Henry Rifle Forums

I believe that skinner sights could be offered as an option on all rifles.

As an idea, that could be a good thing, but the manufacturers of other sight systems probably wouldn't agree with you.

I think it's great that Henry offers guns like the SGC with a Skinner sight as the factory sight. Would love to see it on other models, too. The way so many of us just add a peep sight to our lever guns after we get them suggests that offering a good peep sight on a lever gun from the factory is a great marketing strategy.

gunman5646 wrote:I believe that skinner sights could be offered as an option on all rifles.

That would get a bit complicated. Let me explain. I think that on a rifle like the Big Boys, the standard buckhorn barrel-mounted sight is ok for maybe half of purchasers. Only if you are a perfectionist and/or one who has "old eyes", do you start trying to make improvements. Then, regarding the Skinner sights, you have to decide if you want it on the barrel (which means your front bead sight will still work) or do you want to lengthen the sight radius and mount it back on the brass receiver? IMO, getting the peep back close to you eye is the way to go. But, if you do that, and because the receiver is roughly an 1/8" higher than the barrel, you may find through actual range testing that the OEM front sight lacks about 0.050" in height to get you back on center. So now you have to go seek a slightly taller sight. Skinner offers them, but I don't care for their particular front sight design. I have on order a Lyman 17A Globe sight (height = .584). So you can see that there are several things to consider when you buy the Skinner. In some ways, you end up chasing your tail.

They are an option. Just a DIY option. Buy the gun then buy some sights! Half the fun is the process of setting them up. Though often that's not cheap. And I realize in this plug and play society we live in many want to be able to just buy and shoot it.

Also remember that Skinner Sights is pretty much a cottage industry. I think they might have their work cut out for them producing the quantity's needed if several manufacturers offered their goods.

while I certainly prefer peep sights many new shooters find them confusing. the buckhorn sights are a good starting point and for new shooters punching holes in paper at point blank distances, the buckhorn is probably a better option. on my henry rifles I really didn't need the skinner peep setup until I starting shooting out to 100 yards, at which point the peep setup simply owns it.

also if they included peep sights that would invariably increase the price of the rifle. many knuckleheads out there already consider the HRA rifles to be "pricy" which is ridiculous when one compares their build quality to other rifles such as current production marlin or rossi. while the peep sights are great they're not worth bumping up the price of a rifle by $50.