Which sights for Cimarron 1873 in 357?

Centerfires, rimfires, pistol cartridges and everything in between.
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Jason
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Which sights for Cimarron 1873 in 357?

Post by Jason »

As I mentioned in an earlier topic, I have a Cimarron 1873 on the way to me now. Which specific models of sights do I need? I saw mention of the Williams sights for rimfire dovetails to be used on the dust cover rail, but there are two heights of those. I'd ideally like to be able to use a Merit adjustable aperture with the larger rubber eyeshield like this.

Image

Will the lower height Williams allow use of that Merit aperture? If not, will the higher one work? Which of the Lyman 17A front sights will I need with each version of the Williams rear sight if I want to be able to shoot both PC and CLA matches? Has anyone ever found or made an adapter for that dust cover rail to allow use of a Redfield 75 sight?

Note that one of the reasons that I am making a separate topic is for easier searching for those who need the same information later...
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Jason
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Re: Which sights for Cimarron 1873 in 357?

Post by Jason »

Thanks to all who replied to my PMs. I'm updating the thread here with the results from my own experimentation for any who search for sight into for 1873s in 357 Mag in the future.

Rear sight:
  • There are two different heights of the Williams Foolproof sights for airguns, one for shorter front sights (model 9685) and one for taller front sights (model 14170).
  • The extra height from the sight for taller front sights isn't needed, so go with the one for shorter front sights (model 9685).
  • There are multiple tang sights that might also work, but I don't like the tang sight in the way of my thumb up the top of the tang and my Cimarron isn't drilled and tapped for a tang sight.
Front sight:
  • There are four models of the Lyman 17A front sight for 3/8" dovetail currently manufactured of various heights as measured by the bottom of the dovetail to the center of the aperture: 17AHB (.404"), 17AML (.494") (also previously known as 17AMI), 17AUG (.584"), and 17ATC (.852")
  • While using the 17AHB (.404") front sight, I was just barely short of being able to get William rear sight model 9685 down far enough to sight in at 40 meters with a 125-grain bullet with approximately 1450fps muzzle velocity. The average point of impact was only about 3/4" high with the rear sight all the way down, so a different rifle or a load with a different velocity might enable sighting in at this distance with a 17AHB front sight. A little judicial filing of the sight for clearance might also enable this.
  • While using a 17ATC (.852") front sight, I was not able to get the rear sight high enough to sight in at 40 meters and definitely not at distances farther than that.
  • With the above in mind, the best choice of front sight, unless you intend to use the Merit adjustable aperture with rubber eyeshield pictured above, is the 17AML (.494") since it should give the ability to sight in at 40 meters for pistol cartridge chickens with nearly any load and still retain as much range upward as possible for other loads at longer distances.
  • Since I do want to use that Merit adjustable aperture with the rubber eyeshield, I installed it and adjusted the rear sight as low as it would go without the rubber eyeshield touching anything through the entire stroke of the hammer. This height was approximately 0.130" higher than the height of the sight adjusted all the way down against the receiver. Since I was effectively sighted in (point of impact only 3/4" high) at 40 meters with the rear sight all the way down when using a 17AHB (.404"), I knew that the ideal front sight height would be approximately .534" as measured from the bottom of the dovetail to the middle of the aperture. That means that I needed to go up one height from the 17AML (.494") to the 17AUG (.584"). This allows the use of that Merit adjustable aperture and still provides plenty of adjustment range for longer distances.
Summary:
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