I had a similar experience with a Marlin "transition" gun. Used XS tallest front sight and was just on paper, high . I ultimately installed a Leupold 1-4 scope on a buddy's advice, he had a similar issue with a Remington Marlin 45/70
It's really interesting to hear how many of us are having these shoot consistently high out of the box. You won't be disappointed with that Leupold though!
@HuskerHunting it's been the worst gun I've ever owned. I finally got it to shoot right and then the front sight came out of it's dovetail...broke plastic. Repaced with metal. Then I was cleaning it yesterday and a screw fell out the bottom in front of the lifter tab
I have an original 336 from 1980. I put on a vortex, low power scope and get really tight groups. At a 100 yd, I was hoping to stick with a Skinner sites. But I think i'm just gonna get another scope to tighten up my groups.
Yeah, getting tight groups with open sights can be tough. I love how easy these Skinners come up, but I'm lucky that most of our deer stands are set up for archery, so 50 yards and under is fairly common for a lot of shots. Thanks for watching!
In my opinion production guns always need a trigger job and sights are a personal choice . I am not an expert on anything but that is what I have done for 30+ years . That leads me to buy mostly semi custom level guns to avoid the gunsmith visit .
I have the same gun and the same problem. Mine came with the 0.56" tall bear buster skinner front sight. -At 50yds with Hornady subsonic 175 gr ammo I was on the bullseye with minimal sight adjustment out of the box. Cool. -At 50yds with Hornady Leverevolution 160 gr ammo I was about 8 inches high. No more down adjustment available on the rear sight. Not cool. I looked on the Skinner website and saw they have the shorter 0.50" bear buster front sight which wouldn't help but also there are no taller bear buster style fronts which is what I need. Not cool. Explained the problem to my gunsmith Craig Colabaugh in Stroudsburg PA and he calculated that if he cut down the stem of the rear sight so that the bottom of the peep was flush with the sight base, it should be on the bull at 50 yds and still have enough adjustment room to come up a little if needed for 100 yds. I have not been out to test it yet. Will post again after I do.
It's good to know that there are several of us experiencing this same issue. I had also initially thought about cutting down the stem on the rear peep to lower it and bring things into alignment. I'm curious to hear how yours works after doing that. Thanks for commenting!
I also have the new Marlin Trapper .45-70 rifle and it came with the 0.56" tall bear buster skinner front sight. Similar problem as the 30-30 model but instead it was shooting too LOW. -At 50yds with Hornady subsonic 410 gr ammo I was on the bullseye with minimal sight adjustment out of the box. Cool. -At 50yds with Hornady leverevolution 325 gr ammo I was 6-8 inches low. I raised the rear sight some but it wasn't enough AND I didn''t like the idea of having the rear sight soo high and only hanging on by a thread or 2. Not cool. -I looked on the Skinner website and saw they make a shorter 0.50" bear buster front sight which would potentially help my problem. Cool. Ordered one and screwed it on. -It is now on bull at 50 yds. Cool. It should have come with the 0.50" front sight from the factory. I consider these trapper rifles to be essentially close range guns so I zero mine for 50 yds. Given that both my 45-70 model and 30-30 model(see my other comment) required modification to get close to on target with typical factory ammo, and seeing that other people had the same issues, it's clear that Ruger didn't do enough testing with these sights. These trapper rifles are awesome though for their configuration, size, weight, etc. I want to get the .357 model when I find one. Thanks for making this video and I hope my comment helps someone.
Thanks for both comments! I love the fit and feel of the rifle, but I agree that some more testing on Ruger's end could have helped avoid some of these issues.
I had the same thought initially! I was going to take a thread or two off the peep so I could thread it deeper, but the guys at Skinner Sights said this was the way to go. Thanks for watching!
@@HuskerHunting we do have a shorter stem that would go as far down as the top of the sight. Would have given you about what was needed. Also, measure that original front sight. We make one that is .560” tall and one .500” tall. They look almost identical. Could have been a .500” on your rifle. I believe a .560” is spec’s for the 30-30
@skinnersights302 I appreciate you steering me in the right direction with the front sight replacement, that way I still have some adjustability on the rear peep. I had taken some measurements for another commenter who was wondering if his suppressor would block the front sight, so luckily I have those right at hand. It is indeed a .500" height blade that came out of the box. If Ruger had shipped it with the .560" blade I think I would have had enough wiggle rom to get it sighted in. Do you think they're mistakenly using the .500" front sights from the 1895 45-70?
