What is Uberti thinking ...sighting in weird sight picture

sundance44`s · July 07, 2007, 08:10:13 PM

Just bought a new 1860 Henry a few days ago ...really nice rifle , couldn`t wait to sight her in ...wow what a disipointment ...what was Uberti thinking makeing the rear sight so low to the barrel ..I had to file the front sight down to a nub to get POA at 25 yards ..I wasn`t a happy camper ...just ruined the looks of my new Henry .....came home and made a new front sight out of a Mexican Peso ...made for a real nice touch ..so now I`ll have to rise the ladder sight and sight in with the ladder at the 100 yard mark ..
Has any one else had this problem or did I get the one with lemon rear sight ?
The groups were tight could have covered all 12 shots with a 50 cent piece .

Long Johns Wolf · July 08, 2007, 03:32:53 AM

Had the same situation with my iron frame Henry from 2006 production.
Upon complaining Uberti altered the rear sight in that they added (soldered) approx. 1,5 mm to the hight, refittet, polished and reblued the piece at no charge. You see that "correction" only if you really look hard. Now I am a happy customer again, with POA and POI are identical at 50 meters.
Bootsie

Capt. Augustus · July 08, 2007, 07:19:14 AM

Mine was right on from the beginning. It was even on when shortened to a carbine. I did have Manatee make a Grabber for it, made it a lot easier to find.

Major 2 · July 08, 2007, 07:28:56 AM

Sundance .. would mind posting a photo and/or a dimension...

Mine is the identical height on my earlier Henry... which was dead on.
I report back on the new Gun this afternoon....

Coffinmaker · July 08, 2007, 09:37:33 AM

Seth,

A "Grabber" is a front sight bead that resembles a DOOR KNOB!! Large, round, polished and it's called a "grabber" because it reflects about 60% more light back to the shooter. Ergo, it "grabs" more light. Very easy to see and see well on any target. Manatee of "bananariveroutfitters" developed them. Wonderful!!

Coffinmaker

Halfway Creek Charlie · July 08, 2007, 12:16:29 PM

Bootsie,
Was the 1.5MM added to the leaf, or to the overall height of the sight above the base(wedge). I have some brass shim stock that I might form around the existing leaf sight to make it taller. Mine shoot better than I can hold it at this time, but it does feel somewhat uncomfortable, which may mean the leaf is too short. Mine is a 2006 also.

Mine grouped fine but right of the bull off a bench and a bit high at 15 Yds indoors. I would expect it to shoot high at this yardage. I moved the rear sight and brought it into the correct windage. It shoots in the same place offhand but I make the groups larger.

My bbl has been antiqued (read bluing removed mostly) and my sight is antiqued also and the leaf is 1/2 blue and 1/2 bright metal VERTICALLY! That is a major distraction for sure, so that'll get changed immediately.

sundance44`s · July 08, 2007, 01:11:07 PM

Major I had to file the front sight blade down to 1/16 of an inch to get POA at 25 yards ..it looked like a shot gun bead when I finished .....Its fixed now I made a new front sight out of a Peso and it fit right in with just a little tapping on the top ...nice and tight ..and a really nice touch ..So what I did today to sight her back in was use the ladder rear sight flipped up and sighted in with the bottom setting ...No problem ..great shooter ...I figured Uberti would fix the rear sight somehow ..but ..I`m fine with shooting with the ladder up . What a smooth great shooter ...My Marlin Cowboy Limited had nothing on this Henry ...glad I traded it off ...never got these tight groups with the Marlin and black powder .

Major 2 · July 08, 2007, 01:28:15 PM

We only shot at about 7 yards on all stages today, I rang steel every time right out of the box , so I have a good report for the gun , but no real data...

I'll have to do a baseline bench target session to see where it is hitting... but results are fine so far at close range.

sundance44`s · July 08, 2007, 02:37:34 PM

Major the height of my rear sight is 3/8 of an inch tall ....and like I said I had to file the front blade down to 1/16 to make POA at 25 yards ....and thats with me aiming with the top of the front sight to the top of the rear sight ....I read alot in here about folks makeing changes on their sights I thought mine might be the norm for this Uberti ....but then again ..for a 1,000 bucks you`d think Uberti could do better .

