I have a 1901 Rifle with 1901 rear sight.  I read that you release the sight base to adjust windage by flipping that flipper, moving the base, then flip it back?  My flipper don't flip.  Stuck?

I removed the sight, tapped the side a bit and got the 0 lines lined up.  Then remounted the sight.

My question is, do these thing tend to get sticky, rust or am I not doing things correctly?  Should I soak it in something for while?  :-?

ButterBolt:  Take your sight off your rifle and soak it in a cup of solvent, like kerosene, denatured alcohol, or Hoppe's #9.  Let it set for a few hours.  You can scrub things around a bit with a toothbrush.  Later, lay the sight on its left side on a small flat piece of hardwood.  Give the lever some light taps with a small plastic headed mallet.  Lever swings to the left to release "binding action".

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When my 1902 rear site arrived it was so gunked up that I could not turn the windage knob.  After much soaking, blasting with carb cleaner and such, it is still sticky and I need to find a punch small enough to knock out the pin holding the windage knob to the screw.

Try 'Liquid Wrench'.  It is best not to take the 1902 windage screw and knob apart, unless absolutely necessary.  A bit of resistance helps hold windage setting.  It is hard to re-pin the knob on the screw shaft and have it look as neat as Springfield did.

Thanks for that.  Great picture.
Where is that windage release lever positioned when tight/loose? Is it a detent, or merly a turn CW till tight arrangement?

I have a jar of red kerosine handy.

ButterBolt:  It is all done with friction.  When the lever is pushed to the right, (toward the 'center-line' of the barrel/sight base), it 'rides down' on an inverted screw's thread.  This clamps the two parts of the sight base together.  If parts are clean, it does not take very much effort to move the lever to lock or release.  (Attached picture shows 1901 sight from the bottom with lever in 'locked' position). 

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Pentz:  (In regard to 1902 sight windage adjustment).

  From my experience, there is a lot of slop and 'backlash' in this adjustment on a 1902 rear sight.  It does not turn smoothly like a fine target sight.  On the other hand, it works.  It allows windage adjustment and holds its setting.  Get things close and then concentrate on sight picture and centering of shot group.  I see a lot of shooters who fiddle too much with fine adjusting their sights.  They end up frustrated because they have not allowed things to stabilize and get into a shooting rhythm.  IMHO

Roger that.  I want to get a no wind zero, photograph that position, (used to draw it) and keep it there.  Kentucky windage from there.  Thanks.

butlersrangers wrote on Mar 11^th, 2014 at 3:13pm:

ButterBolt:  It is all done with friction.  When the lever is pushed to the right, (toward the 'center-line' of the barrel/sight base), it 'rides down' on an inverted screw's thread.  This clamps the two parts of the sight base together.  If parts are clean, it does not take very much effort to move the lever to lock or release.  (Attached picture shows 1901 sight from the bottom with lever in 'locked' position).

You do need to be sure the screw is properly seated, and that the sight base fits snug to the barrel, since the screw head is hollowed out for the curvature of the barrel. If improperly assembled, the lever will never lock. Start with the lever swung all the way out to the left, and jockey things until everything is snug and it starts to bind up when straight ahead.

ButterBolt:  Your last response confuses me.  I believe you may be mixing in advice I directed toward Pentz, on a different (model-1902) type of Krag sight.

  If you don't want your m-1901 sight to move for windage adjustments, make sure it is indexed on "0" and leave it 'frozen-up'.

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Note:  My Krag Model 1899 carbine, with a type 1901 carbine sight, requires the lever to be farther to the right to lock in place, than the rifle sight I photographed.  (Both are 'correct' and working properly).

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butlersrangers wrote on Mar 11^th, 2014 at 3:59pm:

Pentz:  (In regard to 1902 sight windage adjustment).   From my experience, there is a lot of slop and 'backlash' in this adjustment on a 1902 rear sight.  It does not turn smoothly like a fine target sight.  On the other hand, it works.  It allows windage adjustment and holds its setting.  Get things close and then concentrate on sight picture and centering of shot group.  I see a lot of shooters who fiddle too much with fine adjusting their sights.  They end up frustrated because they have not allowed things to stabilize and get into a shooting rhythm.  IMHO

Some have more slop than others, the one on my parkerized Krag has very little if any, and it works very smoothly.  But that rifle was gone over by someone who knew Krags.  On the other hand I have some that I have sprayed and soaked with all manner of stuff and they're still way to tight.  Finally there's the loosey goosies with a quarter turn before any change is made.  I suppose with experience once could learn how to tighten and smooth them.  Pentz, go for it, they you can teach us how.