I don't think your gun is an outlier. I have the exact same gun with the exact same problem. I was told the same thing by Ruger, and took the same steps as you to resolve the problem. Rob and Andy at Skinner have been great. I'm just waiting for the new front sight to arrive. My gun was also shooting left, and upon close inspection of the front sight i can see that it's not drilled directly in the center of the barrel. Very disappointing for such a beautiful gun.
Oh, wow, thanks for commenting! I thought it was weird that this rifle was shooting so far off out of the box. I don't know if you could see it in the video, but my windage adjustment is just about maxed out as well to compensate for shooting left. It's back in line, but it drives me nuts seeing that peep base cockeyed on the receiver. I'll be curious to see if anyone else comments with similar issues as ours. Thanks for watching!
@HuskerHunting looked into trapper and a lot of talk that you might need tall front sight, and was familar w/ranger pt and skinner making all kind of frt sight opt's ( and obvs 2 screws)🙂👍
The vertical stringing on your gun would give me great pause to ever use it for ethical hunting. I would need to see consistent 2-1/2 inch groups before I would take that gun hunting. By that I mean a group, not a string. Now I realize it may be the rest throwing the string vertical, so I would confirm off hand groups as a final determinant.
Yeah, I was wishing I would have set the GoPro up at the target so I could tell which shots were which in order. There were a few of those that two shots were close, and the third was off, so I'm curious if the third shot was the off one with a hot barrel. Thanks for watching!
Yes, I agree! YT gets a little weird about kids on camera with firearms (I've had a couple strikes) so I'm still trying to figure out what's allowable. Thanks for watching!
I had a similar experience with a Marlin "transition" gun. Used XS tallest front sight and was just on paper, high . I ultimately installed a Leupold 1-4 scope on a buddy's advice, he had a similar issue with a Remington Marlin 45/70
It's really interesting to hear how many of us are having these shoot consistently high out of the box. You won't be disappointed with that Leupold though!
@HuskerHunting it's been the worst gun I've ever owned. I finally got it to shoot right and then the front sight came out of it's dovetail...broke plastic. Repaced with metal. Then I was cleaning it yesterday and a screw fell out the bottom in front of the lifter tab
You can't go wrong with Skinner sights and it's good that Skinner helped. I have a 1895 Trapper 4570 I need to get to the range.
That 45-70 Trapper is a sweet rifle. It's on my want list for sure!
I have a trapper 45 70 I've yet to fire now looking to get the 30 30 . Good video, but safety glasses are cheap!
Some guns have their own personalities on front sight height. Glad we were able to help.
You guys were great to work with! I sincerely appreciate all of your help, and love the way that red fiber optic looks through the peep!
I have an original 336 from 1980. I put on a vortex, low power scope and get really tight groups. At a 100 yd, I was hoping to stick with a Skinner sites. But I think i'm just gonna get another scope to tighten up my groups.
Yeah, getting tight groups with open sights can be tough. I love how easy these Skinners come up, but I'm lucky that most of our deer stands are set up for archery, so 50 yards and under is fairly common for a lot of shots. Thanks for watching!
Maybe its just me but I think $1k rifles should just work out of the box....
Yeah, I agree with you there.
I couldn't agree more. It's super frustrating.
In my opinion production guns always need a trigger job and sights are a personal choice . I am not an expert on anything but that is what I have done for 30+ years . That leads me to buy mostly semi custom level guns to avoid the gunsmith visit .
I have the same gun and the same problem. Mine came with the 0.56" tall bear buster skinner front sight.
-At 50yds with Hornady subsonic 175 gr ammo I was on the bullseye with minimal sight adjustment out of the box. Cool.
-At 50yds with Hornady Leverevolution 160 gr ammo I was about 8 inches high. No more down adjustment available on the rear sight. Not cool.
I looked on the Skinner website and saw they have the shorter 0.50" bear buster front sight which wouldn't help but also there are no taller bear buster style fronts which is what I need. Not cool.
Explained the problem to my gunsmith Craig Colabaugh in Stroudsburg PA and he calculated that if he cut down the stem of the rear sight so that the bottom of the peep was flush with the sight base, it should be on the bull at 50 yds and still have enough adjustment room to come up a little if needed for 100 yds. I have not been out to test it yet. Will post again after I do.
It's good to know that there are several of us experiencing this same issue. I had also initially thought about cutting down the stem on the rear peep to lower it and bring things into alignment. I'm curious to hear how yours works after doing that. Thanks for commenting!
