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How many lengths of Lyman 48 slides were there? I have a short slide on a 1903 and what I thought was a long slide on a 1922 Springfield, but my long slide is nowhere near that long.

Richard

The first experimental Lyman 48 sight had a slide 2.510" long and only a few of these were made. The 48 marked to 150 was introduced 1911 and was 2.430" long. The 48 marked to 125 now called the long slide by most people was introduced circa 1919.
There was another later shorter sight but I don't have that length or date in my head, I'm someone here can fill in the blanks.



Townsend Whelen's Wundhammer with experimental Lyman 48.

The leaf sight on the issue 1903 went to 2800 yards. The miltary didn't expect to hit individuals at that range, it was for volley fire, an expedient adopted before machine guns were in general use. I would guess that the Lyman people wanted their first 48s to get as close to that as theoretically possible, hence the looong slides of the early sights.

I took a few more pictures trying to show how slim the rifle is. I also took the time to clean up the photos this time, I was in a rush with the last ones. Is there any other shot of this rifle you would like to see while I have the rifle in the same place as the camera?

The $25 Fred Adolph is done, for now.

I would like to thank Bryndon, Joe and Larry for the sling swivels, it took three sets to make one set that would work. Anyone needing europen swivel parts let me know. Also thanks to Bob who blued the barrel and action for me.

If I could like a bolt action rifle, that is one I would want. Very nice job indeed.

Brent

How well do the cocking piece sights work in real life? Do you have trouble maintaining zero? Do you have to watch out for your eye relief?They look really neat that's for sure.Are they available any more?

MP, It is wonderful.

Cocking piece sights are still available, there's a guy over on the AR forum that goes by Rusty Marlin. He makes Rigby style sights.

There has been a lot of bad press over the years about cocking piece sights but I like them. They are hunting sights and as such work just fine. One summer I took my 1903 Niedner heavy barrel target rife which has a Lyman 48 and shot a couple groups with it then removed the 48 and used both a No.1 and a No. 103 I did not try to move the groups just fired away and both cocking piece sights gave about the same size groups as the 48. Once the rifle is cocked don't touch the sight and they seem to work fine. There is a well known picture somewhere showing a man with 1903 and cocking piece sight with the rifle in the cocked position showing how close to the eye it was making it dangerous. I would not recommend one if you where shooting in the prone position.

I like the Rigby sight, I have one a Kirkwood Bros 1903 that was made by Niedner.