TargetTalk

I have Anschutz .22 rifle, and will be buying Feinwerkbau air rifle.
Is it correct that I could not use my existing front and rear sights as dovetails (or how they are called?) have different dimensions?

If yes - then if there are any options to "convert" one to another - e.g. using blocks which would mount on Feinwerkbau, and then allow Anschutz sight on top?

Or, which is the best practice when using two rifles?
In any case I don't think switching sights would be the good idea, but second set of Centra sights would be kind of another $600..

nester

The rear dovetails are the same. For the rear sight they are pretty much interchangeable between the rifles.

The front sights are however a different story, there are differences between the front sight dovetails between the manufacturers. The good news is that front sights are a bargain compared to rear sights.

Also, if you are patient, you will occasionally find used rear sights down in the buy sell trade section of this forum. Often times they are the older sights with coarser clicks but that is better than no rear sight at all.

Good Luck
'Dude

ok, thank you!

While most rear rails are 11mm, Feinwerkbau is 13 mm and yes there are some conversion parts available( ie. sights raisers) i think MEC and Anschütz produce some.

I use a 7002 rear sight on my FWB 700. It fits fine.
Matt

I believe that Bill Earnest makes adapter sight risers.

Which models of FWB have the 13mm rear rails?

The FWB smallbore rifles don't get much play in the US and they could certainly used something different, you see plenty of the FWB air rifles being used with Anschutz rear sights.

For AR I shoot an older FWB 601, it has the 11mm rear rail.

'Dude

Sometimes the underside angle is cut differently which will not make the ANS and FWB interchange even when they are 11mm.

I stand corrected.It seems by the comments some of the older models did use the 11mm rail, as far as smallbore all of the Feinwerkbau rifles used at my club are 13 mm so I cannot say all of the models.My apologies.

All of the FWB, Walther, Anschutz dovetails (except Walther front sight) are considered to be 11mm. They are just a little different though. The FWB dovetail is about .024" (.61mm) wider than Anschutz so some of the older ANS sights that fit quite snugly on the ANS dovetail probably won't work on FWB. FWB sights would probably work fine on ANS, but who in their right mind would do that? The Walther front sight dovetail is quite a bit smaller than their rear dovetail for some strange reason. All of the mentioned manufacturers use 60* dovetails.

Older Anschutz front sights that fit on a sight block are not interchangeable with the newer ones that fit on a dovetail.

The only way to accurately measure dovetails is with precision pins of a known diameter and micrometer or calipers. Measuring the width of the top of a dovetail is pointless as different manufacturers have different height dovetails. They are still considered 11mm. Measuring the dovetail bottom width directly with calipers is also pointless because neither the caliper jaws nor the dovetail cutter itself are dead sharp...so what exactly are you measuring?

I'm not exactly sure what dimension these European manufacturers are referencing by their 11mm dimension designation. I just use the attached measuring method to make sure anything I make has dovetails that are the same as the manufacturer.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think ESP is out of business.

Just food for thought,
Eric U

Thanks, Eric - understood.

So generally both front and rear sights should be interchangeable on the new Anschutz and FWB rifles.

Once I get the rifles - I'll try to measure the dimensions with the caliper, but indeed - need to have round pins of predefined diameter to properly measure the angle..

Unless he's gone out of business in the past two months, ESP is still in business, albeit not the easiest to get a hold of.