I also have the new Marlin Trapper .45-70 rifle and it came with the 0.56" tall bear buster skinner front sight. Similar problem as the 30-30 model but instead it was shooting too LOW.
-At 50yds with Hornady subsonic 410 gr ammo I was on the bullseye with minimal sight adjustment out of the box. Cool.
-At 50yds with Hornady leverevolution 325 gr ammo I was 6-8 inches low. I raised the rear sight some but it wasn't enough AND I didn''t like the idea of having the rear sight soo high and only hanging on by a thread or 2. Not cool.
-I looked on the Skinner website and saw they make a shorter 0.50" bear buster front sight which would potentially help my problem. Cool. Ordered one and screwed it on.
-It is now on bull at 50 yds. Cool. It should have come with the 0.50" front sight from the factory.
I consider these trapper rifles to be essentially close range guns so I zero mine for 50 yds.
Given that both my 45-70 model and 30-30 model(see my other comment) required modification to get close to on target with typical factory ammo, and seeing that other people had the same issues, it's clear that Ruger didn't do enough testing with these sights. These trapper rifles are awesome though for their configuration, size, weight, etc. I want to get the .357 model when I find one. Thanks for making this video and I hope my comment helps someone.
Thanks for both comments! I love the fit and feel of the rifle, but I agree that some more testing on Ruger's end could have helped avoid some of these issues.
Good job
Sounds like a gun bash!
Take rear sight off and grind to make it screw deeper into housing ?
I had the same thought initially! I was going to take a thread or two off the peep so I could thread it deeper, but the guys at Skinner Sights said this was the way to go. Thanks for watching!
@@HuskerHunting we do have a shorter stem that would go as far down as the top of the sight. Would have given you about what was needed. Also, measure that original front sight. We make one that is .560” tall and one .500” tall. They look almost identical. Could have been a .500” on your rifle. I believe a .560” is spec’s for the 30-30
@skinnersights302 I appreciate you steering me in the right direction with the front sight replacement, that way I still have some adjustability on the rear peep. I had taken some measurements for another commenter who was wondering if his suppressor would block the front sight, so luckily I have those right at hand. It is indeed a .500" height blade that came out of the box. If Ruger had shipped it with the .560" blade I think I would have had enough wiggle rom to get it sighted in. Do you think they're mistakenly using the .500" front sights from the 1895 45-70?
Leupold 1-4x scope would look nice on that…
Oh! But that fibre optic front sight looks alot better then that factory front sight
I don't think your gun is an outlier. I have the exact same gun with the exact same problem. I was told the same thing by Ruger, and took the same steps as you to resolve the problem. Rob and Andy at Skinner have been great. I'm just waiting for the new front sight to arrive. My gun was also shooting left, and upon close inspection of the front sight i can see that it's not drilled directly in the center of the barrel. Very disappointing for such a beautiful gun.
Oh, wow, thanks for commenting! I thought it was weird that this rifle was shooting so far off out of the box. I don't know if you could see it in the video, but my windage adjustment is just about maxed out as well to compensate for shooting left. It's back in line, but it drives me nuts seeing that peep base cockeyed on the receiver. I'll be curious to see if anyone else comments with similar issues as ours. Thanks for watching!
Great video, new sub
Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for watching!
Were the two screws tuff?
No, not too bad.
@HuskerHunting looked into trapper and a lot of talk that you might need tall front sight, and was familar w/ranger pt and skinner making all kind of frt sight opt's ( and obvs 2 screws)🙂👍
The vertical stringing on your gun would give me great pause to ever use it for ethical hunting. I would need to see consistent 2-1/2 inch groups before I would take that gun hunting. By that I mean a group, not a string. Now I realize it may be the rest throwing the string vertical, so I would confirm off hand groups as a final determinant.
Yeah, I was wishing I would have set the GoPro up at the target so I could tell which shots were which in order. There were a few of those that two shots were close, and the third was off, so I'm curious if the third shot was the off one with a hot barrel. Thanks for watching!
Next time would like to see your boy shoot, especially if he outshoots you
Yes, I agree! YT gets a little weird about kids on camera with firearms (I've had a couple strikes) so I'm still trying to figure out what's allowable. Thanks for watching!
Tighten up groups put optic on it
Yeah, a low power scope would definitely tighten things up. I can't bring myself to put a scope on a lever action (yet!) Thanks for watching!
125 yards I bet you’d have be in spec. It shot 8 inches high at 50 it’s not gonna shoot higher the further you shoot it.