H&R 1873 Trapdoor sight question

[tgonza]

I just acquired this rifle. It is in excellent shape, doesn't even look like it's been fired. The rear sight is a puzzle. I don't know if you use it by just sliding it up the ramp sightA.jpgsightB.jpgor if it stands up vertically. It looks as if you can use it either way.

[bruce]

Your H&R 73 TD is a gorgeous rifle! The rear sight is a demonstration of what happened when late 19th century inventiveness had a head on collision with devotes of highly adjustable sights for target shooting. Get yourself a big glass of sweet tea w/ plenty of lemon. Get yourself a big Key Lime Pie. Sit down and google that thing. Prepare to have fun. Sincerely. bruce.

[Tom Trevor]

Bruce look at the side of the sight when the staff is down you slide it up the ramp markings are from 1 thru 550. With it vertical it goes from 550 to 1200 these in yard. The sight shown is a version of the sight introduced in 1879. look on line for a further description of its settings. Hope this helps.

[tgonza]

That makes sense. The only problem for me is the V slot is very small. I looked up the Springfield sights and the V was much larger. There is a U shape on the bottom. Do you know if that sight can be reversed. Looks like it would be fairly easy.

[Tom Trevor]

if you mean could you remove the screws and turn the sight around, you could but its the same notch/ If you refer to the staff do not take that apart. If the notch is to small for your eyes you could take a small round file and modify it to suit your sight picture.