Henry Rifle Forums

Iron sights not very accurate out of the box any body else have that problem?

put a scope on ours very early on so no experience with OEM sights .... do know that firing full power loads can quickly introduce flinching into the mix

My all weather 45-70 is plenty accurate with iron sights. I did upgrade to the skinner peep rear sight though.

Lots of questions here:

Shooting offhand or the bench?
What ammo/loads are you using?
What distance are you shooting at and under what light conditions?
Any previous guns in .45-70?

I'm not assuming anything or doubting skill/experience, just curious. I've had interesting problems like this with different rifles before.

I didn't have any accuracy issues outside of my eyesight and getting used to irons again on the Henry so far, I also put an M95 ladder sight on it recently and can't wait to try it. In either case I remember needing to put in a lot of trigger time and bruised shoulders with my Buffalo Classic in the same caliber to get nice groups with irons and it's a 32" barrel compared to the Big Boy's 18.5".

Did you need to change the front sight?

JW

inspcalahan wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:05 pm

My all weather 45-70 is plenty accurate with iron sights. I did upgrade to the skinner peep rear sight though.

Still use the irons on both my AW and the CCH 45-70. Ive had good luck with both guns with them.

I had to drift my rear sight to the right and raise it to the center step (notch). Thereafter I had 5 shot groups 2" at 100 yds
shooting from a rest. I sighted in with Hornady 325 FTX

inspcalahan wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:05 pm

My all weather 45-70 is plenty accurate with iron sights. I did upgrade to the skinner peep rear sight though.

I also changed to a Skinner rear sight. I have very good accuracy. Mine is sighted in at 50 yds.

.
With both my Henry's that was the case. I don't consider that a problem though. I was expecting to zero myself.

TC Campbell wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 24, 2019 7:21 pm

Iron sights not very accurate out of the box any body else have that problem?

jwarrenod wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 5:05 pm

Did you need to change the front sight?

JW

inspcalahan wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:05 pm

My all weather 45-70 is plenty accurate with iron sights. I did upgrade to the skinner peep rear sight though.

I did not sir - just a little adjustment for windage and the elevation was spot on. Probably a bit of luck involved. I've used the Skinner sights for years on several guns and have been super happy. Also, they make a blade piece that fills the old dovetail notch from the factory rear sight and it's threaded to carry an extra aperture if you're so inclined. First time I've ever had a back-up iron sight for the iron sights.

Thanks! I just put a skinner on my 1969 Marlin 336 in .35 rem and got their front blade that was speced for it, worked great. I ended up with a Red Dot on the Henry 45-70 for now, but may go Skinner peep on that one too. Target acquisition is so amazingly easy and fast with the red dot, but I need to actually hunt with it before I really know if its the ideal solution or not. And well, there's not much hunting to be done around here right now other than yotes.

Appreciate the reply!

JW