Henry Rifle Forums

My newly acquired Ruger No. 3 is such an early vintage that it was not drilled and tapped for a scope mount. That was something Ruger added in another year or two.


Okay, no scope, but the factory William's flip up rear sight is really too tiny for anything but the best lighting conditions, so not much of an option for my shooting. A better solution would be a barrel mount peep sight by Skinner via the rear sight dovetail. Had one of those on hand, but no go. The sharp taper on the Ruger barrel was too close to the dovetail for the Skinner to fit.

Okay, so what about a red dot? Not my first choice on such a traditional rifle, but it sure beats the wimpy factory rear sight for practicality, plus I just happened to have one of my favorite red dots, the Burris FastFire 3 on hand. How could I mount it to the No.3 if there were no holes for a scope base, though?

Skinner Sights to the rescue, again. I also happened to have one of Skinner's very useful Dovetail Slot Scope Mounts which you can find on Skinner's website under the http://skinnersights.com/scope_mounts_31.html (scroll down mid-page). I always keep one on of these dovetail slot scope mounts on hand so that I can add a red dot to an older rifle that has no option for a regular scope mount. Just remove the rear sight and then tap in the the dovetail slot scope mount and you have a weaver scope mount for a small red dot. Very clever design.


Perfect fit with the Burris Fastfire. Now the Ruger No. 3 is ready for some serious range work.

Nice, now lets see those targets with the tight little groups. Or groups... LOL.

It looks odd on such a classic, but I know it will work very well.

I wasn't aware of a dovetail adapter like that. Pretty neat.

Hope to get out soon and shoot some groups with the Ruger, but don't have much in the trapdoor level ammo I want to shoot.

True, I'm not thrilled about the looks or the idea of putting something that needs a battery on such a classic. The good news is that the red dot setup is totally reversible, plus I am looking for a better iron sight solution.

In the meantime, I bore sighted the red dot and removed the ejector so that I won't have to chase flying brass. (The ejector in Ruger single shots can really toss brass, but it is adjustable or eve user removable if youngest want an extractor.)

What caliber is it chambered in? Not interested in a scope for it?

Red, you have to see my previous posts for the full explanation, but in short, this is a very early No. 3 and in those early days Ruger did not drill and tap No. 3s for a scope base. Originally Ruger's thinking was that the No. 3 would be no frills poor man's (or woman's) Ruger No. 1, so to keep the price down, no drill and tap. Didn't take Ruger long to change their thinking, though. Later No. 3s were drilled and tapped and some of the later ones were even drilled and tapped for a peep sight.

This will be mostly a 50 yard shooter, so the red dot will do fine.

As for the caliber, it's a 45-70, hence the add on leather recoil pad.

That is an EXCELLENT idea! It leaves the balance for walking and carrying the rifle pretty much the same too.
I'm giving serious thought to this for a Big Boy in .357, if only to let me hold it at the receiver and not have a scope in the way.

So true. These small micro red dots weigh almost nothing and mounted out on the barrel, will never be in the way when you carry.