Long Johns Wolf · July 09, 2007, 02:06:47 AM

Halfway Creek Charlie: the 1,5 mm were added to the blade (leaf?) of the rear sight. I assume the Uberti smith soldered some kind of steel wire of the proper diameter on the top of the existing rear sight. Once he had that properly shaped to follow the lines of the old one, and finished, he did cut a new V-shape center cut into the rear sight. One caveat; if you alter the hight of the blade of the rear sight make shure that your V-cut is not too wide...
When I first became aware of the problem I checked back with Uberti if they have bases (wedges?) of different hights for the Henry rear sight, to take care of different trajectory of the calibers and barrel lengths. But they only have one for all Henry variations.
Sundance44: I decided against using the ladder at CAS distance up to 100 meters. Using the ladder is perfectly OK for my deliberate long-range shooting, i. e. beyond 100 meters. But at shorter ranges I prefer the rear sight to be in the lowest possible position simply because I fear it might interfer with the action and is damaged....
Bootsie

trickshot · July 15, 2007, 11:17:40 PM

Sundance

Maybe the problem is not with the rear sight, but possibly your problem is caused by the barrel having an excessive amount of run-out.

sundance44`s · July 17, 2007, 06:37:43 AM

I`m not sure that isn`t the problem , but she shoots much tighter groups than I ever expected . I just figured they made the rear sight too short , I`ve ran into the problem many times with muzzle loaders .
It is a bit of a pain in the you know what to have to lift the rear sight to shoot it ..I`m thinking about a buck horn replacemant ...might try one on today ..I have an extra off old Hawken rifle .

sundance44`s · July 19, 2007, 02:47:17 PM

Up Date ...I called Uberti yesterday to complain about the rear sight being made too low on my Henry ...The lady I talked to gave me a phone number for Navy Arms and told me who to talk to there , they are the importer on mine ..anyway I called Navy Arms and explained the problem , they said they would talk to their gunsmith and get back to me ....They just called me back and wanted my address , they are sending me a taller rear sight , no charge ...... So I can`t complain ..nice customer service ..

Tuolumne Lawman · July 19, 2007, 04:26:23 PM

I found that Henries manufactured in the last year or two seem to have higher front sights than old production ones. My first Henry in 1994 (made in the 80s) and my current one (also made in the 80s or early 90s) have shorter front sights. My current early production shoots about 2 inches above point of aim at 25 yards with black hills factory, and about dead on at 75-100 yards. For years, S&S gear sold tall replacement sights for N-SSA shooters to dial into their loads.

Halfway Creek Charlie · July 19, 2007, 07:21:27 PM

My Henry shoot's like your newer one does. Mine is a 2006.
At the indoor range it shot about 2 1/2" high and about 1 1/2"-2" right. I moved the rear sight and corrected the windage.

Sunday it hit everything I pointed it at, including the two 65 Yd Bonus targets(got me 20 seconds off my time).

Makes me wonder if I really want to convert it to 44 Henry Flat C.F........Yeah I do, cause it'll shoot that pretty much the same as 45LC. and I'll be more Period Authentic.

sundance44`s · July 21, 2007, 05:26:11 AM

Was looking at a site that had a bunch of pictures of original Henrys ...big shock ..looks like Uberti even copyed the rear sight problem they had on the originals ...The Originals were well used and looking at the front sights they were filed down as bad as I had too mine ...about half the Henrys had the rear sight removed and reinstalled on the reciever to give it more height ....odd I sure hope the taller one Navy Arms is sending me is indeed taller , I wouldn`t want to have the sight installed on the receiver .

Fox Creek Kid · July 21, 2007, 08:53:25 AM

Sundance, that's normal as originals were probably sighted in for 100 yds. Besides, feel lucky you didn't have to add a taller front sight for POA. Also, everybody shoots different loads. My Henry was made in 1992 and shoots dead on for my load: 28 gr. BP, card wad & 205 gr. bullet, i.e., the "original" load.

Halfway Creek Charlie · July 21, 2007, 11:20:53 AM

FCK,
What Caliber is your Henry? 44-40, 44 Spcl., or 45LC?

Fox Creek Kid · July 21, 2007, 03:23:55 PM

It's 44-40 Charlie. I made a "scoop" that throws 28 gr. I then put in a Circle Fly 0.125 thick .430 diam. wad topped with a Big Lube style bullet. Nail driver.

Tuolumne Lawman · July 22, 2007, 10:53:04 AM

That's exactly what I am looking for - a duplicate load for my 44-40. Do you use FFG or FFFG? Goex or Swiss? Where do you get your big-lube bullets from? Do they come prelubed? I have been wanting to switch back to BP in my CAS guns.

Before I switched to 777 in my cas guns I used grease cookies made from wonder wads and standard lubed bullets. I would dip the wonder wad in my molten mix with a tweezers, then set them on aluminum foil to cool. The wonder wad acted like a sponge and kept it from migrating too much in hot weather. I used them for awhile when I first started BP and they worked well. Later, I used Meister SPG lubed bullets.

For my Civil war guns, I still use BP, but don't have to size the bullets. 56-56 Spencer I dip lube, Minies smear it in, and percussion pistol, smear over the chamber. I make my own lube 2/3 beeswax and 1/3 crisco.