TargetTalk

I'm still in shock over this one: my son took his 887 out of the safe (where it had been stored with the muzzle up, as usual) and he had barely moved it 3 feet away from the safe and the rear sight FELL OFF and bounced off the floor!!!!! We heard the loud "thunk" and stared in shock. Visions of re-sighting in the rifle all over again were going through my head - just 2 days before a competition. It looked like it would be a long evening on the range getting it dialed back in.

We placed it back on the rifle, adjusted the eye distance and headed to the range in our basement. We started in the prone position, of course, and my son fired 3 sighters which didn't seem to be as far off as what I anticipated. In fact we didn't make ANY changes to the sight settings. He then fired a 97 in prone!!! (I was scoring it "tough" and gave him a 9 on one bull that could possibly be argued to be a 10.) His total for the night was a 253 (out of 300) with NO adjustments to the rear sight!!!

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

While I won't take away anything from the 887 (these are my preferred rifles for the club I coach), I give more credit to the shooter ... your son.

I have no problem with >>>COMPLETELY<< tearing down our guns, thru the sights/internals, etc ..... just before a match.

When I put them back together, I fully expect any of my shooters to know the equipment good enough to be able to get a rifle back in the 10's within 10-12 shots (at most) if they are within the 1 ring.

If they cannot, then it is time for the "Coach messes up the sights drill". They know it's one of those days when they only hang one target and ground their guns & turn their backs. I have a bit of fun with the knobs, and off they go.

Something like this may scare the coach during a match, but the shooter should be comfortable in dealing with an issue such as this .... if not .... practice it.

Again .... good job to your son!

jhmartin wrote:While I won't take away anything from the 887 (these are my preferred rifles for the club I coach), I give more credit to the shooter ... your son.

I have no problem with >>>COMPLETELY<< tearing down our guns, thru the sights/internals, etc ..... just before a match.

When I put them back together, I fully expect any of my shooters to know the equipment good enough to be able to get a rifle back in the 10's within 10-12 shots (at most) if they are within the 1 ring.

If they cannot, then it is time for the "Coach messes up the sights drill". They know it's one of those days when they only hang one target and ground their guns & turn their backs. I have a bit of fun with the knobs, and off they go.

Something like this may scare the coach during a match, but the shooter should be comfortable in dealing with an issue such as this .... if not .... practice it.

Again .... good job to your son!

On a funny now, and not so funny then, kind of side story, it's not so fun when AMERICAN AIRLINES messes with your stuff!

Upon picking up my rifle in Colorado Springs, I nearly cried. Small parts now missing, because they cracked the entire side and back (hinge side) of my Pelican case!

Surely, most of you understand just what kind of beating a Pelican case can take, and how badly it must have been mishandled to break it like that.

So here I am, first shot at the OTC during the practice hour for the JORC's. First shot, "BING!" Target is shredded, no sign of a shot. Second shot, "BING!"

Uh oh Houston, we've got a problem.

Sure enough, I run a tube on the barrel of my rifle. The rifle, in the Pelican case, which has the rifle centered in custom cut foam to keep it from shifting, was dropped on the end SO HARD, that the clamp for the tube had shifted on the barrel!

Being one of the Champions Choice units, this clamp never is removed, yet there is no way to index it! Thankfully, I was able to have a range officer loosen the clamp, and clock it with the front sight on in small increments until I got it back on the paper. Cranked the sights over so much, that I only had three clicks of windage left for the actual match. Still managed to finish middle of the pack, too.

You bet your butt that the first thing I did when I got home was to have a small notch milled into that clamp so that a front sight base screw could be used to index it properly.

So to reiterate, yea, you bet your butt a shooter better know how to get sighted in with messed up sights, and they better learn to do it fast!

My original coach always said that it should only take 3 shots. You train to know your sight adjustment very well!
Getting back to the first post, a lot of us always take off the rear sight and store it separately in a little cushioned box. Given a good dovetail on the action & good clamps on the sight, along with knowing where the sight sits on the action, there should be only a click or so difference when re-installing. Usually no difference.
The bigger lesson learned is to make sure the tight parts are still tight before using the rifle! :^)

I must say that I am pretty darn impressed with these 887s and am pretty comfortable with hauling it to 4H Nationals this summer. We also have spare CO2 tubes and other spare parts - just in case. I'm surprised to hear that others remove the rear sight on a regular basis and store it separately. I might look at doing that, too. Thanks for the tip!

PS - Joel - leave it to you to mess around with the knobs on the sights and just hand the rifle over to the kids - that sounds like fun!!!!!! Maybe I'll play a little trick on my kids at our next shoot........

The hard part is keeping a straight face when they have this dumb look on theirs .... Then smile your nasty smile & say "well, ..... fix it...."

It seems to REALLY irritate the kids with their own guns .... club guns I can do what I want to, but somehow they seem to think if it's their gun, I can't touch it .... or really ..... they wish I wouldn't .... too bad ..... my range.

It's like all kids ..... maybe they'll forgive me when they have kids of their own.......

It is very common for the rear sights on BB guns to come loose due to the very strange nature of this type of gun's vibration. Of course adults never discover these things until after the big meet!

Several years back when I was with the local 4H team using the Daisy 499 and the 5899 completion sights I helped write a "care & feeding" document for the 499. Here is one of the sections...

Vibration
Air guns have a very unusual vibration mode, which is more severe than some firearms. Therefore, threaded fasteners have a bad habit of loosening. This is especially true of the rear sight, which tends to fall off during competition! The 3 screws that secure the rear sight to the receiver should have a 1/4-drop of thread locking compound applied to each of their threads.

The body of the rear sight is very soft cast metal. Over tightening the mounting screws will damage the rear sight assembly. Be very careful.

Thread locking compound is available at Home Depot and local automobile parts stores. The color generally denotes the compound's strength. We suggest the blue color, which will allow future disassembly if required.

CG
When my AR coach saw me putting my AR away, with the sight on, he told me to remove the sights from my rifle, to protect it during transport. Leaving it on the rifle exposes the rear sight to damage when off the firing line and in transport. In fact in the case, the top of the sight was close to the edge of the case, leaving very little room for impact buffer. Removing the sight and putting it in the case separately, removes the chance that it could get damaged during transport. And as expensive as the rear sight is, that makes good sense.

In removing and remounting the rear sight, I have not had a problem with the zero changing. Then again, my shooting is nowhere near good enough to be picky.

In a past life, hauled numerous precision firearms all across the globe via various modes of travel and needed them fully operational upon arrival. So a simple trick to maximize the protection provided by travel case:

Go to craft section of department store and purchase foam roughly the same thickness of the foam lining your gun case. Cut six blocks to place in front of the muzzle, just behind and above and below front sight, behind rear sight, on stock below rear sight (preferably squeezed behind trigger guard, and one at base of stock. Now place your gun in the center of case, place blocks, squeeze the lid shut, and secure all closures with padlock (or zip tie if the gun isn’t leaving your possession). Simple finger nail clippers will cut them off when you arrive at your destination and TSA won’t confiscate if you forget and go through security screening.

In a pinch you can cut the corners out of the gun case foam or use rolled up hotel wash cloths.

Safe travels.