Sighting in the Marble Arms peep sight in the rain

A NASTY WET DAY AT THE RANGE

What a lousy day to take vacation time to go shooting. I arrived at the range at 11:00 and it just began to drizzle. By 2:00 when I left it was dark and pouring. The only thing that wasn't an issue was the wind. There wasn't any. I did meet some really friendly shooters today, and 3 guys came over to my bench at different times complimenting me on the "nice looking rifle". Those brass rifles really are attention getters.

My goal today was to try out the newly installed Marble Arms peep sight and some new loads. I also needed to fire a bunch of ammo to free up some brass for new loads I've been wanting to try out. One of the guys who came over to my bench and commented on the Henry asked me how I liked the peep sight. We were joking about it because it was getting so dark that through the rain, it was difficult to see the bulls-eye at 50 yards. "It's tough getting old and shooting through bifocals." The peep site helps, but in time he said he had to change over to a scope. I told him that this is my plinking cannon, and that I don't shoot over 100 yards. The peep sight maintains that Civil War look that I like, and the 44magnum with the peep sight installed is a perfect combination. I doubt most people will shoot over 100 yards with this caliber, though it is possible. In my opinion 100 yards is the maximum distance anyone is going to want to shoot most calibers without a scope (unless they have fantastic eyesight), so I highly recommend the 44mag/peep sight combo for 50-100 yard shooting.

THE MARBLE ARMS PEEP SIGHT
The peep sight had both pros and cons. On the positive side, the sight worked great. I used my LaserLyte green laser to get the sight on paper. At 50 yards I was shooting about 6" low and slightly to the right. I held the rifle steady and put the front sight back on the bulls-eye. Then carefully reaching for the adjustment knobs, I rotated them until the sight was over the holes I had put in the target. What that does is basically saying, "OK, I'm not hitting the bulls-eye, but instead my bullets are hitting in this other spot. That spot will now become my new bulls-eye." You then adjust your sights instead of the barrel to land on the holes where you missed. Does that makes sense? If not, here's a diagram I drew and posted. CLICK HERE. The next shot was almost right on, and with a few more clicks I was hitting the X-ring. The one thing nice about a peep sight is that you can forget about the rear sight. I simply cover the target with the front sight ball and that's it. No aligning front and rear sights. It seems almost like magic; like it shouldn't work. It does, and I received some compliments on my groups.

On the negative side, the sight is more vulnerable to damage than the standard iron sights. It's projecting out perpendicular to your receiver, so I had to be careful when I turned over the rifle to load cartridges into the loading tube. The second bad thing is that I had to learn to relocate my right hand. The rear sight is very close to the right thumb, so when I pull the trigger and the rifle recoils, the sight comes back and its sharp left edge cut a small notch into the inner side of my right thumb. I learned to adjust my hand position quickly after letting that happen a few times. All in all, the sight worked great and there's no way I'll return to the stock sights. I will be contacting Marble Arms to request that they round out that edge.

Here some reloading results:

1. The Speer 210 gr Gold Dot hollow point w/21gr AA No.9 shot the best groups. The recoil was substantial, even with a starting load.
2. Next best was a lead semi-wadcutter that Roger gave me. It was a light load with little recoil, but still quite accurate.
3. Third best was the 265gr Hornady w/ 1.2cc or AA No. 9. I've always been happy with the results of this combination, but I was amazed that the other two loads shot even better.

I had 4 other loads to test out, but it began raining so hard and it became so dark that I didn't bother. That will give me something to do next time. Oh well, I now have about 150 empty cases to have fun with. One last thought. A paper plate works just as well as a $1.25 chipping target at 50 yards. The holes from a 44mag are easy to see with a pair of binoculars. Save the expensive targets for your 22 and 17 caliber shooting.