American sights

[Leatherneck]

My 18yr old daughter is buying her first deer rifle. She decided on the Ruger American Rifle in .243. She doesn't like scopes, so I was wandering if anyone is aware of affordable iron sights that can be mounted easily. Right now we're planning on a red dot, but I would prefer iron sights if possible.

 

[mattsbox99]

The cheapest route would probably be some Express sights. You would have have to have the rear drilled and tapped and the front milled in.

 

[rangerbob]

Williams makes all kinds of iron sights, including ramps, front sights, guide rear sights and receiver sights. I be looking at one of their streamlined ramps and a gold, ivory, or florescent bead sight and a guide receiver sight. The front ramp can be screwed on or sweated on. The rifle is already drilled and tapped for the receiver sight by using the 2 rear scope mounting holes. MidwayUSA and Brownell's have these at their websites. Bob! 8)

 

[Jbrown75]

I will second the Williams sights. Also, you may want to look at XS sights, I've got a few of those and they are on par with the Williams stuff.

 

[RonS]

My choice would be a Williams Foolproof receiver sight (I haven't found one for the Ruger American but I will bet some other gun will be similar enough to work) and a NECG Universal or Masterpiece banded front sight. I recently had that quoted and installation was $35 over the cost of the sight at a local shop. The NECG sights are not cheap but they have replaceable blades, not dovetails and you can get a large range of heights and styles.

http://www.williamsgunsight.com/gunsights/gunsightsdefault.htm

http://www.newenglandcustomgun.com/Gun_Services/Front_Sights.asp

 

[rangerbob]

Ron S, That would be the way to go. I suspect that while Williams does not show the Ruger American, they have some receiver sights that will fit. $35 for installing the sights is a bargain. Most shops get $15 to drill and tap one hole. I like the Guide receiver sights due to ease of installation and cost. Bob! :)

 

[CoyoteDown]

Ron-

This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for. Thanx.

Resp-
CD

 

[DDubya]

How about a red dot?

 

[RonS]

Hope you can help her build a sweet gun, iron sight shooters are an endangered species. :)

 

[Leatherneck]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like she has some options.

 

[DeletedMember58]

New England Custom Guns has already been mentioned, but you should search their site a bit. They offer a peep sight that mounts directly to a Weaver style base, which is what the American is equipped with.

Combine that with their band front sight (which can be epoxied on BTW) and you are ready to go with essentially zero assistance from a gunsmith. Best part is a scope can still be mounted by simply removing the peep and utilizing the bases.

Hope that helps you with another option......

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Great ideas, Otony. The extra cost of the NECG sights is partly offset by the lack of gunsmith fees, which are horrendous in my part of the world (I'm used to the backwoods of ID, VT, and upstate NYS....).

Just by the way, I recently shot my .243 American (now that's MY idea of a "black rifle"!) at the range with my brother's Kimber ultralight custom .243. I'ts a tad heavier, but it shoots factory ammo significantly better--we BOTH shot the American better than the Kimber. I'm sure that handloads might cure that, and his Kimber hasn't been shot enough to really settle in, but the only factory ammo the Kimber would shoot as well as the American was the 55 gr. varmint loads. And he got it for deer....

We were both a little shocked, to tell you the truth. And the Ruger had an ordinary Burris Timbeline 4X; his Kimber had a Leupold 3x9. We were shooting 3-shot groups, since these are hunting rifles.