New Williams Sight on My Henry .22 - UPDATE

[COSteve]

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[2ndovc]

I have to say that's one of the better looking Henrys I've seen.

Neat!

jb

[44magHunter]

I have a simmilar williams peep on my Henry 22. It just doesn't have the target knobs.
I love the finish on your henry. What did you do to get it like that? Or is it just the aluminum under the black paint and you just took the paint off?

Also what did you do to the front sight. I hate the one on mine and want to know how to make it better.

[AJMD429]

What's your front sight like...? - my son's (above) has a pretty marginal front sight integral with the magazine tube band, and it is all one piece and plastic. We were hoping to find a replacement, but would have to separately replace the band and the sight, as far as I can tell, or cut the sight away from the barrel band, and mill the replacement one to straddle the barrel band and hold it in place.

So far, he just drilled a divet and painted it for better visibility.

[J Miller]

Put a Win 9422 front barrel band on the rifle, then have the barrel dovetailed for a real front sight. That's what I'd do.

Joe

[BenT]

I used a shorty ramp front sight that used the existing hole and then cut the factory sight off the barrel band and pushed it back behind the front ramp. Then I put in whatever front sight I wanted.

[JerryB]

Hey Doc, sometime ago TedH put up a post on changing the front sight on his Henry. My grandson saw it anwanted to do the same to his, Ted sent me the parts number for the sight from Midway. I ordered the sight and put it on, wow!! what a difference it made.The sight is a Marbles 1/16 gold bead. I didn't take pictures but Ted did when he did his, check with him it is easy to do. Cut the sight off the ramp and cut a 3/8 dovetail.Like i said check with Ted.

[COSteve]

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[J Miller]

Steve,

I also tried the Williams FP-GR sight on my 9422 with the same results. That gap on the left side was just plain ugly. I sold it to somebody else and now have a nice shiny Lyman 66A or FP 94/36 waiting.
Waiting for me to either buy a drill press, or find somebody with one.
I got lots of holes to drill and tap.

Joe

[44magHunter]

[/quote]As for my front sight; first I purchased a metal barrel band and front sight from Henry for $10 each. I stripped the barrel band and painted it also. The metal front sight is the same height as the stock one and those who use it with the stock rear sight say that the white dot helps them. When installing a peep sight, the front is too short to adjust it for short (25yd) shots so one has to raise the front sight. Anyway, I started with this.

While at the hobby shop buying the LustreKote paint, I picked up a 12" long piece of 3/32" dia brass rod for $2. I filed a shallow grove in the top of the sight and then JB Welded a short piece of the rod to the top of the sight and dabbed a bit into the with painted area in the picture above. When everything was dry, I filed off any rough weld and then hit the assy with a bit of paint to dress it up a bit. The front sight is now .090" higher so it works perfectly with the peep sights. In addition, the front sight now looks more 'period correct'. I can still slide the hood on to protect the sight but so far I like the sight picture better with it off.[/quote]




Ok I know what you mean now. But what were the part #'s for the front sight? What was the name of key words. I would really like to get one, but have not been able to find one.

[C. Cash]

Looks good to me COSteve!

[Rick-F]

Ok I know what you mean now. But what were the part #'s for the front sight? What was the name of key words. I would really like to get one, but have not been able to find one.

You really don't need Part Numbers, just give Henry customer service a call and tell them what model rifle (ie. H001) you have and what parts need in metal. They will fix you up.

http://www.henryrepeatingarms.com/contact.cfm

[COSteve]

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[AJMD429]

You really don't need Part Numbers, just give Henry customer service a call and tell them what model rifle (ie. H001) you have and what parts need in metal. They will fix you up.
http://www.henryrepeatingarms.com/contact.cfm

After inquiring and them telling us over the phone that they didn't have a metal replacement or one which had a replaceable bead/dovetail, they suggested we find an aftermarket one from Truglo, but when we inquired at Truglo, they said none would fit the H001 (because the Truglo's are designed to fit into a dovetail). We emailed Henry again, and got this response:

The Truglo front sight wont fit on the gun you have. There is not much you can do with the front sight on the H001.

Sincerely,

Anthony Imperato
President

Henry Repeating Arms Company
59 East 1st Street
Bayonne, NJ 07002

Nice the prez himself responded, but a more detailed answer might have been helpful; besides, it looks like you got hold of a metal one, so we'll have to try again. (If you recall the part number, let me or 44magHunter know...) I think with the metal one, we could build up a nice one various ways like you guys have posted. Even a groove parallel to the barrel and a 'blade' type sight would be serviceable.

I do like the 'second' rear sight setup; we're using the 'first' one for now, but if SOMEONE cuts and stacks LOTS of firewood, I might see fit to order a FP-94/36, and drill/tap the receiver, and maybe swap out for the GR-TK to try on my Ruger 96/22 Mag. Even the WGRS-54 was kind of cool if you don't have to adjust your sights much (I have a similar one on my .45-70 Guide Gun, and the 'view' is hard to beat...)

[COSteve]

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[AJMD429]

I note that you've mounted your WGRS-54 sight without the rear aperture screwed in making it a 'ghost sight'. I've heard that it is used that way for hunting. How does that work for distance shooting?

Usually I sight in with the aperture (just the standard one that comes with the sights), then I take it out for anything other than re-sighting in. I think it probably cuts my group size down maybe by half to have the aperture in, but I don't put enough lead downrange at targets after 'ghost-ringing' the sights to be sure. Mostly for hunting, or pest control, or just ringing gongs; for those purposes the aperture sure isn't needed.

Right now the only .22 we have one on is the Henry, so maybe 44magHunter can become 22longrifleTargetshooter and shoot some groups on paper with and without the aperture in. (Of course he doesn't get many on the paper out past 10-15 yards unless we use big four-foot sheets of poster-board...)

We'll have to just call up old Mr. Imperato and say we know they have a metal replacement and we just gotta have one...

[COSteve]

Must be nice to still have great eyesight. I need the small aperture to see the front sight clearly so a ghost sight is out of the question for me anymore.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Nice work Steve !

For target shooting, with any open sight on a rifle with less than a 26" barrel, I need a small aperture also to se the front sight with any clarity. I use an adjustable aperture for target and a much larger one for hunting.

[AJMD429]

Must be nice to still have great eyesight. I need the small aperture to see the front sight clearly so a ghost sight is out of the question for me anymore.

I tried one of those 'suction cup' things that goes on your glasses to form a 'pinhole' that swings up out of the way at a gun show once, and it was really nice. A bit fragile seeming for field/hunting use, but seemed very helpful for target shooting. Merritt (?sp?) makes them I believe.

I thought about just getting a small piece of black electric tape and cutting it into a 1 cm. circle with a 1mm 'peep' in the middle and putting it on a pair of flip-up sunglass clip-ons, or even on my glasses themselves, but never messed with it.

[COSteve]

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