The No 8 sight can be easily fitted to the rifles with a straight hand stock, but not so easily to those having the pistol grip stock.

I also have this early London Armoury sight which would fit nicely on one of these rifles. The little plate pictured along side the sight was used to sometimes mount the No 8 sight without a more permanent fitting making it easier to attach and remove from the rifle.

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview...2c3977f482.jpg


Regards

Brian

[45flint]

Hello,

Here are a couple of pictures of the No 8 & No 12 sights fitted to my BSA Improved Mod Ds removed by Photobucket and now linked via Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=PICT0009.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=010.JPGs

The No 8 sight can be easily fitted to the rifles with a straight hand stock, but not so easily to those having the pistol grip stock.

I also have this early London Armoury sight which would fit nicely on one of these rifles. The little plate pictured along side the sight was used to sometimes mount the No 8 sight without a more permanent fitting making it easier to attach and remove from the rifle.

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview...2c3977f482.jpg


Regards

Brian

Nothing appears on my Dropbox app but I'm not that familiar with it? Bless you Photobucket!

[Garvin]

Was on another forum and a person posted pics of a old Webley Mark III with a awesome Parker Hale aperture sight. Made me almost want to collect these vintage accessories. What are some examples. Since putting my old William's back on a rifle I have fallen in love with these sights given it works great with 66 year old eyes that even have a new fixed lens from cataract surgery. The older ones have such charm. Makes a scope seem cold.

I love the old British peep sights, made by Parker Hale and BSA but what really gets me going are the 1950s German diopters, made by Falke, Weihrauch and BSF. They are real works of art, machined solid steel, without the alloy of the later Diana/Anschutz/Weihrauch equivalents. I can't help but collect these early sights, along with the corresponding rifles.

[Dutch]

These older BSF's, Falkes and Weihrauchs are hard to come by, even in Germany (many collectors) or the Netherlands. Another Dutch member, Frakor, owns some fabulous examples of all of these. Btw the old Parker Hale sights are also full steel and pieces of true craftsmanship?! I have a couple of sights, but still on the lookout for a PH16 to fit on one of my older Webley MK3's.

[Jimny4x4]

It's a Parker Hale 16M that caught my eye. Here it is on the GTA site with all the various different aperatures. Love the way it swings away?

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA...topic=130341.0

Love the juxtaposition of classic springer ...and a tablet phone ! Lol .
Loverly loverly classic .

[Jimny4x4]

..the DropBox links don't work - takes us to main page asking us to join ...

[MDriskill]

Was on another forum and a person posted pics of a old Webley Mark III with a awesome Parker Hale aperture sight. Made me almost want to collect these vintage accessories. What are some examples. Since putting my old William's back on a rifle I have fallen in love with these sights given it works great with 66 year old eyes that even have a new fixed lens from cataract surgery. The older ones have such charm. Makes a scope seem cold.

That was my post and I appreciate your kind words! (I also wrote the Airgun Collector article under Garvin's kind auspices.) Over the years I've really come to like "peeps" and use them on most of my air rifles, especially now that I've reached the age where open sights are, shall we say...challenging.

Obviously I am a big fan of PH sights. The PH 16 is a thoroughly brilliant design, and the PH 17 as seen on the early Mk 3 Supertarget is an even finer unit. Their big disadvantage of course is that their model-specific mounts have very limited applications to airguns. The PH 16M and PH 17B are specifically made for the Mk 3 only, though could possibly (I've never tried it!) be made to work with an HW 35, some pre-war Dianas, or other model with a solid rear receiver of similar diameter to the Mk 3.

There was one version of the PH 16, the PH 16E, which had a grooved dovetail base intended for Mauser firearms. As I own neither the sight nor any Mausers, I don't know the dovetail size, but it may be adaptable to other airguns.

Another detail I appreciate about these sights, is that they can easily be taken apart for cleaning, without the danger of springs and ball bearings flying about, as with some of the German sights! Just very practical, well-designed, and beautifully-made units.

Garvin mentioned some of the lovely older German steel sights, I would add the Anschutz "Universal" steel models that were made for their model 54 match rimfires back in the day. The market seems to have "forgotten" those; they frequently turn up on auction sites etc., almost always at about the same prices as the alloy models, though the Universals cost about twice as much when new.

Speaking of auction sites, there are a lot of older match aperture sights turning now, many coming from a seller in Bulgaria. It's a good time to be hunting them down. The German site EGun is also a good source; search there for "diopter" and it will bring up several pages of goodies.