All,  thanks again for the info, no matter who you directed it to, I'm taking it all in.

In a perfect world, I'd set my sight to zero windage, shoot a well-aimed round through the xring at 1-200 yards in no wind, and that would be where I left the windage.

But that ain't gonna happen.  I will adjust the rear sight windage to get that shot, draw or photograph the sight, and leave it there unless there a major ammo chnage or something nessesitates doing it again.

If this were an M1, I'd make a small shift in the front sight to make mechanical zero and no wind zero of the rear sight, same same.

I've wanted a KRAG for a loooong time.  I bought a "junker" from CMP that was complete and I'm going to bring her to life.

ButterBolt:  Show us some pictures of your Krag when you get her all cleaned up and performing.
  (p.s. - The 1901 sight is very handy to use at the range and holds its adjustments and settings well.  There is really no reason not to take advantage of adjustments).  IMHO

Speaking of 1901 sights, check out this thread:    (You need to Login

I don't think I got to the guy soon enough and he's likely broke the pin that keeps the elevation binding knob from being lost.  But it sounds like he was planning on forcing the handguard down over the sight.  Hopefully he didn't get around to that yet.

madsenshooter wrote on Mar 13^th, 2014 at 10:15am:

Speaking of 1901 sights, check out this thread:    (You need to Login I don't think I got to the guy soon enough and he's likely broke the pin that keeps the elevation binding knob from being lost.  But it sounds like he was planning on forcing the handguard down over the sight.  Hopefully he didn't get around to that yet.

There's a guy who really shouldn't be working on his own Krag!  He's using the ole adage "If it doesn't move... get a bigger hammer!"  He'll be darn lucky if he doesn't kill someone the first time he takes it to the range, LOL!

psteinmayer, God watches over fools, drunks and Krag lovers.

Here are a couple of pics of my sight that currently resides in a pickle jar with kerosine. I didn't touch, burnish or work on this site yet myself.  I need to ask the gun smith if he did any burnishing while replacing the barrell.

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The other photo.

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ButterBolt wrote on Mar 13^th, 2014 at 1:48pm:

psteinmayer, God watches over fools, drunks and Krag lovers.

I hope you didn't think I was referring to you, Butterbolt.  I was actually referring to the guy in the forum that was linked by Madsenshooter.  He was trying to remove the windage knob on his 1902 sight so he could snap his handguard over the sight onto the barrel... which is something that should NEVER be done! 

That grinding mark is normal - obviously, the last operation in that aspect of sight manufacture/assembly would be - once the lever is working properly - to grind the screw head to radius.

psteinmayer, I realised that. 
I was trying to make a funny.
I'm still a KRAG newbie though.   :)

ButterBolt:  Nice photo of interior of your 'new' barrel.  That's a good looking 1901 sight and I would expect the lever to release with a light tap of a plastic mallet.  The Buffington (1901) rear sight is fun to use at the Range and was the influence for the eventual 1903 Springfield sight.  The grind-mark around the 'lever screw' (viewing your sight from the bottom) is normal.

No problem...  We were all newbies once   :D

I've moved that bottom screw around some until I got the lever to lock where I wanted it to, right at straight ahead.  I had to clean up the contour afterward with a round file.  It takes some fiddling around to finally get it to lock where you want, I remember that much.

I soaked my sight in diesel for a day, them blew it out and soaked in Kroil for a day.  Laid it on a cloth covered anvil and tapped it once.  Came right loose as advertised.  Thanks.  The lock screw was loose enough to just screw it out.  I marked it and took it out with its spacer.

There is a tiny dark spot here and there on the surfaces that must rub when it moves. I'm rubbing all surfaces with CLP.  Anyone have a thought as to rubbing the rough dark spots with 0000 scotch bright etc.?