Custom Open Shotgun Sights For Slug Shooting

As more deer hunting areas require shotgun and slugonly more of our customers will seek ways to better adapt their current shotguns to the task. Here are two examples of custom shotgun sight modifications I made for local venison fetchers. Franchi Open Sights A customer brought me a 20 gauge Model 620 VS Franchi shotgun along with a pair of open sights that he had made an attempt to mount. The open sights attach via a screwon plate that slides between the barrel and rib.

The principle involves two pairs of laterally opposing screws that pass through flanges on the top part of the sight and screw into the base. This system works out well for the rear sight but lack of rib- The attachment hole is drilled down through the dovetail slot used to attach the sight. slots to the front prevent mounting this sight as far forward as desired.

In this installation I suggested removal of the bead front sight and then screw on the upper half of his new front sight, utilizing a larger countersunk screw where the front sight is attached to the separable attachment body. He agreed this was a workable plan to increase the open sight radius and left the gun for completion of the work.

Installing The Front Sight Completion of the work included removal of the front shotgun sight bead, and enlarging and tapping the hole for a size 6-48 thread. Following this, the new, slotted sight leaf was removed from the top base, held by a single screw at the front. This exposed the top surface of the sight base for drilling a size 28 screw-hole for the 6-48 flat-head attachment screw.

The screw head was countersunk at surface level, enabling the front sight leaf to be re-installed and locked in place, thus completing the work. Conclusions This front sight re-location was a worthwhile task requiring less than an hour of work. The sight looked right in place and both sights are readily adjustable, leaving another very satisfied customer. Making A Rossi Rear Sight The second shotgun is a Rossi breakopen, single-shot 20 gauge shotgun factory equipped with front bead sight only.

For deer hunting with rifled slugs, the addition of a rear sight is desirable. Such a sight can be made and installed with common gunsmith tools and a few hours of your time. A young hunter would be using a 20 Gauge Rossi Single Shot Youth The hidden screw must form a flush fit to make room for the dovetail front sight. The red-glow front sight leaf is held in position by a frontal attachment screw. Shotgun for hunting deer and sighting over the rear of this barrel was quite difficult and ineffective.

A brief discussion involving making and installing a rear sight over the barrel was readily agreed on. My choice of material for making such a rear sight is a formed piece of 0.070 inch thick, cold-rolled, flat steel. To arrive at the proper height of the rear sight notch in the sight leaf, a trial sight was made of plastic

Here it is taped in position. and taped to the barrel and a target tested at 50 yards with the slugs the hunter would be using. Making The Rear Sight The rear sight was then formed, making it 1 1/2 inches long by 0.3 inches wide. The rear leaf was bent up at 90 degrees with the 0.075-inch halfmoon notch, 0.35 inches above outside barrel radius and 5 inches from the breech. The bend was notched with a sharp hacksaw blade and a 90-degree cold bend was formed.

I placed the sight in the mill vise and cut a shallow groove in the underside to aid in alignment and to allow better bonding with J-B Weld applied later. Both the barrel and underside of the sight were roughened with a small bit in a Dremel tool. The sight was positioned 19 inches forward of the butt plate, leaving 16 1/2 inches between rear sight aperture and front bead. Barrel length is 22 inches on this youth model shotgun and the length of pull is 12 1/2 inches.

After allowing 24 hours for the J-B Weld to set, a 6-48 countersunk, flat-head screw was drilled and tapped into the barrel at the center of the sight blade to assure perfect, secure mounting. This screw was also bonded in position with J-B Weld. I have never had a sight shoot loose that was bonded to the barrel in this fashion.

The center screw is not yet attached here. Though care was taken to make and mount the sight according to the pattern, there is always some anticipation as to whether the gun is going to be sighted in. On testing the gun with Remington Slugger rifled slugs at 50 yards, two slugs were put into a four-inch square, one of which was fired by another hunter who had observed the work I performed.

The recoil of this 4.5 pound gun with slugs was really noticeable but the gun was going to put its shots where the sight is held, so this objective was met. A diagram of the sight picture used was taped to the gun for quick reference by the young shooter. The finished sight just clears the barrel chamber section. The sight-picture, taped to shotgun, as used for 50-yard point-of-impact with the new rear sight using Remington Slugger rifled slugs.

Conclusions The time used in making and mounting a custom sight on a gun for one of our young future hunters is time well spent. As it turned out, no charge was made for the work. Bet I’ll see him again some day. AG