TC rear sight

[stoky]

I recently moved a scope from a 14" .357 Herrett barrel to a 14" 7-30 Waters barrel. I put the rear sight from the 7-30 on the Herrett barrel.
Now, with the rear sight adjusted all the way down, the Herrett is shooting 8" high at 50 yards and over the top of an SR1 target with a 6 o'clock hold at 100yds.
If I'm using the correct datum for the sight height:

this looks like the .230" version of the sight.
Do the "old style" and "new style" rear sights use the same mounting holes?
Does anyone know if the low (.145") version of the sight is what is I need?

[Ladobe]

The sights are interchangeable.   You could have what is a fairly common problem with barrels that have traded hands one or more times in their life.    The wrong size sight heights on a barrel is easily possible with owners removing to install scopes or after-market sights and then not getting the right ones back on a barrel, usually when they go back to open sights to sell the barrel.    The more barrels a person owns the bigger the chance unless they mark them right when they take them off and store them all together for later.    I had so many barrels I almost needed a secretary to keep them straight, ex wouldn't allow that so instead I simply used small strips of paper to note which barrel, wrapped them and their screws in clear wrap and keep them all in a divided plastic storage boxes.

Contender era old style rear sight blade heights are:
low....  .110
med...  .200
high...  .270

Contender era old style front sight heights are:
#4  .635
#5  .595
#6  .530
#7  .500
#8  .490
#9  .630

G2 era rear sight blades are:
low....  .145
med...  .230
high...  .330

Can't find any G2 front sight heights in my data at the moment, so either its misplaced or they didn't change them... i can't remember which.

I think both of your barrels are suppose to have the .270 high rear, and the #6 .530 front sights if they are the old style.    So I'd suggest you measure the front sight to see if it is right.   The dimension is the overall height of the front sight block as if it was sitting on a table, not just from the top of the barrel.

HTH

L. 

Edit to add G2 data.

[stoky]

Thanks Ladobe
I bought the 7-30 barrel new (quite some time ago), with the sights installed. I got the .357 Herrett barrel at a gun show, with a 3RP scope and a front sight.
I called TC and asked to speak to someone about Contender sights. The lady said that she could help me. She said that all the front sights were the same. I told her that it was shooting high. She offered to sell me a higher rear sight. 
The front sight(s) are .530.
Is the height of the rear sight measured from bench top to the top of the sight as well?

[Ladobe]

It's true that the front sights are the same (#6) on the 14" bull barrels of Contender era barrels.   10" bulls use #'s 4, 5 & 6 front sights; 16" #7 & 9; and 21" #'s 7, 8 & 9.   Rear sights are dependant on cartridge and which front sight on all barrel lengths.   To show the difference just for S&G, using  the Contender era (not G2) 7-30 Waters as an example... 10" uses #5/.270; 14" #6/.270; 16" #7/.200 and 21" #7/.110.    I had to add Contender era because the new style sights are are different heights than the older versions.     Which brings up... I just assumed your barrels were Contender era.   Missed your .330 sight measurement, and the picture doesn't look like what i call a new style sight.  Me bad.   Maybe I missed a transitional design because other than the 17HM2 & 17HMR barrels i bought when they came out I haven't bought any new factory barrels for many years.  The .330 is a new style high blade (same as the .270 used on the older barrels was the high blade).

Anyway, I went back and edited the above post to clarify those first numbers as for Contender era barrels, and added G2 era rear blade heights.   Misplaced the front sight heights I guess if I had them, or maybe they didn't change, I can't remember.

Blade height is measured from the top surface of the rear sight block right in front of the blade to the top of the blade.

Larry

[stoky]

thanks again Ladobe
Are the sight mounting holes/threads and spacing the same on a Contender as an Encore?
I realize that something doesn't make sense here, and when we figure out what it is I'm probably going to be embarrassed. 

[Ladobe]

Contender and Encore barrels are not the same diameter, so their sight block profiles are a different radius regardless of hole spacing, which I assume is also different.   Its been a lot of years since I've had any Encores, didn't keep them very long and so didn't put much of a data base together on them.

Nothing to be embarrassed by at all.    We all had to learn by experience and all make mistakes.   That's a large part of what these forums are for, to help each other out.   I've forgot a lot that I once knew about Contenders, so I don't always remember right and have to refer to my data base on them.

[Richard P]

The lady at T/C should have offered you a lower rear blade or sight. If it is already shooting high, a higher rear only forces the front sight to be raised resulting in even higher impacts.  Your other option is a higher front sight if it is removable. 

[Ladobe]

On option in the right direction Richard, but may not totally fix the problem.   According to his measurements (if he measured them right) he has a new style med rear and a #6 front sight of unknown vintage.   Back when the 14" 7-30's came with the old style high rear they used the #6 front, so the new style med rear he now has is already .040 lower with the #6 front than they were back then.   Yes you could also change the front, but getting back to whatever the correct standard sights front and rear were for a particular barrel is a better option IMO, especially for the next guy to own it.   Front sights with several interchangeable blade heights have been made for Contenders, but they would be harder to find than the correct sights, and more expensive to buy.   The standard sights on all 14" barrels are removeable, front and rear, so there could be lots of barrels out there with mismatched sights on them (especially 14" that more commonly than not get scopes mounted on them).

While with accurate measurements of both front and rear I can figure it out, we could speculate until the cows come home.   So the best option would be to call TC CS back, tell them the barrel caliber, configuration and length, and have them ask one of the smiths in the back what the correct front and rear sights for it are.  Since you don't know what vintage the barrel is, there might be two answers since TC has changed blade heights on the rears and may have had to change the front heights to match.   But they would know what they install on them now and if long enough vested at TC confirm what I said they used to have.   Then with an accurate measurement of what you have you can determine for sure which components you have, and what you need to get back standard with either old or new style sights (either of which would work fine on the barrel as long as they are matched correctly).