Iron Sights for a Sporterized Mosin-Nagant

The previous owner shortened the barrel and in the process lost the front sight.
He had also removed the rear sight and installed a scope on the left-over rail, scout style.

It was decided that iron sights would work better on a carbine/brush gun such as this and so we decided to find a good set of durable yet adjustable iron sights.

Here are the before photos.

One of the reasons we like iron sights is their reliability. This belief was driven home on the last outing when the recoil of the Mosin's 7.62 x 54mm cartridge sent the scope flying.

We found this used set of sights from a Remington 700 rifle. These sights have been used for years on the flagship of the Remington line and used on calibers as hefty as .375 H&H Magnum, .338 Lapua Magnum and the .458 Winchester Magnum....so they should work fine for our Russian rifle

The rear is adjustable for windage and elevation and the front is drift adjustable for windage (elevation too by getting a taller or shorter dovetailed insert).


The screw size is #6-48, which requires a drilled hole using a #31 drill bit, see the chart below

The #31 bit is .1200" or just under 1/8" (.1250"). 

The #6 screw is about 9/64" or .1300", so we will be drilling a hole 1/100 of an inch smaller than the screw and using the tap to cut the threads to the major diameter of the screw.


Before drilling and tapping for the rear sight, we needed to machine it flat. I enlisted the help of my machinist friend. it was paramount that we get the bottom flat and square.

before drilling, we thought we might check to see if our platform for the rear sight is level, it was pretty close, or so we thought

We started with the front sight, we marked the 1st hole and center drilled it

we then drilled and tapped the second hole

Then things fell apart, after installing the front sight we noticed that we had drilled the second hole off center

This obviously wont work. So we'll have to fix the boo boo and start over.

I made a trip to my local nut & bolt vendor and bought some #6 plug screws

Then filed them down flush

Off to the machine shop...... we found the rear sight platform was not perfectly level

So some material was shaved off and then the holes were drilled and tapped

The front holes, this time we got them straight and true

Some red thread locker was added and the screws snugged tight

I then installed the front sight post and rear elevator sight

I then broke out the camo paint, starting with the khaki. 

When painting the sights, I knew I would get over spray on the stock on the rest of the barrel, so I attempted to match the existing camo paint job

I used a cedar branch/leaf I shaded in some olive drab green

 and then dirt brown

The last step was to polish the brass bead front sight with 600 grit sandpaper and paint the rear sights triangle white

In this before and after comparison you can see the camo paint matched the original paint job pretty well

On to the next project