Installing a Marble Arms Peep Sight on the Henry Big Boy

Here's a few photos of the installed sight

The stock sights on the Henry 44 magnum have worked fine, but they are difficult to fine tune. I started looking around for various options, and of course there are scopes and red dot units, but in my opinion they destroy the Civil War look and feel of the firearm. The solution I came up with is to install a Marble Arms peep tang sight.

Marble Arms has an excellent instructional video on their web site which shows you step by step how to install the sight using a drill press or a hand drill. Here's the LINK to the video. There's only one hole to make, but you'll want to make that hole right and put it in the correct spot. It's too bad that my friend is the only guy left in the world who doesn't own a computer so he didn't see the movie! He mounted my sight about 1/4" high... Doh!! It should slide all the way back into the pocket where the wood meets the brass. I've really had to crank down the sight to get it to line up with my laser, but it looks like it should work as is. If I discover that I can't adjust the sight enough, I'll take the rifle to my gunsmith, have him fill the hole and redrill it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works. If I get to shoot on Monday, I'll let you know how well it works. It does look nice and I really like being able to adjust the sight with a few twists instead of getting out the brass hammer. Tonight I slipped my green LaserLyte in the barrel and after a few turns of the sight nobs, the green dot was right behind my front sight. I'm really looking forward to getting the rifle to the range to try out this sight and some new loads. I've been doing a lot of reloading over the past month so I'm sure I'll get tired before I run out of ammo.

Base Assembly: 009844

Screw Set: 995003

Marble Arms

420 Industrial Park, Gladstone MI 49837

Phone: 906-428-3710 | Fax: 906-428-3711

info@marblearms.com

http://www.marblearms.com

NOTE: Check the 2010 Range Report page to see how well the sight worked. I am very pleased with the result. One thing to be careful of when shooting this rifle with the Marble Arms peep sight installed is your thumb position. I found that resting your thumb directly on the back of the sight keeps it's edges from taking meat out of the inside of your thumb as the rifle recoils. Make your thumb travel with the sight instead of trying to stop it.

March 14, 2011 UPDATE
I regret to say that I've decided to remove this sight from my rifle. I really like the quick target acquisition the sight provided, but it's not worth the blood it draws from my thumb every time I shoot the rifle. I contacted Marble Arms and they offered to modify the sight, but unless they intend to do this with every sight that they have in stock, I can't endorse this product. I will be shipping it back to the company and I'm guessing they will modify the design to correct the problem. I also reported to them that I had to max out the height of the post to get the sight in correct position, and I was told that they would check into it and possibly extend the post. Now I'm left with a rifle with a big screw hole in the brass behind the hammer and I need to find someone who can patch it. Since the serial number is right behind the screw hole, this part of the receiver can't be replaced without it being considered a new firearm. I'll let you know if I can figure out how to get it repaired.