Repeated below.

Hello, 1'st post, long time lurker. I have a Winchester Model 71 (1938) in shipment (insert: HAPPY!) that has the 98-A peep sight. The sight is functional but on each side where there is a staked slotted screw head (looks like that anyway) one is broken off and the other side has only half of the head remaining. It looks as if someone in the past may have thought those were windage adjustments and broke them off with a screw driver. Well as I said the sight is functional but if anyone has information for the repairing of this sight to it's original shape I would really appreciate it. There used to be a guy in Michigan a long time ago who routinely did this work but I lost his contact info. Mods: I started another thread in Gunsmithing, so if you prefer no duplicate threads please feel free to delete one. Thank you, Bruce

Welcome to the forum. Rules are to join in, have fun, and play nicely with the rest of us kids. Other rules are in the stickies in the General forum and others are in forums they are specific to.

One of the other rules, as you surmised, is no double-posting, as that uses up bandwidth by garnering duplicate answers. Also, sometimes unique answers that folks looking at only one or the other thread miss out on. So we want keep it all in one place.

Sounds like you need a drill and an easy-out to remove the broken screws. You will likely have to drill through the overlapping part of the staking to do it. It may be cosmetically better just to Loctite the replacement screws in and cold blue the white metal exposed when the staking is cut away, rather than redoing the staking?

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"First contemplation of the problems of Interior Ballistics gives the impression that they should yield rather easily to relatively simple methods of analysis. Further study shows the subject to be of almost unbelievable complexity." Homer Powley

It wasn't Williams Gun Sight you were thinking was it?

http://www.williamsgunsight.com/

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I have posted on a few forums about reverse engineering the 98A sight.
I have a complete set of drawings and have actually made a couple of sights, one of which I have on my early 1936 model 71.
I will send you the info on the screw if you PM me your email address.
The screw is a modified 4-40 and the nut is made by drilling and tapping a screw head.
The modification to the screw is to center drill the end of the threaded section, 0.030 dia by 0.020 deep.
This mod is necessary for the flaring of the screw end after the nut is installed to keep the nut from coming off.
The screw is in fact used to adjust the windage. If it was screwed down too tight, it will not function. The sight base has half the screw hole and the windage piece has the other half. The sight base is threaded, but the windage piece is not. It's not threaded so that the screw can allow the windage piece to move.
Bob Nisbet

I am working on a winchester 71 that is milled out to receive a 98 A sight. I'm not clear how the sight is held down in the rear. I can pin it in the front, and I have the spring which fits to the rear of the elevation adjustment screw and pushes up, but what holds the sight down tight against the elevation screw? Any help?

The height adjustmest screw goes through to the larger hole in the bottom of the bolt and is flared there to secure it. I think so anyway, Bruce

Dutchman: Our resident good guy expert on these is Tebsinar, Mr. Bob Nisbet. If you PM me I'll give you his phone number. Bruce

Dutchman, I have sent a PM with Bob's number, Good luck, Bruce

I am waiting for the call.
In the meantime, here is a bit of the info:
There is a thumb screw that is used to adjust and hold the sight base down.
The elevation thumb screw goes through the sight base and into a special nut that is captive inside the bolt. If there was originally a bolt peep sight the nut will be inside the bolt. Some model 71s were delivered without the bolt peep but still had the cutouts that would accept that sight. Those may or may not have the special nut.

The el. screw engages the special nut which rides above the firing pin and in fact touches the firing pin. Proper installation of the elevation screw requires disassembly of the rifle and removal and disassembly of the bolt to gain access to the underside of the screw. With the bolt on a work surface (after bolt disassembly), the elevation spring is installed under the sight base, then the elevation screw is installed and screwed into the special nut until the threads protrude just a bit beyond the nut. At that point, the end of the elevation screw is flared to limit its travel and keeping it from coming all the way out.
Disassembly of the rifle is not difficult, but reassembly will require knowledge of a trick or two (necessary to reassemble the trigger group with its pre-loaded sear spring. Note: Early model 71s have a single piece trigger and later years a double piece trigger was used. The single has one spring and the double has two springs. )
In addition to the sight, I documented the disassembly/reassembly instructions (with tricks explained). I would be glad to send out an email version of the instructions to anyone desiring a copy.
Bob Nisbet
Redstone Arsenal, Alabama

delete the post

Hi Bob Nesbit,

Will you send me the info you've developed on the subject sight to include installation directions?

By the way, what does "PM" mean?

Thanks,

Tom Lacaria
Gilbert, AZ