Alternate C96 Broomhandle Rear Sight

[sheepherder]

I see that many of us have/had a Mauser Broomhandle as well as a Luger...

I was searching eBay for a C96 Broomhandle rear sight assembly, and found this...It was described as a "M24/30 FN MAUSER PART, CARBINE REAR SIGHT"...

The dimensions are identical; the sight markings are different; the slider indices are different...but it fits and works fine in my Broomhandle slide!!!

A good alternate to the C96 sight, which is getting hard to find...

(It also fits homemade artillery Luger sight bases)...

[sheepherder]

Note: The bevel on the tip of the C96 sight blade in the pic above was done by me; it is not representative of an original C96 sight...

I also obtained an original M24/30 FN sight base, with the thought of modifying it for an artillery Luger conversion...but the elevation ramp is not even close to a Luger artillery sight base ramp...It could still be used, but wouldn't "look right"...

[sheepherder]

I just got another one of these (w/base) in the mail today for my long-barrel P-38 project so I thought I'd update availability...

This sight can also be found/listed as OEM on the following rifles -

M24/30 FN MAUSER CARBINE REAR SIGHT

M1922 CHILEAN CARBINE REAR SIGHT

Chilean M1895 Short Rifle Rear Sight Assy

Chilean M1895 Carbine Rear Sight Assembly


Graduated to 1400 Meters

There seem to be a goodly lot being sold in the white, unused. packed in cosmoline.

[John Sabato]

Certainly an interesting discovery Rich, at least for tinkerers of the C96 model.

The only issue I see with using these for an Artillery Luger barrel project is the OEM sight for the Artillery Model when elevated moves the rear sight UP and to the LEFT at the same time, to compensate for muzzle whip and rifling affect on the bullets. These sights would only go UP when elevated, unless I am mistaken... Could they be modified to function similar to a genuine Luger artillery rear sight?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

The only issue I see with using these for an Artillery Luger barrel project is the OEM sight for the Artillery Model when elevated moves the rear sight UP and to the LEFT at the same time, to compensate for muzzle whip and rifling affect on the bullets. These sights would only go UP when elevated, unless I am mistaken... Could they be modified to function similar to a genuine Luger artillery rear sight?

This thread was originally a companion to an "Alternative Artillery Barrel Fabrication" thread...Posted back in '09...

This Mauser rifle sight is not a replacement for the Luger artillery rear sight. It could possibly be shortened and a custom-machined & dovetailed base be made for it (like below) but the short answer is that as is it won't 'spiral up' when elevated. It won't fit the Luger sight base either, without a lot of milling.

Here's a comparison pic -



The left sight is a Sarco repro artillery rear sight on a Sarco repro artillery barrel; middle sight is a shortened FN M24/30 Carbine rear sight on a home-build [integral base] artillery barrel; right sight is the Chilean 1895 Short Rifle sight I just got in.

Now...If you shortened an FN M24/30 sight 'ladder' (I don't know the name for the graduated part) you could cross-drill it at an angle to mimic the Luger 'spiral up' action...You'd have to drill the base to match. The Mauser sight 'ladders' are wider than the Luger base so a custom base would be necessary. That base could be milled & dovetailed to sit in the Luger artillery dovetail with the sight sitting on top of the Luger dovetail. Your front sight blade would need to be higher too.

So...It's possible. Lots of variations could be done.

But it's a lot simpler to just pop it on a C96 to replace a stripped Mauser sight ladder. (It's dimensionally the same). Cheaper too.

[Ron Wood]

John,
Moving the sight to the left as it is elevated is a really simple operation. Rather than making the hinge perpendicular to the bore, it is drilled at a slight angle...I have no idea what that angle is but the smart guys at DWM figured it out.

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I see that many of us have/had a Mauser Broomhandle as well as a Luger...

I was searching eBay for a C96 Broomhandle rear sight assembly, and found this...It was described as a "M24/30 FN MAUSER PART, CARBINE REAR SIGHT"...

The dimensions are identical; the sight markings are different; the slider indices are different...but it fits and works fine in my Broomhandle slide!!!

A good alternate to the C96 sight, which is getting hard to find...

(It also fits homemade artillery Luger sight bases)...

Got a question. Is that rear sight lower than the original C96?

Since my C96 shoots 1 foot high at 25 yards A lower rear sight would be welcome.

[sheepherder]

Since you had mentioned the artillery Luger rear sight, I thought I'd post this alternative to that sight...

It's from a Martini. The star in red is above the Luger artillery rear sight for comparison; all other pics are the Martini, leaf folded & extended. (The F indicates Front). The base is ramped and is graduated 50, 100, and 200 meters. The leaf is graduated 3, 4, 5, and 6 hundred meters. The elevator has one V-notch, the leaf has another.

It's designed to be soldered onto the barrel, but I am confident that it can be milled/dovetailed to fit the artillery Luger barrel/sight base.

The ramp is straight and the graduations staggered, the opposite of the Luger. After you hit 200 with the ramp, you would flip up the leaf and continue to 600.

Interesting.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by kurusu

Got a question. Is that rear sight lower than the original C96?

The dimensions are identical; the graduations are different. Depending on what distance you are shooting, POI will be different. Wildly so, in the upper ranges (if you go by the graduations).

The V-notch is in the same place as the C96. In theory it would hold the same POI. In practice it would likely be off a bit due to tolerances & allowances being different from sight to sight.

I offer it here as an alternative to broken or missing C96 sights that I have seen listed on eBay/GB for up to $200. The one from the pic in post # 5 above cost me $38 complete (band, spring, screw, leaf, elevator assy).

Edit: 20 Jan 2015

I am in the process of shortening one of the in-the-white FN/Chilean/Argentine Mauser rear sight leafs, and I can tell you that you ain't gonna mill these leafs with a HSS or even a Cobaly end mill...I have two broken ones to prove it...I ended up milling it with Carbide end mills...

The main body is still ordnance steel; HSS end mills work fine on that...

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

The V-notch is in the same place as the C96. In theory it would hold the same POI. In practice it would likely be off a bit due to tolerances & allowances being different from sight to sight.

Too bad. I had hopes that the v notch in it's lowest position would sit a smidge lower than the original piece (about 2mm lower) that would bring the POI at 25 yards to an acceptable point of aim.